Altenew Inspiration Challenge October 2025

The beautiful photo by Mindy had me ready to make a card for the Altenew Inspiration Challenge.

 

The colors said Dancing Sunflowers to me and I stenciled them with Honey Drizzle, Dusty Rose, Olive, Moss, Sea Forest, Mangrove Root, Mocha and Espresso.  I tried to get the Dusty Rose darker but it kept fading back and I didn't have anything darker in the color I wanted.  To keep the white outline from showing, I colored it with the Milk Chocolate artist marker before adhering to some dark brown cardstock that had been embossed with the Chain Link folder.  The sentiment from Delightful Day was stamped in Milk Chocolate on a light yellow paper and cut with the die.  

I was honored with a win in the September challenge for this card.  Two members of my Time Out design team were also winners.  If you haven't entered this inspiration challenge you might want to think about it.  Winners get $30 credit to Altenew.  My order comes today. 

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Freshly Made Sketches #702

I was so tempted to do a Christmas card for Freshly Made Sketches but my Honey Bee Fall Bouquet was calling.

The pumpkin was cut in orange and shaded with orange and white inks.  The sunflower is part of the set but the leaf comes from HB's Fall Foliage, cut in tan and inked.  The background paper is from a TH pack and the sentiment is from C9's Birdhouse Blossoms. 

 So glad you dropped by.  I love your visits and your comments.

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Celebrating Freshly Made Sketches' 700th Challenge

700 Challenges is quite an accomplishment so congratulations are in order for Freshly Made Sketches.  For fun, the Design Team is showing the very first card they made for FMS.  In keeping with that, I went back and found the very first card I made.  It was for challenge #6 on October 14, 2011.  Here's the sketch.

And my card.

I have come a long way on my card making journey.  This was only a little over 4 months since I started my blog and began entering challenges and I was using a Cricut for my images.  Even the writing of my blog posts has changed and improved tremendously.  

For this week's challenge, we have this sketch from their 14th challenge.

I seldom make square cards and my proportions are a little different but here's what I came up with.

All the patterned paper came from a Honey Bee's Homestead Harvest and the card base is Ivory from Gina K.  The squares were cut with an MFT die, the Sunflower is from Spellbinders and the sentiment is a BetterPress. 

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you'll go over to Freshly Made Sketches and walk down memory lane with them.  

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The Paper Players #735 and NBUS #73

I love it when an email shows up that leads me to a challenge.  Sometimes I forget to look at my list and that email is just the nudge I need.  Today I saw a couple for The Paper Players and got busy and made a card. 

I purchased the Sunflower Serenade from Spellbinders a while ago and thought it would work well for the sketch - all made from scraps.  A strip of Honey Bee paper that looks like burlap was die cut along the edges with HB's Deckle Edge die.  It kind of gave my card a rustic, country look.  The sentiment is a BetterPress done in brown. 

It's the first time using the sunflower so off it goes to Darnell's NBUS .

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Altenew Inspiration Challenge - March 2025

The minute I saw the inspiration photo at Altenew's March Challenge I knew I had the perfect image.  

All I needed to do was get it stamped and colored.  What do you think?  

The Dancing Sunflowers were colored with the accompanying stencils using Altenew inks.  The card took a couple of turns during the process and for a few of them I held my breath.  I wanted needed to make a colorful background so I cut a mask of the sunflower and used brushes to add the pink, green and yellow around it.  Whew!  I liked it but thought maybe some splatters would add to the look.  I held my breath and used Altenew's Jet Black Spray with a paint brush.  So far so good.  Now if the sentiment that comes with the set stamps okay.  It did but I thought the black needed something to tie it all together so I added a tiny black border.  Finally done and everything worked out beautifully IMHO.

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you week goes well.

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The Flower Challenge #96

There's still time for you to make a card for the stencil challenge at The Flower Challenge.

I was filing away the cards I had with me at the lake back into my regular boxes and saw one made with Altenew's Dancing Sunflowers.  I had forgotten about that set and was anxious to use it for this challenge.

I'm not very fond of the second and third layers of floral stencils, preferring to shade them myself on the first layer like I did here using Distress Inks in Scattered Straw, Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey and just a touch of Aged Mahogany.  The center is Brushed Corduroy which is also what I used to stamp the image and the leaves are Peeled Paint and Forest Moss.   After die cutting, the sunflower was layered onto a panel of Warm Cocoa from GinaK, embossed with the Tasteful Texture folder from SU.

There are more cards from the Design Team over on the blog.  We hope they inspire you to make a stenciled card featuring flowers for our challenge. 

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Just Us Girls #723 - Mood Board Week

Vicki has a lovely mood board for us this week at Just Us Girls.

I couldn't resist that beautiful sunflower, especially since I had recently purchased one from Altenew.

It comes with a stencil that was used with Altenew Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay, Frayed Leaf and Forest Glades ink.  The sentiment is from EbyE.

I made a different card first using the second layer of the stencil.  I don't often like the way the second layer looks and choose to shade the flowers myself like the one above. 

This sunflower was die cut, added to some DSP from Honey Bee and run through their burlap embossing folder.  This sentiment is part of the Dancing Sunflowers set.  Totally different look.  

What peeks your interest in that mood board?  What do you think the Design Team and our guest Colleen were inspired by?  Head on over to Just Us Girls, check them out and see a larger version of the mood board.  

This is the first outing of the Dancing Sunflowers so I'm sending my card to NBUS #61.

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Color Hues #49

Color Hues has another challenge and this time it's Yellow and Brown. 

I really layered this one up. ;)   I started with the PTI sunflower embossed in gold and colored with Distress Inks.  It's a small panel so once it was layered on white it needed more substance.  I only had a small piece of yellow so added the other white layer and put it all on the dark brown.  The sentiment from SSS was stamped in brown and cut with an MFT circle die.  A quadruple matted work of art.  lol

I'm so glad you dropped by.  I hope you'll leave a comment to let me know you were here.

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The Card Concept #160

I didn't think I would be able to play in The Card Concept challenge until I remembered a card I made playing around with a stamp set from STAMPlorations.  It's a rather abstract sunflower but looks like one nonetheless.

I used a sentiment from the same set for my clean and layered card. 

I'm glad you dropped by.  Please leave a comment so I know you were here.

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CAS Mix-Up September 2021

Autumn colors is a perfect theme for CAS Mix-Up and using watercolors is a fun way to show off those colors. 

I  gold heat embossed the PTI Botanical Blocks sunflower and colored it with Zigs, adding an  embossed sentiment from Sunny Studios.  Since two of these images fit on one piece of Bristol I did another one.

I used lighter colors for the petals but kept the leaves the same.  I also changed out the sentiment for another one from Sunny Studios.  I have a few people who could use a lift and these cards will hopefully do just that.

Thanks for dropping by.  I love it when you do and even more when you leave a comment. 

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Less Is More #448

I haven't played at Less Is More in a while but a stormy day means lots of card making.  It was Elaine's birthday and this is her card we are to CASe.

I had this sunflower stamped in brown in my box and decided to finish it, coloring with Zigs.  I added a sentiment from Altenew and some brown splatters before cutting it apart and popping up a couple of the pieces.

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Tag You're It! 99

I have the honor of being your host for this challenge at Tag You're It!  Here's is what I have chosen for your inspiration.

And here is what I made:

I combined a tag from SSS, the burlap background stamp from MFT, a sunflower from PB and a pumpkin from my NBUS set from HoneyBee, both colored with Zigs, and a sentiment from Jillian Vance.  Isn't it nice how all those companies play so well together.

I hope this photo and our Design Team inspires you to play in our Autumn Fest challenge at Tag You're It!

Just Us Girls #507 - Photo Challenge

This is the photo inspiration for this week at Just Us Girls, 

chosen by Maria.  

I just happened to have some daisies that I colored with Zigs to look like sunflowers. They worked beautifully for the challenge.

I decided they needed not one border but two, so I added the gold and chocolate.  I know it looks black in the photo. :(

How does the photo inspire you?  Make a card for our gallery and you may be our next Chic of the Week.

Addicted to Stamps and More #287

It's time for the Make Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  That means you can use markers, paints, pencils, chalks, anything that makes a mark on your card.  I chose Zigs for mine.

I'm disappointed in the color that comes across on the screen.  There is more color variation on the actual card with the green being more olive and more orange in the petals.  I played with the photo editing but this is the best I could get.

I hope you'll check out what the Design Team has made for your inspiration and then enter a card of your own.

Stamps: Penny Black
Paper:  Bristol, BoBunny

CAS on Friday #117

New challenge for me - CAS on Friday.  They want us to use dies.

The sunflower is something I cut at Michele's a long time ago and pulled out to watercolor with DIs.  It's been sitting on my desk and I thought it would work perfectly for this challenge.  I cut a panel from CP, mounted it on foam on a Desert Storm card base, then attached the flower.  The sentiment is from TT.

Where did the week go?  Hopefully there's crafting time for you and me this weekend.