Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny...Cards!

Nope!  No yellow polka-dot binkinis here!  The challenge is to create a 3x3 card.  What's great about 3x3 cards is they use up a lot of the scraps you have lying around.  In fact, I didn't cut a single new piece of cardstock or paper to make these cards, except for the cardstock the images were printed on.

When I was the August guest designer for Meljen's designs, I made 10 3x3 cards for one of my posts.  If you would like to see them, you can find that post here.  My favorite of the bunch was the one with the sunflower.  I decided to make a few more based on that card.  I used the Little Layered Flowers set. It is a great deal with 8 images: 5 flowers and 3 leaves.

Cards measure 3'x3'
Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls embossing folder
ribbon and gems from my stash

A little Sketchy...

We are getting sketchy at Meljen's Designs.  You can get sketchy too.  We have a great sketch for you to follow for this week's challenge.

Isn't it great?!  There are so many fun things you can do with this sketch.  This is my take.

I turned the square on point and matted it with a die cut.  I colored Bird's Little Letter with Copic markers.  Don't feel like coloring?  That's okay too.  This image also comes in a colored version!  I really need to invest in some additional blue markers.  I am really lacking in that color family!  It made shading a bit harder to accomplish.

Card measures 5" x 5"

Spellbinders Fleur-de-lis Squares

DeNami Design Sending You Love

Stampin' Up! Soft Swirls background stamp

Ribbon & lace from my stash

Bead charm and twine from my stash

Seeing Spots!

If you venture over to the Meljen's Designs blog today, chances are you will be Seeing spots!  Your challenge should you choose to accept it is to use dots on your project.  Don't forget!  You must use a Meljen's Designs image in order to play along.

I used the image Little Baby Dragon and paper pieced him with some cute polka dot paper.  I used Copics to give his diaper a little shading.  I wasn't thinking and used plain white paper to piece his diaper on.  That was almost a nightmare in the making!  The Copics wanted to bleed really badly.  And that was after I had pieced all of those little bits!  Luckily, I realized what was happening before it got out of hand.  Definitely need to think that through next time.

I embossed the background with, you guessed it, dots!  I added a little eyelet lace and twine and called it done.

Card measures 4.25" x 5.5"
Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Doily Circle
Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles
Cuttlebug Dots embossing folder
Stampin' Up! Mini Mates stamp set
The Twinery Peapod twine
Eyelet lace and charm from my stash

Inspired by...Trash?!

Our Design Team theme this month is inspiration at Meljen's Designs.  I pulled out my inspiration file, to find some inspiration for my post.  My inspiration file is full of things that grabbed my attention in one way or another.  I have a half page from a catalog, a flyer that came in the mail, and other assorted bits and pieces.  Most people would have thrown them away, but I saved them because of the color combinations on them.  In fact, I even had this tag from a pair of jeans in my file.

This pair of jeans is long gone, but as soon as I saw this tag, I knew this was the color scheme for my inspiration post.  I loved the colors then and I still love them now!

I even borrowed the basic layout from the tag as well.  I used Mailed With Love for the image and colored it with Copics.  It is a great image when you just want to let someone know you are thinking about them.  I used Sending You Smiles from DeNami Design for the sentiment.

I am inspired by color.  I have even been known to take a picture of pillows at the store because I loved the colors on them!  Start your own inspiration file so that when Mr. Mojo is having his temper tantrum, you can fight back with a little ready-made inspiration of your own.

Card measures 4.25" x 5.5"
Crystal Stickers Mosaic squares
Stampin' Up! So Saffron Grosgrain Ribbon

Keeping it Simple

Keep it simple...those are words that make me cringe.  Clean and simple cards are so hard for me.  Those that can manage to pull them off amaze me!  But that is the theme for our challenge at Meljen's Designs.  I had to work really hard to remember to keep it simple!

I used Love Letter from the recent release and colored it with Copics.  Well...shaded it with Copics really since the image is mostly white!  A little faux stitching and some twill ribbon and it is done!  Whew!  I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  Now to go back to my regular crafting style.

Card measures 4.25" x 5.5"
Sentiment by DeNami Design
ribbon from my stash

You Ought to Be in Pictures

This week it is hip to be square at Meljen's Designs!  The challenge...use square elements on your card.

I used Windswept Diva from the recent release and colored her with Copics.  She was inspired by the iconic Marilyn Monroe pose.  I wanted the card to look like a film cel so I used some mosaic squares I found on clearance.  It took some doing getting them on, but in the end it was worth it!  I added some Tim Holtz filmstrip ribbon and created the sentiment on the computer so it would have the right spacing.

Don't forget about the sale going on in the shop!  Everything is 20% off and there is no code required! Every order of $10 or more will be entered into a drawing for a $50 certificate!  Multiple orders get multiple entries.  What are you waiting for?! Go get shopping!

Card measures 5" x 5"
Crystal Stickers Mosaic

Frosted Flora Color Challenge

We are mixing it up this week at Meljen's Designs.  Our challenge is to create a project using the colors from the inspiration photo Frosted Flora.

Such lovely colors!  I admit, I had to work to get them to come together the way I wanted though!

I used the image Snowy Moose from the recent release.  I colored him using my Copics.  This image was a little harder to get the shading worked out, but I am happy with it overall.  I kept it simple as I thought the moose made a good masculine image.  Keeping that in mind, I used the green as the main color and added bits of the other colors.

Come play in the color challenge!  I would love to see how you use the colors together.

Right now, everything in the shop is 20% off!  You don't even need a code!  If that wasn't incentive enough to shop, here is another...all orders of $10 or more will receive an entry for a drawing to receive a $50 gift certificate for the shop!  Multiple orders receive multiple entries, so order as often as you like.

Card measures 5.5" x 4.25"
Stampin' Up! ribbon slide
pearls from my stash