Color Combo Challenge & The April Lucky Link-Up Winner!

Good morning, crafty friends! As I do every Monday, I'd like to share with you the card I made for this week's challenge here at Made Especially For You. Since it's the fifth Monday of the month which doesn't happen too often, this week's challenge is a bit different than the rest. For this week's challenge, you are to create a card inspired by the provided color combo:

The colors do not have to be exact, but please try and match the shades as closely as possible

Color combo challenges are one of my favorites, so I was super excited to make a card for this challenge. It ended up being a bit tougher than I thought since I didn't have any patterned papers with these colors, but here's what I came up with: 

I am so embarrassed of this picture. I could not, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, get the colors to look the way they actually do. The brown looks black, the yellow almost looks white, and luckily the blues and green are about accurate. I tried a couple different cameras and still couldn't get an accurate representation of the colors. :(

Visit the 'Weekly Challenge' page to enter this week's color combo challenge. The randomly chosen winner will receive a $10 voucher to Di's Digi Downloads and be offered a one-week guest designer position. Don't forget that all entries are also eligible to win a top three spot and badge! 

And as promised, we have a winner for April's Lucky Link-Up. One lucky winner will receive the Wild Card Cricut cartridge. Let's see who that winner is...

Katie O.

Congratulations, Katie! You've won the Wild Carl Cricut cartridge. I've sent you an email so you can claim your cartridge. I'll need to hear back from you within one week, otherwise another winner will be chosen. Thanks so much for participating in our challenges! :)

Have a lovely week! :)

Ashley 

Do You Speak Cricut Saturday - Wild Card

Welcome to this week’s edition of Do You Speak Cricut? Every Saturday will feature a different Cricut cartridge review from one of the Made Especially For You design team members. This feature was added to the blog in order to give potential cartridge buyers a better idea of what each cart has to offer. Click here to view last week's Elegant Edges cartridge review. This week, Pam is going to share her review of the Wild Card cartridge, being given away for this month's lucky link-up. 

This week I am going to be showing you some of the features on

the Wild Card Cart. This is a great cart for a quick gift bag card, or special events card. I want to apologize for not getting my second fancier card done, but I got really sick and was just unable to get it done. So, I hope you will get the main idea from the very boring card that I did get done for you. Again, I am sorry. This card is really awsome though.

With this cart you can even make a matching envelope if you like. I have made a heart shaped card with an envelope to hold it. Really like this feature. I'll show you my card alittle bit later. Here is the usage overlay.

Here are the different cards and envelopes this cart can make:

          So without further ado, here is my card. This is the envelope before I put it together:

This is the inside card: 

Here is the finished project. As you can see I changed the

envelope to a different color along the way.

I really hope who ever WINS this will enjoy it as much as I have.

Pam

Thursday Craft 'n Chat - Faux Tiles

Today's Thursday Craft 'n Chat is brought to you by Eileen from As The Cricut Cuts...

I fell in love with ceramic tiles while living in Europe… all the detail and vibrant colors! When I discovered a way to duplicate this look on my scrapbook pages and cards, I was VERY excited. And the best part… it’s incredibly simple. All you need is a few items… and if you are a stamper, you probably already have most of what you need. 

Materials:

VersaMark ink

Embossing heat tool

Rubber stamp of choice

Ink and/or markers

Clear embossing powder

Cardboard or mat board

Directions

1    1.)  Stamp the image you chose on the cardboard/matt board.  Complete all inking and coloring of your stamped image until you obtain your desired look.

2    2.)   Once your image is complete, you can cut it into your desired size. Smaller size looks better. If your image is larger (2” x 2” or larger), it works best if you divide it into smaller squares.  I chose the image of the rose; thinking it would look nice cut into four small ‘tiles.'

3.) Now for the fun part! Doing one ‘tile’ at a time, cover the inked image on the tile with the VersaMark ink then embossing powder. 

4.) With the heat tool, melt the embossing powder on the tile. While the tile is still hot, cover again with embossing powder and melt with the heat tool. Repeat this process for a total of three or four times. 

5.) Repeat the process with each 'tile.'

6.) Now your tiles are ready for your project. To make the ‘tiles’ appear to be more dimensional, you can mount on your project using pop dots or foam tape.

Here’s what my final project looks like. Simple and easy, yet the tiles really add something to the card:

Earth Day Card Challenge!

This week's challenge is all about Earth Day here at Made Especially For You! In honor of Earth Day, this week's technique challenge is to use a recycled material on your card. A recycled material can be anything from newspaper, old book pages, bottle caps, basically anything that has been used once before and is now being re-used on your card. Stop by the 'Weekly Challenge' page to see what inspiration the design team has cooked up this week and enter your own card into the challenge! :)

My card for this week features some old book pages. The card started out looking really "vintagey" but then my simple and "cutesy" card side shone through and it took a turn in a different direction. I'm still really happy with it, though! It definitely has a different flair from the cards I usually make.

Old book pages were used for the background layer of the card (which can be seen under the "tiles," and also for the center of the flower.

Our sponsor this week is the wonderful Jessica from Jessica's Craft Shaque. One lucky, randomly chosen winner will receive a set of decorative corsage pins and be offered a one-week guest designer position here at Made Especially For You.

Don't forget about this month's lucky link-up! Throughout the month of April, you have unlimited opportunities to win the Wild Card cartridge being given away by one of our wonderful design team members, Pam from Scrappin Fab Pam. Here are the guidelines for the giveaway:

- You will receive one entry for every card you enter in our weekly challenges (you can enter as many cards as you want for each challenge as long as they each have their own post on your blog)

- You will receive one entry for liking the Made Especially For You Facebook page

- You will receive one entry for every friend you get to link up to one of our challenges (your friend must let us know in their post that they have linked up because of you, otherwise we can't count it)

The winner of the cartridge will be randomly chosen and announced on Monday April 30th.

Have a fantastic week!
Ashley

Do You Speak Cricut Saturday - Elegant Edges

Welcome to my Cricut cartridge review for the Elegant Edges cartridge. My name is Gabrielle Lowe, but feel free to call me Gaby. My blog is located at: www.gabyspapery.blogspot.com This is by far my favorite cartridge and the one I use most often. There' nothing too fancy to it, it's basically just die cut shapes and borders great for cards, mini albums, and scrapbook layouts. I'm going to be honest with you, I only have a baby bug that I use sparingly. Some day I hope to branch out with the newer Cricuts, but this little guy works well for me and my needs. :)

There's doillies that when you press the shift key and make it a plain scalloped edge like this card I made:

And here's a card I made where you don't use the function key and it makes a die cut doily as seen layered under my die cut heart:

You can also make die cut shape cards like I did here with this Kraft card base:

I really love layering solid shapes on top of the shapes with designs cut into them like I did here. I love the look!

And with the press of a function key you can change a square shape into a rectangle shape like I did with this card:

There's so many more shapes on this cartridge, it's really awesome! I hope if you were thinking about this one, you'll give it a go!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and read my review. If you have any questions feel free to ask me!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby
www.gabyspapery.blogspot.com

Rockin' Robin Blog Hop Winners!

Thanks so much for hopping along with us during our Rockin' Robin blog hop this past weekend! The design teams of Creative Cutter Room and Made Especially For You so appreciate your taking the time to stop by and see everyone's projects. :) It was wonderful to see everyone!

Now, as promised, here are the two grand prize winners! 

Drum roll, please...

A $25 Gift Certificate to Paper Piecings by Nikki online store.

WINNER: CONNIE

A $10 Gift Certificate to the NEW Ginger Snap Scraps online store.

WINNER: PAULA J

3 Birds on Parade Cartridge 

WINNER: CREATIVE M

(Please visit Creative Cutter Room and contact Cathie using the Contact Me Form so you can claim your prize)

Winners need to email Beckie at beckie_woodall@yahoo.com by Saturday April 21st to claim their prize.

Congratulations to the winners! Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Ashley