Today's Challenge - a 'Recipe'

I often call myself a 'recipe person'. I love to follow 'directions' on things and seldom deviate - as that would be against the rules. So, for today's challenge - Day 55 we were to use this 'recipe':

5x5 card (solid colored card stock - may be smooth or textured)
4x4 patterned paper (you may alter the edges if you'd like)
1 shape (circle, square, star, heart, etc.) - must be solid color
3 jewels
alpha stickers

Well, that is all good except when I got to the part about alpha stickers. I looked through my stash - I have rub-ons, but the recipe called for STICKERS. Well, I found a sticker sheet of words and shapes - but it said ALPHA!! So, I really had to dig deep into my stash, and I finally found something that was small enough to work for the word I wanted to spell out. Yeah, I couldn't be happy with simple words like: 'HI', or 'LOVE'!! I had to go for the bigger word!!

But the paper is SO pretty!! And it conveyed beauty to me, so that is what I wanted to stick with. These alpha stickers are from Basic Grey and I got them at Big Lots for $1 - what a find!! But they have been sitting around waiting for an opportunity to be used for many months! I decided to mount them on the orange (tangerine tango) rectangle (it's a shape!!) and then added the awful looking jewel. I really should have used alcohol inks on the jewels to coordinate better. Crystal is ok, but colored crystal is even better!!

Working Toward a Mini Book

I don't know why, but mini books tend to scare me! I attempted to start one at the beginning of the year, and it is still not a mini book - and I wonder if it ever will be!! :) However, today on the 365 card blog, the challenge (Day 54) was to make something out of recycled elements and add it to your card. Well, the only thing I could think of was making a mini book out of recycled chipboard, or CD's, or something along those lines, but how to add it to my card was a mystery. Then I decided I would use old CD's and MAKE a card from them - sort of like a mini book. I had the color scheme all planned out - sometimes that is part of the problem in getting started with our crafting, you know what I mean?
Well, the front came together rather quickly. I decided to do a birthday 'card' because we have LOTS of birthdays coming up in May.
Then I remembered, oh yeah - now I have to do the back - well, I continued with a similar color scheme and made more of a 'page' to either add a photo, or write a sweet note to the recipient. For this one, I will probably add a picture of the recipient.

Now, I used my Bind-it-all to make the 'book' - but I punched everything AFTER the cardstock was on both sides of the CD - and, as you can see, it is a little off kilter! SEE, this is why mini books scare me!! However, I am learning and this project was a fun one to learn with, as I know the recipient will be thrilled with it and won't care that it was a little off, she will still think it's cool!!

Another Award!

I feel SO blessed today. I received another award from Rose
Rose left me a lovely comment on my challenge card for today and then sent me this sweet award.


The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.
Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Now, this is the hard part - sending this award out to my blogging friends - so, here goes:

LORI
SUZY
JEAN
PEGGYSUE
DENISE
ROBYN O
LEE
JEANNIE

Enjoy ladies, you inspire me!!
~Paula

Presenting: Today's Challenge!!

While it is still TODAY, I have completed the 365 Card Blog challenge for day Day 53 - using fruit. I knew exactly which 'piece' of fruit I wanted to use and how. I had made a similar card several years ago and entered it in the county fair where it won a first place.
The thing I like about these challenges is that there is such a variety and with that comes the variety to use different mediums, or techniques I haven't used for a LONG time. Remember when Radiant Pearls was all the rage? Well, I pulled mine out - I only managed to collect around 50 different colors before I got bored and moved onto something else - but those colors are still as good as the day I bought them. I am not sure whether you can see the shimmer of these wonderful paints, but they DO shimmer!! I stamped this 'scene' sveral times before I got the coloring the way I wanted it, but then the words of the BG stamp were running through both pears, so I decided to cut out one of the pears I had stamped on another piece of paper and suspend it above the 'main' pear. I have to say, I really like the coloring on this one and the way it all came together so quickly.
Thanks for visiting today. ~Paula

Now for Yesterday's Challenge

Why does it seem like I am a day behind this week? As soon as I am done here, I am going to hit the craft table with the challenge for TODAY - I already have an idea in mind - but until then, you will have to suffer through Day 52!
The challenge was to use three specific items on your card - Brad, Blossom and Circle. Well, though I LOVE using primas - and want MORE!! I decided to use a sketch from Card Sketch a Day. The sketch (#215) showed a flower made out of circles. I punched small circles out of SU DP and layered them. I then added an additional circle for the center of the flower and then added a brad to bring it all together. The brad was a greenish color and I added a bit of sunset orange alcohol ink. I then double stamped the sentiment for a shadow affect.
Thanks for visiting. ~Paula

Nature Card

I recently bought some Stampscapes Stamps. These are INCREDIBLE stamps! You can almost not make a mistake! After learning a bit about how to use these stamps at a make n take a few weeks ago, I decided to see how they would look on a marbled background.
I used alcohol inks - new colors from Ranger - Sunset Orange, Purple Twighlight, and Sunshine Yellow and a bit of silver metallic. The silver bonded with the colors and when I swirled and lifted my paper, I came up with this 'fog-ish' looking image. This card was created for Day 24 on the 365 card blog.
Thanks for taking a peek! May you have a Peaceful day. ~Paula

Some Old Challenges

I have had this challenge card from Day 23 done for a few days. On that day - back in MARCH!! - We were to use this crossword image that was provided and create a card with it. This was NOT an easy task. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to use it. I added the border - cut from a scrap and then finished with the flower - embellished with a bit of stickles. Gotta love that stuff!!
Enjoy! ~Paula

My VERY FIRST Award!!

Today I received an email from my friend Gloria
She sent me this very cute award - The Lemonade Stand Award!
The Lemonade Stand Award is for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude. THANK YOU Gloria for this wonderful award - for bringing sunshine to my day today and being the first to send me an award. What FUN!!
Now, as I understand with awards granted - I get to bestow this award on other bloggers. So, I am sending this award out to:

SHAUNA
MICHELLE
KAROLYN

Enjoy your Lemonade ladies!! ~Paula

Sparkles and Blossoms

I had planned on creating all day yesterday, however, I chose to have lunch with my sweet husband, and that took out a few hours of the day, then it was SUCH a gorgeous day here in Southern California and we were having record highs - 98 degrees in some places, that we decided to take the kids down to the beach later in the afternoon just to cool off and to try out the new boogie board we bought at Costco. It was a hit and we all were able to cool off.
So, back at the Paper Spa, I looked at the challenge for Day 51 on the 365 card blog. The challenge was to create a card using this photo as inspiration:
Well, I didn't have any large red flowers in my prima stash (which is quite low to begin with!!) SO, I created my own red flowers by spraying the existing ones, one was orange and the other two were yellow (I think) with Glimmer Mist in Red Velvet. I gave the flowers a fairly heavy saturation and allowed them to dry - which created somewhat stiff flowers - that was okay with me.
This morning, I was able to finish up this card:
I took a piece of my core-dinations paper with a reddish backing and ran it through the CB. I then sanded lightly to bring the red through just a little. I then mounted the flowers to the BG with brown brads (I don't have any black ones) - but that was ok too, as I took my distress stickles in fire red and put a dab of that on the brads. I then used diamond stickles to add 'dew drops' to the petals. The card is drying as I type!! I had considered adding a sentiment, but decided that I liked it just the way it is and it can be used for any purpose by adding a sentiment to the inside. As always, thanks for visiting. ~Paula

Super Sketch - a day late!

I tend to get a bit side-tracked in my crafting - any of you ever do that? I was in the process of creating this card: when I did another challenge card first. The flowers for that one are drying right now - so I have time to post this one!!
This card is for Day 50 on the 365 card blog. We were to use the sketch to create a card. I don't have a narrow and wide oval, which is what the sketch indicated, so I used what I do have - the classic nestibilities. I found some DP from SU that had been sent to me in a WishRAK and created this simple card. It really was quite simple once I decided what I wanted to do and the color scheme I wanted to use. I sprayed the flower with Glacier Glimmer Mist which is nearly impossible to see IRL, let alone here. As always, thanks for visiting. ~Paula