Challenges...

I absolutely LOVE fall!! Ours here in Nova Scotia has been spectacular, with unseasonably warm temperatures, and a prolonged extravaganza of our leaves changing colours. Another reason I love fall is that I begin to "nest" for the winter, getting back into stamping and playing with papers, doing indoor things, and I've really enjoyed a delightful few days in my hobby room.

The Impression Obsession designers are playing with the theme of "no patterned papers." If you're interested in playing along for the chance to win a $25 gift certificate for the IO shop, just check all the rules right here. Here are some of the Christmas cards I've done for friends. I enjoy repeating patterns/stamps in trios, which is what I've done for these two cards. The sentiments I used are new released IO stamps CL347 Christmas in the Heart and CL304 All I Want for Christmas). The tree (D8136 Curvy Tree) and the ornament (C 4600 Oblong Ornament) are older, favourite Christmas stamps. The Pile it On challenge # 46 is to do traditional Christmas cards, and the Fab 'n' Funky challenge is "Baby it's cold outside."

I really like this ornament...so many possibilities for colouring, glittering and embellishing!

I did this one for an American friend for Thanksgiving next week, and, of course, to meet some challenges: Our Creative Corner wants us to use the colours of pumpkin pie, Play Date Cafe has a fun colour challenge, and I used this fun sketch from Stampin' for the Weekend. The cupcakes stamp is another old favourite (MC181 Cupcakes Clear Set), paired with one of the new sentiments from the clear set CL331 Gratitude.

Here'a another card using a sentiment stamp from the same set, stamped on Jillybean Soup brown Kraft cardstock. The Simon Says challenge is thankful, as is the Sisterhood challenge. For this one, I used squares of watercolour paper prepared with spritzed Ecoline Watercolour Inks, and bordered with Krylon 18 Kt Gold Leafing Ink. The Impression Obsession stamps I used are CC029 Cover a Card Music and the F5549 Flourish, both embossed with Ranger Seafoam White EP, and the sentiment is from a newly released set called CL331 Gratitude. I used crystals from Duncan/I Love to Create.

This card was also created for an American friend who celebrates Thanksgiving, and to meet the Postcard Art challenge, which was to use poppies, in remembrance, and for the Creative Card Crew Thankful challenge. The card uses another sentiment stamp from CL 331 Gratitude Clear Set, and a poppy stamp from Hero Arts.

The current Wee Memories challenge is to create a birthday card. This is what I did, using the Cover a Card Music stamp CC029, along with a sentiment stamp from the Impression Obsession clear set CL39 Birthday Sentiments :

THANK YOU so much for taking the time to stop by today. Please take some time to stop by the other IO designers' blogs for some eye catching inspiration; you can find direct links on my sidebar.

I wish you a week of delight...do what you love, love what you do.