October Sketch Challenge

It's sketch challenge week here at Made Especially For You! Here's the sketch this week's challenge is inspired by:

And here's my take on the sketch, using an adorable Halloween image from our sponsor, Bugaboo Stamps:

I used some Stickles (Star Dust and Black Diamond) to enhance the ghost and the letters, and the image is colored with Prismacolor pencils. I decided to make a friendly Halloween card instead of a spooky one, and thought the patterned paper from the Cricut Celebrations paper pack was a good fit. :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by, check back later this week for the announcement of my 600 follower giveaway I'll be having! :)

Gatefold Card Challenge

Our technique challenge this week at Made Especially For You is all about creating gatefold cards. They're super easy to make and are so versatile! For my challenge creation this week, I created the following Halloween gatefold card:

Closed card

Close up of the 'Stickled' windows

Inside of the card

Half of the "gate"

Close up of one of the 'Stickled' skulls

The papers are from the DCWV Fall & Halloween 180-sheet paper stack. The haunted house image was cut from the Pumpkin Carvings Cricut cartridge at 4.5" and the skulls were cut from the same cartridge at 2" - I used Diamond Stickles to glitter the windows of the house and the entire skull. The Trick or Treat and pumpkin stamps are from my stash, I believe I found both of them in the $1 stamp bin at Michael's. :)

Our sponsor for this week's gatefold card challenge is Paper Piecings by Nikki! The winner of the challenge will receive a $15 gift certificate to her store.

Stop by the Weekly Challenge page to see what other gatefold cards the design team has "built" for you to use as inspiration for this week's challenge. :)

Have a Moovelous Birthday!

For this week's three balloon challenge here at Made Especially For You, I decided to do something a bit unique. One of my friends has a birthday later this week, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make a card for the challenge that I could also give to her for her birthday. When I make cards for good friends or family members, I try to personalize them as much as I can. Two of my friend's favorite things are cows and mustaches, LOL. So... I made a card with cows and mustaches!

I'd like to say thank you to Stacy from Vampire Craftin' for my fabulous new watermark! I'm so glad to finally have one, I love it!

As silly as it looks, I know she's going to love it! I can't wait to see her reaction. :) The cow is cut from Create a Critter at 3" and the balloons are cut at 3.25" from Stretch Your Imagination. The tiny mustaches are cut at 0.25" from the Artiste cartridge and the sentiment is computer-generated. The card is also her favorite colors... red, white, and black. :)

Our sponsor this week is The Stamping Boutique! This week's winner will get to choose three images from their store.

I'd love for you to play along in this week's challenge! Just make sure to use three balloons on your card - they can be die cuts, stamps, embellishments, etc.

Happy Monday!

Ashley

September Sketch Challenge

It's time for another Made Especially For You sketch challenge sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps! I just love using Bugaboo images, they are so fun to color and all of them are so adorable! I'm always jealous of the winner who wins 7 images from their choice from Bugaboo, which is the prize for this week's challenge!

This week's challenge is to create a card inspired by the following sketch:

You are more than welcome to flip or rotate the sketch any way you'd like, as long as the sketch is still visible on your card

I chose the Fall Turtle image from Bugaboo to use with this month's sketch, and I'm so happy with the way it turned out! I colored him with my Prismacolor pencils and then paired him with some fall paper by DCWV. I was at Joann's last week and they had a 180 sheet DCWV Fall & Halloween paper pack for only $9.99... I couldn't pass it up! I've already used it on so many fall projects and can't wait to get started on Halloween. :) Enough with my babbling, here's the card: 

The leaves in the corners of the card are Cuttlebug die cuts that I cut with patterned paper that already had leaves on it. The 'happy fall' sentiment is from the Fall For You stamp set by {ippity} and I distressed the edges of the card, the background for the sentiment, and the background of the digi with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink. I love the way it turned out!

Stop by the Weekly Challenge page to see some more sketchy inspiration from the design team!

Anything Goes Disney Challenge!

Made Especially For You is venturing into the magical world of Walt Disney this week with an anything goes Disney card challenge!

Using the Pooh Font Set cartridge, I made an Eeyore card. Along with few different fonts, the cartridge also has a few images of Pooh and his friends. Since these characters are more elaborate than regular Cricut die cuts they take a little longer to put together since they're more complex. If you look closely at Eeyore (especially around his tummy) you can see the black lines that are part of his illustration, but that normal Cricut die cuts don't have.

Our sponsor this week, Verve Stamps, graciously provided the design team with a stamp set to use on our cards. This 'just for you' stamp is part of an 8-stamp set called Purely Sentimental. I love how versatile this set is!

We'd love for you to join us in this week's challenge!

Movie Night Invitation

For this week's paper piecing challenge here at Made Especially For You, I decided to make an invitation to invite you all to the launch of my brand-new challenge blog, Red Carpet Studio! 

Red Carpet Studio is a movie-inspired challenge blog that will feature alternating card and layout challenges, all inspired by movies or aspects of Hollywood! Our first challenge starts this Sunday, September 2nd, and we'll be kicking it off with a premiere party! Those who attend the party will receive exclusive, free downloads from our sponsors, get a sneak peek at our upcoming challenges, and get to see some awesome movie projects created by the design team! The fun starts Friday August 31st and ends Sunday September 2nd with the start of the first challenge.

Using the Movie Night pattern from Scraptastical Kreations, I created this movie night invitation:

I cut the ticket using the Artiste cartridge along with the 090212 numbers, which spells out the date of the first challenge. ;) The 'You're Invited To A Movie Night' were also cut with the Artiste cartridge. The popcorn was paper pieced from the Scraptastical Kreations pattern and I used a white gel pen to faux stitch around the edges. This was my first time paper piecing and I really enjoyed it! 

I hope you join us for this week's challenge and stop by the premiere party! :)

Three Pearls Challenge

This week's challenge at Made Especially For You is to create a card using three pearls. 

The nurse bear (from Bugaboo) is colored with Prismacolor pencils and distressed with red ink. The background is embossed with a floral Cuttlebug embossing folder and I added the pearls and some red ribbon from my stash. I like making CAS cards every once in a while!

Our sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps, and they graciously allowed each design team member to choose an image to use on their card. The winner of the challenge will win their choice of seven images from their store.

Come play along with us! :)

Oh Happy Day!

And what a happy day it is! I'm very happy to say my crafty mojo has returned and I'm back to crafting regularly and working on my blogs. I hope it had a nice vacation because I sure didn't, lol! I made this card for this week's sketch challenge here at Made Especially For You to get myself back in the game. :)

The challenge this week is to create a card inspired by this lovely sketch:

And here's my take:

The papers are from the DCWV 'All Dressed Up' mat stack and the twine, ribbon, and fabric flower are all from my stash. The 'Oh Happy Day' sentiment came in the Artiste bundle from Close To My Heart. In the second photo you can see the white swirls of the paper were glittered, so I created a similar effect around the entire white border of the card by creating my own glitter glue. I think I'll be featuring a tutorial on how to make a tutorial on one of our upcoming Thursday Craft 'n Chat segments. :)

This week's challenge is Meljen's Designs, and one lucky winner will receive four non-colored images of their choice from the store. Don't forget that all challengers have a chance to be in the top three!

Stop by the Weekly Challenge page to see what inspiration the design team has for you this week!

Have a great week!

Ashley

Going Back to School with Vellum!

We're going back to school with vellum this week at Made Especially For You! I can't believe it's almost time for another school year... I finish up my summer classes this week and start fall classes during the last week of August. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of crafty stuff done during those few weeks I have off. :)

The sponsor of this week's challenge - create a back to school card using vellum - is The Stamping Boutique. One lucky winner will receive their choice of three images from the store!

Now, before I show you the card I made for this week's challenge, I just want to give you a heads up that I was in a MAJOR crafting lull when I made this card, and that's why it's so basic. Every once in a while I'll go through a phase where I'm not happy with ANYTHING I make, and it really puts a downer on my projects. Luckily the phase didn't last too long and I'm now back in the game. :)

Using an adorable back to school digi from The Stamping Boutique, here's my card:

I decided to use primary colors on my card since those just scream 'back to school' to me, and printed the 'Welcome Back!' sentiment on vellum. The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and the red, yellow, and blue panels in the background are embossed with the Spots 'n Dots embossing folder, used with my Cuttlebug.

Speaking of back to school, don't forget to join us this Friday, August 10th, for our Back to School Blog Hop co-hosted with the design team of GoFish Challenge Blog! The fun starts right here at Made Especially For You. We hope to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ashley

MEFY Color Combo Challenge

Happy fifth Monday! Fifth days of the month only happen about four times a year, but when they do, they sure throw off our monthly challenge schedule! Any time there is a fifth Monday the challenge at Made Especially For You will be a color combo challenge. I absolutely love color combos and have a whole board (almost 700 pins!) filled with them on my Pinterest, which you can see by clicking here. I find them so fun to work with!

This week's challenge is to create a card inspired by the provided color combo:

I'll admit this was a tough color combo for me to work with! I had no problem finding solid colored papers to match these colors, but I had very few patterned papers that matched this combination. Here's what I came up with:

I paired together some polka dot papers and embossed the rectangle behind the 'HELLO' with my Cuttlebug to give it some texture. I used a corner punch on the blue cardstock and then embossed it with the flower and went over the embossing with a white gel pen. Added some pearls and I was done!

The winner of this week's challenge will receive their choice of three sets of images from The Cutting Cafe, not to mention a one-week guest designer position here at MEFY!

Stop by the Weekly Challenge page to see some more inspiration from the design team!

Ashley

Easel Card Challenge

Happy Monday! It's time for another technique challenge here at Made Especially For You! We've tried out a lot of different past techniques these past few months and this week we're trying out a technique we haven't had as a specific challenge yet - easel cards! The challenge is to create an easel card. Anything goes as long as your card is an easel card.


I love easel cards because they're a fun twist on your standard rectangular/square card. They're super easy to make and are a great way to give some dimension to your cards! I created this cute and simple easel card using my Cricut, (with the Elegant Edges and Stretch Your Imagination cartridges) my Cuttlebug, (with the D'vine Swirl and polka dot embossing folder) and patterned paper from Recollections along with some ribbon from my stash.

Our sponsor this week is the wonderful Paper Piecings by Nikki! One lucky, randomly winner will receive a $15 gift certificate to her store!

Stop by the Weekly Challenge page to submit your easel card to this weeks' challenge and see what inspiration the design team has for you this week!

Ashley

Three Color Challenge

This week's "especially three" challenge here at Made Especially For You is all about using three colors. All you have to do is create a card using three colors (white or black may be used as an accent color) for a chance to win a stamp set of your choice from our sponsor, Verve Stamps! 

I decided to keep it simple for this week's challenge and only use three colors without using white or black as an accent color. The colors I chose to use were red, black, and white, and what better image to go with this color combo than a lady bug?! Or in my case.. a love bug. :)

The adorable little love bug is cut from the Create a Critter cartridge at 2.75" I believe - I can never seem to remember what sizes my images are cut at since I always cut so many, I should really start making note! I used basic red, black, and white cardstock along with a bit of patterned paper from a Recollections paper pad. The ribbon is from my stash and I stamped the 'Love' sentiment in black ink and distressed the border a bit in red, although it's hard to tell in the picture but adds a nice touch when it can be seen properly. Not sure where the brads and the flower came from but they were in my stash as well. :)

If you like Made Especially For You's challenges you may also like the challenges of my new challenge blog, Red Carpet Studio. We're looking for creative and enthusiastic cardmakers and scrapbookers to join our team!

Sorry to keep it short and sweet today, I've had to draft a LOT of posts these past few days and I think my fingers are about to fall off. Have a wonderful week!

Ashley