Loving a friend...

A dear friend of mine is experiencing some of life's painful challenges these days, and is facing some complicated decisions.

I used several challenges to create this card for her:

Dream Team: sketch challenge (thanks Terrece!)

3 Muses: time

Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World: I used some colours from the trigger

Gingersnap Creations: jewel tones and gold

Crazy Amigo: high tea

Delicious Doodles: glitz and glam

Simply Create: bright

Stamping Vacation: no flowers

Paper Play: let's get sentimental

I hope you can take a few minutes to stop by the blogs of the tremendously talented Dream Team members. You can find direct links over to the right.

I used the double glitter technique with this Dreamweaver stencil, and paired that with this beautiful new stamp from Quietfire Design. My friend is a committed tea drinker, so this card will be accompanied by a selection of teas for her.

I wish you a happy, creative day; take the time to hug someone you love.

Ch-ch-ch-challenges!

Dreamweaver's "Dream Team" are hosting a free theme challenge today. Here's my card:

I used my light box and this beautiful Celtic stencil on gold coloured foil, along with the Thinking of You stencil (done with Dreamweaver's gold embossing paste ).

I'm always SO amazed by the diversity of creativity by the members of the Dreamweaver team! I hope you can take the time to visit their blogs...see my sidebar for direct links.

"Simon Says" challenge is to make your own embellishment...I did the foiled stencil.

The Etsy Inspired challenge profiles a delightful shop this week....the "Glow Girl." I used this coupon organizer for inspiration.

Our Creative Corner challenges us to "cut it out," so after I embossed the Celtic stencil, I cut closely along the design lines and mounted it on my card with dimensional foam.

The Impression Obsession challenge for this week is "It's a cupcake kind of day." If you'd like to participate for the opportunity to win twenty-five stampin' dollars for the IO store, you have till 9 pm Friday night...check here for details. Take some time to stop by to see the delightful creations there, and see what the design team has done too. Their blogs are listed on the right hand sidebar.

The Wee Memories challenge this week is paper piecing, which I used on my cupcake. After stamping the cupcake base, I Cuttlebug-dry-embossed it, and paper-pieced it as shown, popping up the cupcake top with dimensional foam dots.

Here's my card for the challenge.

Stamps: All Impression Obsession: sentiment from the Cupcakes clear set; Cover-A-Card Flourishes and Screen with IO Mega Mount

Inks: Top Boss Tinted Embossing Pad, Top Boss Gold Embossing Powder, Ancient Page Chocolate Brown Ink.

THANK YOU for taking the time to stop by today. I wish you a delightful day, doing whatever brings you pleasure.

Aaaahhhh love!

I've done these cards for all the delightful challenges I've found this week:

Art Journey (heart shaped cards)
One Powerful Hour (true love)
Pile it On (punch it!)
Prairie Fairy Friday (for a sweetheart)
Sisterhood (Anything goes)
Stamping Vacation (Valentine)
One Crazy Stamper (Love)
Stampin' for the Weekend (Valentine's Day)
Pile it On (use punches)
Charisma Cards (any theme, no embellishments)
My Time to Craft (embossing)

These cards all use Art Journey stamps, from the Netherlands.

Check out Art Journey's challenge! You've got 4 weeks to get in the mood and show us what your idea with this theme is. The deadline is on the 26th of February. Then one participant will be randomly selected for a 10 euro’s gift certificate to shop at Art Journey! To win this gift certificate you are required to use MAINLY ART JOURNEY STAMPS. Put your new creation on your blog or Flickr (with a link to the challenge post on the Art Journey blog) and leave a direct link to your blogpost in the 'Add your Link' section."

I wanted to share this one too. Although it's not particularly a valentine card, it uses the same Art Journey stamp as the previous card (it's one of my favourites!) and was just published in the current issue of Crafts and Things.

Thanks SO much for stopping by today! I wish you a weekend full of creative play, and whatever else fills your heart!

Warm thoughts on a COLD Nova Scotia day!

This week's Dream Team challenge is a free theme, as is the Sisterhood challenge. I created this card with the Lace Border stencil (LG 727), stencilled on black cardstock with translucent embossing paste. I cut closely around the border, and popped it up with dimensional foam strips. The stamp is one of a Hero Arts set.

Other challenges for this card are:

Our Creative Corner (3-d with a Valentine's theme)

Three Muses (black and white)

One Powerful Hour (true love)

The current Impression Obsession challenge is spring and flowers. Given our current HUGE snowstorm in Nova Scotia, it was fun working on something other than WHITE! (lol) I've used this stamp from Gary Robertson, coloured with distress inks, paired with this thinking of you sentiment stamp. I used FlowerSoft in the window box as well.

Hope you can take some time to visit the designers' blogs for Dreamweaver and Impression Obsession! You'll see all the links in the right sidebar.

Thanks so much for visiting today! Wishing you a creative one!