Fun With Challenges!

Aloha, all!

Now that I’m officially free of my responsibilities for the SUO Challenge group, I have had the time to research other challenge blogs in which friends and other Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators are involved. There are dozens and dozens, and I’m really going to make an effort to try them all out. In order to do that, though, I’m going to have to make one project that will accept the challenge of more than one group at a time. That, my friends, is really a challenge!

I’ve always been amazed at the designers who enter multiple challenges with the same card. How do they do that???? I still want to know after having tried to do it myself.

The three challenges I picked to enter today were

• The Stylin’ Stampin’ INKspiration with their sketch
  
• The Fab Friday Challenge with their color challenge
  
• The Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge with a theme to make a birthday card.

Talk about a challenge! I probably could have tried out some others. But I’m familiar with stampers in each of these three challenges, so I was bound and determined to make something that would fit all three. And, yes, it was a stretch.

The Stylin’ Stampin’ INKspiration challenge was a sketch with two vertical strips and an oval in between. OK, so with the Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge to make a birthday card, I really needed to turn that oval on its side to fit any birthday stamp I had in my collection. I made that sketch sideways to fit. Not bad! Thanks for the great sketch, guys!

The Fab Friday Challenge was to use the subtles style colors of Soft Sky, Powder Pink, So Saffron and the regal color, Night of Navy. I made that Night of Navy color the accent for the other three, and I was pretty happy with that. I used the So Saffron color the least, but I brought out some of the So Saffron Enamel Shapes circles to pop the color out of the central oval element. I used the Powder Pink and Soft Sky colors for the ribbons in the Picture Perfect Birthday Stamp Set (to go along with the Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge), with Night of Navy and Perfect Plum (where did that color come from????) for the “shadows” in the ribbon stamps,

Finally, for the Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge, I touched each and every one of my stamp sets that had a birthday wish in it. I ended up with the fairly new stamp set (from the Stampin’ Up! 2018 Occasions Catalog), Picture Perfect Birthday.

My really big challenge was the ribbon to make the bow in the SSINK challenge. There is some Powder Pink ribbon in my stash. But it was just a tad to big for a bow for this card. So why not try to color some of the Whisper White 1/4″ Organza Ribbon from the Stampin’ Up! 2018 Occasions Catalog with my Night of Navy Stampin’ Blends? While they’re not available right now, the Blends will be back with the upcoming Stampin’ Up! 2018-2019 Annual Catalog. So color the ribbon is what I did, and that ribbon is just the perfect size for this card.

Finished! I tried explaining to my husband why I was walking back and forth all during the afternoon in my craft room. Couldn’t I just get out what I needed for my project and leave it at that? Hah! This really was a design project, and I have to tell you that I loved every minute of it. I can hardly wait to have time to do another one of these challenges later this month!