Feelin' up to the Challenge...

Happy Sunday, everyone :) It's definitely an "IV Coffee" morning as I was up a weeeeee bit too late last night having a ton of fun participating in my first SCS Challenge!


This particular challenge was issued by Julee Tilman from Verve Stamps, one of my favorite places to shop!


Using a techinque called a One Sheet Wonder, the challege was to create 4 cards using a 6X6 reversible piece of designer paper. Julee provided the basic "sketch" and then the rest was up to the participant!


I've been waiting SOME TIME to use my new Cupcake Affair set by Verve, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to pull it out of its crisp new packaging and go to town! All my cards were made using Dark Chocolate by Papertrey and a lovely shade of blue called "Pool", from the Yours Truly line at Archiver's stores. This new blue is VERY similar to the new Baja Breeze from Stampin Up!, so either would work fine, actually.


Sketch #1 was fun to use and I was happy with the way it turned out despite the fact that I wasn't sure about the "criss cross" layered paper. I'm not normally good with layouts such as these but I think the paper really made it easy to work with; it's SO pretty. All my cards were distressed using Brown Chalk ink to soften the edges of all the angles, etc.


My friend Heather and I have an expression that "Jamba makes everything better". Ever had a Jamba Juice? It's yummy! However, I have to admit that when I saw this saying "Cupcakes make everything better", I couldn't have agreed more!!! Too cute!


To "frost" this particular card I stamped the top of the cupcake with Baja Breeze ink and then used Stardust Stickles to really give it some "yum" factor LOL. Ribbon is Dark Chocolate by PTI.


The second card in the sketch was a bit simpler and I used the Beautiful You set from Verve, another one of my favorites. Actually, I think this IS my favorite set right now. I'm a quote girl, as many of you know, and this set is loaded with some wonderful sentiments! Also, I know I've said it before, but that flower is one of the prettiest I've seen and is amazing to work with. I used an "oldy but a goody" here, the Friendship sentiment from Stampin Up's Wonderful Words set.


The longer word seemed to balance out the rest of the card better. To color in the flower, I used my shimmer chalks from Pebbles Inc. and had a blast decorating the two flowers with a pearl and tiny rhinestone... a little bling never hurt anyone!




So, for the 3rd sketch, I went back to my beloved cupcakes. I decided to mat the DP strips to make them "pop" a bit more and then went for some color with the two different cupcakes. Again, I couldn't resist that sentiment, "Cupcakes make everything Better". It's a simple card, made to look ornate by Julee's sketch and is a great card even for a beginning stamper, i think. I topped the little cupcakes off with some stickles again. I just can't help myself now that I have found a medium to "get my glitter on" without the mess!


I decided that the top left corner was a little lonely so pulled out some pretty pearl embellishments for the finishing touches. What do you think?


For the fourth and final sketch, I decided to take the simple sketch and create a soft, subtle background so that the super-yummy cupcake could be in the spotlight without a doubt! Using the sketch, I added a soft satin ribbon to the left to sort of balance it out a bit first. I used the sentiment from the new Stampin UP! Crazy for Cupcakes set that I absolutely adore ( can you smell a theme going here? LOL).

To really make my sweet treat the focal point of the card, I decided to use Liquid Applique. It's one of my favorite things to use when using cupcake stamps, which I've been sort of leaning toward lately! All you do is put it on the image, heat it, and POOF! Yummy, 3D frosting!

I also used a bit of Waterfall stickles just to "sprinkle" a bit of extra love on this baby! I colored in the flowers with shimmer chalk from Pebbles, Inc. and then used several small rhinestones in each flower's center to really give it an extra bit of sparkle. Gotta love that sparkle!!!

I must say that I had the MOST fun doing this challenge! The best part is, there is a contest going for all who participate and some lucky gals will win some pretty awesome Verve loot from their upcoming release on Tuesday! Good luck to all, and hey, wish me a bit, too, will ya? ;)

Have a sweet day!