Stamping with Dragon Back to School Challenge

Stamping with Dragon is having a back to school challenge! The winner will receive their choice of four images from Stamping Dragon Designs.

It's hard to believe it's already time to go back to school! I start my fall courses next week (I'm studying to become an elementary school teacher) and while I'm excited for a new set of classes, I've definitely enjoyed having the summer off and more time for crafting. :) Time management will definitely be key this semester.

I created this card using the Jiggy Back to School image along with patterned paper from the DCWV High School mat stack. I also added a chipboard apple that I painted to match the maroon/burgundy/dark red color in the argyle paper.

Come join us in this week's challenge!

Anything But A Square or Rectangle...

...completely terrifies me! For someone who has only been making cards for a little over a year now, I hardly ever make shaped cards. Up until the past couple of months, I wasn't really able to anyways because I didn't have the materials to do so. Now that I have added a couple of Cricut cartridges to my collection that have the capability of making shaped cards, I'm slowly beginning to make some. :)

Anyways! This week's challenge at Stamping with Dragon is to create anything but a square or rectangle. I chose to use the Penny with Butterflies image to create my shaped card. The card is actually held together with a pink brad so that it can swing to the side to open and close.

I couldn't embellish the inside of the card too much because any 3D embellishments would have given the front of the card an awkward shape. The shape of the card was made using the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge - perfect for creating shaped cards of all shapes and sizes!

Come join us for this week's challenge at Stamping with Dragon!

Have a crafty day!

Ashley

It's Christmas in August at Stamping with Dragon!

Stamping with Dragon is having a 'Christmas in August' challenge this week! Working on my Christmas card for this challenge definitely got me excited for all the holiday cards I have to make this year (although I probably won't be saying that when my fingers are about to fall off from crafting nonstop). The winner of this week's challenge will win their choice of two images from Stamping Dragon Designs. 

I chose to use this adorable 'pup in star' image for my Christmas card and decided to bling him up with some glitter to match the background paper. :) The paper I used for this card (along with many others from the paper pad this came from) was actually scrap leftover from the Christmas cards I made for last year's coworkers. 

Stop by Stamping with Dragon to enter the challenge and be inspired by the other design team member's creations!

Ashley

Stamping with Dragon Sketch Challenge

Stramping with Dragon is having a sketch challenge this week! One lucky winner will receive four images of their choice from Dragons Lair Designs if they submit a card inspired by the following sketch created by Tams, a former Stamping with Dragon design team member.

I love sketch-inspired challenges because half the work is already done for you! Sometimes one of the hardest things for me is to figure out the layout of the card I'm making and with sketch challenges all you have to do is figure out which papers and embellishments you want to use that will fit the sketch.

I pretty much stuck to the sketch with this card with the exception of using a heart instead of a circle. Sometimes I alter the sketch a lot and days when I'm not feeling too creative (which I haven't been lately, although I think it's starting to come back!) I like to stick with the literal sketch. I used the Penny Dragon In Heart image and colored her with my Prismacolor pencils. She's so cute! The patterned papers are from the Recollections Bold Basics stack and I used the ribbon, rhinestones, photo corner, and brads from my stash. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Ashley

Stamping with Dragon Christmas in July Challenge

It's Christmas in July week at Stamping with Dragon! This week's Christmas in July challenge is sponsored by Whoopsi Daisy. One lucky winner will receive a prize being given away by them!

Whoopsi Daisy was generous enough to provide the design team with a set of images to use on our challenge creations. I chose this sweet, little Christmas fairy all snuggled inside a stocking. :)

I colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils and added the lace at the bottom because it reminded me of snow. :) I wasn't sure how this card was going to turn out at first, but even though it's fairly simple I really like it!

Stop by Stamping with Dragon to see what Christmas the creations the design team has made for you and even submit your own card!

Ashley

May Your Day Bubble Over With Fun!

It's all about ribbons and bows for this week's challenge over at Stamping with Dragon! Let me just start off by saying that ribbons and bows are probably my most dreaded nightmare when it comes to crafting... I can barely tie a bow if my life depended on it! The plus side of my lack of bow-tying skills is that I'm always trying to find creative ways to use ribbon. I normally use it as an accent on cards and will sometimes embellish it with some bling. I kept it pretty clean cut with my challenge card, though, just by using it as a fun accent.

Papers from this card came from the Bold Basics Recollections paper pad. I used some white zig-zag ribbon as a fun centerpiece to divide the die cut and the sentiment.

I used the super fun Birthday Tickets digital stamp set to use as a sentiment on my card. As soon as I saw this sentiment I just knew there had to be a fish on here somewhere! :)

I gave this cute little fish some scales by embossing him with the Spots and Dots embossing folder using my Cuttlebug. 

One lucky winner of this week's Ribbons and Bows challenge will win their choice of four images from Dragon's Lair Designs!

And don't forget about Made Especially For You's 7 Days of Facebook Giveaways happening now through July 16th! Each day of this week (July 9 - July 16) one randomly chosen Facebook fan per day will win a prize IF they post on our wall telling us their favorite part about Made Especially For You. Click here for more information.

Ashley

Going To The Dogs

This week's challenge is all about the dogs at Stamping with Dragon! The design team was provided with their choice of one or two images to use on our projects for this week. It's a special challenge this week because all proceeds from the sales of these two images will go to the Bucks County Doxie Rescue. How awesome is that! :) Both images can be found in the Stamping Dragon store, the image I used on my card can be found here and a Doxie Love Charity card can be found here. A few of the DT members used this charity card for their projects if you'd like to stop by the blog and see it in action!

The paper used on this card came from a DCWV pets mat stack (I can't remember the exact name) and the 'Ruff Ruff' was cut at 1.5" using the Phrase feature on the Create a Critter cartridge. I just love how sweet these dogs are! The lighting in the photo is a bit off as you can probably tell by the difference in color between the two pictures. I just got an iPhone and I'm hoping my pictures will start having better quality since the camera on my phone is better than the one I was using before. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Ashley

Stamping With The Dragon Red, White, & Blue Challenge!

Stamping With The Dragon is going patriotic! This week's challenge theme is red, white, and blue. 

One lucky winner will receive their choice of two images from Stamping Dragon Designs by submitting a red, white, and blue card to this week's challenge!

For my challenge card, I decked Rupert out in some patriotic colors using the Independence Day image. I went with a slightly non-traditional red/blue combo, and used a turquoise blue rather than a royal blue, and a bit of a faded red rather than a bold red. I've been making a lot of patriotic cards lately and thought it might be fun to change things up a bit!

Make sure to stop by Stamping With The Dragon to see what patriotic inspiration the design team has in store for you!

Ashley

Stamping with the Dragon Transportation Challenge

Boy, has it been a crazy week! I can't believe it's Thursday already. I honestly don't know where the time goes in the summer - every night before going to bed I think how I was JUST getting ready for bed the night before, and whatever I did during the day feels so far away. The good news is that I almost have all my cards done for the rest of the month (which is really only a week away) and then it's time to get started on all my cards for July, my goal is to be at least two weeks ahead of upcoming challenges, hops, etc., so in the fall when classes start up again I won't have to make cards last-minute all the time. We'll see if I can pull it off! :)

I created this card for the travel challenge over at Stamping with the Dragon, a new design team I started on a couple of weeks ago. I love their adorable dragon digis! This week's transportation challenge requires participants to create a card featuring some form of transportation. I chose to use the Rupert Goes Fishing Take 2 image to create this simple masculine card.

I'll admit I'm not too pleased with the way the pictures turned out, but hey, you win some and you lose some, right? To me the image was very calm and tranquil so I decided to make the card itself the same way by not making it too busy looking. The papers are from the Bold Basics paper pad by Recollections and I colored Rupert with my Prismacolor pencils. The blue bow looks much brighter in the picture than it actually is.

Stamping with the Dragon is sponsoring their challenge this week, and one lucky winner will receive two images of their choice from the store. Click here to enter the challenge and see what inspiration the rest of the design team has created for you! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ashley

Anything Goes at Stamping with the Dragon!

It's time for another weekly challenge over at Stamping with the Dragon! This week's challenge is a fun one - it's anything goes! One lucky winner will receive two images of their choice from the Stamping Dragon Designs store. They have some super cute images, let me tell ya! :)

For this week's anything goes challenge, I decided to make a birthday card using the adorable Rupert's Party image, which can be found here in the Stamping Dragon store.

I colored Rupert with my Prismacolor pencils and paired him with some fun birthday paper from the Birthday Extravaganza stack by The Paper studio. The 'happy birthday' die cut is a phrase feature cut from the Create a Critter cartridge at 1.5" if I remember right. The presents are Cuttlebug die cuts.

Stop by Stamping with the Dragon to see what other inspiration the design team members have cooked up for you and to enter your anything goes challenge card, we'd love if you played along with us!

Ashley

Stamping With Dragon Challenge - All About Water

It's a pleasure to announce I was chosen as a design team member to be on the Stamping with Dragon design team! This is my first challenge as a DT member and also my first time playing along with one of their challenges. This week's challenge theme is all about water.


I created this fun summer card using the Rupert Surf Dragon digi. I just love these dragon digis, they're so adorable and super fun to color! My apologies about the photos, it's been a crazy day (week, actually) and  they were taken rather quickly.

Whimsy Stamps is sponsoring this week's Stamping With Dragon challenge, play along with us and submit an "all about water" project by next Wednesday evening for a chance to win!

Ashley