It is somehow already late Thursday evening.  This week has rushed by so fast I don’t even know what to say.  Don’t get me wrong…it has been an amazing week, I just don’t know where it has gone.

My mother has been here all week, and that is always such a joy.  No, seriously.  The woman is my best friend in the world, and I just don’t get to see her enough.  I talk to her daily, but I never get to hug her enough.  She is the most amazing woman in the world, and hands down a blessing for my kids to have around.

However, today I dropped her off at the airport so that she could return home (sad face inserted here), and I am trying to resume my regularly scheduled program.  And with that program returning to (or I hope soon will) normal, I find myself sitting here linking up a few challenge cards.

First up this week is a beautiful photo inspiration challenge from Inspired by All the Little Things.  This is such a beautiful fall inspired photo, I new I just had to lean supper heavy on the colors and the coffee…oh yes, the beautiful coffee.

I pulled out my favorite little coffee mug from Prima Marketing and stamped it out on some card stock, and masked it.  I pulled out some great pumpkin stamps from Hero Arts and stamped them out, again masking where I needed to.  I then colored in the scene with my copic markers.  The image looked a little lacking, so I colored in both the ‘table’ and the ‘walls’ with my markers, trying to design something warm and neat free hand.  I trimmed up the card stock and backed it with a bit more white card stock.  I then pulled some really warm printed paper.  Finally I added a bit of satin ribbon because it helped ground out the whole image.

This week over at the CAS group, Less Is More, they are celebrating their 300th challenge.  That is such a fun accomplishment and to celebrate that, they are asking for CAS designs that are all wrapped up in the theme of celebrating.

Now I have a friend who is celebrating a birthday next week and I knew I needed a great little card for her, so I figured two birds, one stone.  I pulled out a stamp set from Ellen Hutson Designs and stamped out a cute little scene, masking where I needed to.  I colored the image in with my copics, making sure to pull what ever color I used on the critters or cake, I pushed into the balloons so that the color scheme (or lack there of) worked.  I messed up a bit on the balloons, so I outlined them again with my black liner pen.  Then I added some glitter pen to different areas of the card (candle, frosting, and balloons) so that there was a bit of glitter and shine.  I kept it that simple, trying my hardest to keep things clean and simple (not always my strong suit).

This week the gang over at The Paper Players had a fun little tic-tac-toe challenge that I found way too difficult to process.  I just couldn’t wrap my brain around any of the lines, making designing this harder than it should have been.  In the end, I remembered I had some new gold glittered washi tape, so the center down line became my muse.  I set off to design something with glitter, washi tape and pine.

I pulled out my tried and true Inkadinkadoo holiday pine stamp and embossed it onto card stock with both green and burgundy embossing powder.  I colored in the ornament with a pastel pencil of all things (don’t ask my why, it was just in reach).  Then I added some gold glittered washi tape.  Isn’t it pretty?  I added a ‘Merry Christmas’ stamp embossed with the same burgundy embossing powder between the two and trimmed the paper up.  I pulled out some gold and velum paper and trimmed it out, and adhered everything.  I know this is so not my normal style card, but I think it works, right?  Simple, but pretty.

Finally today I have a great Christmas card inspired by an old sketch from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  It is the fifth week of the month (or at least was when the challenge began), which means it is an oldie but goody week.  The theme was to pick a previous sketch and choose to play with one from February 2015.

I pulled out a Spellbinder die and die cut a hole into some Christmas snowy  card stock.  Then I pulled out a Fiskars stamp set and stamped a snow globe and the snowman and Chrismas tree onto some plain white card stock.  I colored the images in with my copics and then spattered it all with a bit of perfect pearls turquoise spray.  I pulled out some white glittery paper and lined the top of an A2 card with it, and assembled the focal image and the snowy paper onto the frame.  I snagged a scrap of the same glittery white paper and stamped the sentiment ‘all that glitters is snow’  I die cut up some green holly like images and hole punched some red card stock and adhered them to the card as well.  I like to pretend this is a simple card, but we all know that it isn’t.  Regardless, I like it.  It makes me want to snuggle up in front of the fire with a blanket and enjoy the holiday spirit.

That’s all for tonight.  I’m off to bed.  Tomorrow I have a very cool project, and need my beauty rest.  More on that tomorrow.  Till then…create something fun.