In a chat with my friends Jackie and Susan, we decided to give each other mini challenges every now and then to spark our creativity. And, believe me, today I needed a spark. Actually, I needed a whole forest fire, not just a spark. It was one of those days where creativity was very elusive. I just kind of wandered around, admiring everyone else’s projects at craft day. Sandy had an adorable card using the “Have a Cuppa” suite. Liz experimented and came up with some amazing ideas. Christy and Chris worked quietly, and walked away with a box full of things they finished – or at least worked on. Ginny & MaryBeth made gorgeous sunrise cards using the soon to be re-released Woodlands embossing folder and the Hearth & Home thinlits. Even Amelia colored a picture I drew. Up until she decided to bite the tip off the marker, she was doing a beautiful job. Me? I had a box full of new supplies and just stared at them.

So I’m very excited to actually have something for you to look at today. Here’s the sketch my friend Jackie created.

How fun is that? I usually try to change the sketch elements, but this time I kept quite true to the sketch, I think. Here’s my card.

I watercolored the Birthday Blooms flower, then cut it out. (Yes, by hand.) Then I colored a bit of one of the designs in the Timeless Elegance Designer Series Paper to layer the stamped image onto. I added a layer of Basic Black, then Melon Mambo and a Pink Pirouette card. Yep – no Blushing Bride today; I used bright pink. My banner is Old Olive, and I used a stamp from the Tin of Cards stamp set for the semi-circle element. That’s one of the cool things about the photopolymer stamps; you can bend them a little, so they don’t have to be straight lines.

Jackie and Susan are two of my favorite designers. I haven’t seen their cards yet, but I know you’re going to LOVE them, so take a minute to check out their blogs. Here’s Jackie’s. And here’s the link to Susan’s. I can’t wait to see what they came up with. We’ll be challenging each other now and then – and posting when we’ve all completed the challenge. It could be every week, or once a month, or even two times a week.  It’s very laid back and fun.

Feel free to try out the challenges! You can add a link to your blog, web site, or public forum (like pinterest) – or even post a photo of the card you created in the comment section of any of our blogs. We’d love to see what you design! And the challenges are a wonderful way to get that creativity going.

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a wonderful day!