Challenge from our downline meeting...

Trying to catch up on my posting - so far behind.  This retiring and packing is hard work - lol!  So the creative challenge at our last downline meeting was to create a card using an image designed for coloring and show an alternative way to color it now that blendabilities are no longer available.  So here were the entries - 

Heidi's card with a broad-stroke watercolor wash and a few splatters.

Paula's card with watercolored image of tulips.

Sarah's flowers using a puddling watercoloring technique.

Close-up of Sarah's image.

All of these cards are beautiful and show that using Stampin' Up's inks, pads, brushes, and aqua painters you can achieve amazing looks on your hand-crafted cards.  Hope you enjoyed and got some inspiration!  ~Maureen

Challenge Card Winner

The challenge at our last downline meeting was to make your best tri-fold card.  Julie was our winner and here is her beautiful card.  The heart section opens to the right, while the dicut section opens to the left. It was our only entry so she won - but it looks like a winner to me anyway.

You can go to Julie's blog and see more of her work - on my sidebar - Simi Stamper!!.  Way to go Julie.  ~Maureen

Downline Challenge Cards

AT my last downline meeting I challenged the CSL's to make their best card using our Sale-a-bration sets.  Here are two of the entries.  We had two more, but they asked that I not publish at this time do to other possible contest entries.  Good luck ladies!!

Diane's Card

Kathy B's CardS

 Thank you to those of you who played along.  ~Maureen

Crazy Stamping Ladies Challenge

At our March Crazy Stamping Ladies' downline meeting our challenge was to make your best card with the sketch below from Pam Maas' blog - http://365cards.blogspot.com/  and the card had to have at least one punched or Bigshotted element.  Pam has great sketches on her blog so check it out.

Each month we have two winners - we pick one winner from everyone who enters and one winner is voted on by the group.  Here are our two winning entries from this month -

Annette

Heidi - http://stampinking.blogspot.com/

Adorable cards ladies - thanks for playing along!!

~Maureen

Valentine's Challenge

At our downline meetings we do a challenge each month, and the ladies are asked to participate.  We vote on one winner and draw for another - and they each get prizes.  This month our challenge was make your best Love or Valentine card.  We only got two entries - but I love them both.  The first was mine - I used the DSP from Sale-A-Bration; and the heart sizzlet and bakers twine from the Occasions mini to make this card.  I just might do something similar for my Leadership swaps if I get a chance to get some done this weekend.

 The next card was Heidi's lovely entry - how pretty is that - she used the new heart framelits and our new edgelits from the mini catalog to create this beauty.  I love how she cut out several hearths overlapping them.  This is also the SAB DSP.  

~*~*~*~*~PICTURE TEMPORARILY REMOVED~*~*~*~*~

The new Mini catalog and the SAB catalog which starts later this month are simply amazing.  If you're in the U.S. and don't already have a demonstrator - contact me and I'll get them right out to you - my email is crazystampinglady@gmail.com. 

Enjoy!!  See you soon!  ~Maureen

More Downline Meeting Shares

Yesterday I promised to share the neat bow that Lyn made using her origami flower and "ribbon" made from Stampin' Ups! Lace Ribbon Border Punch. Look how great this package looks. Here's a better close-up of the bow - it's two of the origami flowers from yesterday's post and look at how she curled the 'ribbon' - that's just our Basic Black cardstock. I can't wait to try this.Secondly - each downline meeting we have a challenge - we are currently following the challenges in Stampin' Success (our exclusive demonstrator only monthly magazine from Stampin' Up!) The challenge was to make projects from the new Holiday mini - we only had one entry again - but it was a winner! The entry was from Annette, and she made this adorable card with the new stocking punch - looks like their hanging from the fireplace. You can see but the stocking are textured with our textured plates and look great. Nice job Annette! Finally I want to share what Julie brought to the meeting. We have a share table where people can share up coming Stamping events they are having; and projects they have recently made. Julie made this great fall ornament using our Spice Cake fabric, big buttons and striped ribbon. The picture does not do it justice. It's a unique and great way to showcase these new fall products - thanks so much for sharing this Julie!

Downline Challenge and a Birthday Card

At our last downline meeting the challenge was to make a Holiday Gift Item - only one person brought a project - but it was wonderful. Lisa made these beautiful candle sticks. That's our champagne glitter around the top.This close up shows the lovely flowers and leaves she added to the stems of the candlesticks - how nice is that. Lovely gift Lisa - and she was of course our WINNER! I also wanted to share this lovely birthday card from my friend Kathy W. - her note said it was purposely late - to allow me to keep celebrating! Kathy you are a great friend - thank you!

May Downline Challenge Cards

This month's challenge was to take a card from our current mini or regular catalog and duplicate it as closely as possible in a different color scheme. We had three entries - Sandy did this first one and she decided to duplicate the card on the front of the current mini - how great is that - My card duplicates the card on page 6 of the current mini - I really like the totally different look these colors give -

And the final and winning card was Heidi's and she chose to duplicate the card on page 36 of the current IB&C.

I think all of the cards are wonderful and met the challenge perfectly!! Nice job ladies!

April Downline Challenge -

Yesterday was our downline meeting and I want to thank Maria for the wonderful goodies we got to eat - yummy!! Our challenge this month was to make your best card with a FRAME (any type of frame) that was it. So we had THREE amazing entries - the first was from Lisa - I LOVE this card - it is so elegant and beautiful. She pulled the black from the image and added some gray for the beautiful shading around the flower.The winner was Julie and this is her vibrant card - it is also so beautiful. Look at that great watercoloring and what is hard to see is the shimmer and glitter on this card- it was amazing. Just shouts that Spring is here and Summer right around the corner! There was one more entry - that I can't share right now due to a contest rule - but I'm sure I'll get to share it in the future. My downline is amazingly talented. Our meeting yesterday was great with an abundance of encouragement and sharing. I had my fifth downline member in my First Downline level reach their $25,000 in Career to Date sales - how great is that. If you'd like to join my team of Crazy Stamping Ladies let me know. I have a coffee and pie information night coming up and I'd LOVE to have you join us. Till next time ~Maureen

March Downline Challenge

Today was our Quarterly "Calling ALL Crazy Stamping Ladies" downline meeting - and what a fun time it was. Each month we do a card challenge - and this month's was to make your best card using Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist and River Rock - they could also use any or all of Whisper White, Basic Black, and Very Vanilla. There were not a lot of entries - but the ones that did enter were AMAZING - it was very difficult to pick just one winner. But we did it. This first card is Annette's entry - it was so lovely and she did just a wonderful job on using the embossing folder frame and reducing the size for the inside layer - really nice work. The second entry was from Julie and really ROCKS - look at the great way she used all the colors - lots of dimension and movement in this card - what TEEN wouldn't love to get this. You can check out more of Julie's work at - http://simistamper.blogspot.com/

Third was this beautiful and soft SPRINGTIME version of the challenge by Kathy - I love the way she used beveled frame - and if you look closely you'll see the beautiful clouds that were sponged on the background layer.

Here is the winning card from Sandy - CONGRATULATIONS! I have to apologize - for some reason I think my flash failed and so her card came out dark. This card was so beautiful - that the picture even clearer probably would not have done it justice. Hopefully she'll post it on her blog and you can see it here - http://shadeeladee.blogspot.com/

February Downline Challenge

This Month's Challenge was a sketch challenge using a sketch I saw on Cardabilities - but for some reason I cannot get it to post here. But we had three wonderful entries in the contest making it very hard to choose a winner. The first card is Heidi's entry - http://stampinking.blogspot.com/ The second one is Kathy's - no blog - but she has a ton of stuff on splitcoast - her name is cakath on there -

And the last one and winner is Julie's entry http://simistamper.blogspot.com/ Great job everyone -these were great cards!!

October Card Challenge

So each month we had a card challenge in our downline. I missed this month's meeting, but Heidi held it for me (thanks again Heidi) and I hear they had a great time with out me :) So this is the sketch Shawna (last month's winner) picked to have our group make their best Halloween card.

Heidi was the only one who got a card done - but everyone agreed - it probably would have won any way - so Congrats! Heidi. Her card is really great - and notice how she used the punch to do the spooky and her tiny ric-rac. I'm sure she'll have that featured on her blog soon. Way to go Heidi - great card.

September Downline Challenge Cards

So this month Heidi (our winner from last month - www.stampinking.blogspot.com) set our challenge. We had to make a Halloween card that was all black and white - except for using a spotlighting section that could have color. Not everyone followed the rules perfectly - but I am so glad they all showed their cards as they were terrific.
The first cards was our WINNER - it was Shawna's card - so she won our prize and she gets to pick our challenge for next month - what a great card! Next is Valerie's card - notice the cute little bubbles from the calderin are colored - don't think I got a great picture of that as it is hard to see. The next card is from Kathy B - loved her watercolored spotlit area -

This card stepped outside the rules - but what a great card - I'm so glad she did it- this one is from Julie - www.simistamper.blogspot.com -

Here's another great card and this one was strictly by the rules - nice job Toni!!

And our final card with these adorable little owls was made by Bobbie - so cute - the black layer is embossed with our spider embossing folder in case you can't see it.

Great cards ladies - and sooooo much fun. The purpose of our challenges is to help everyone think outside the box and step it up a notch and I LOVE seeing what everyone comes up with each month.

August Downline Challenge Cards

This month's card challenge for our group was set by me - it was to make your best card using the layout sketch on page 30 of the Stampin' Success magazine we get from Stampin' Up! each month. Here' what we came up with - this adorable Halloween card by Lyn -

Kathy B made this lovely and elegant card - My entry was a clean interpretation using Just Believe - and the winner was Heidi with these Vintage kids - how cute is that! They were all great cards ladies - and so diverse in styles and colors - I love the challenges as they really crank up our creativity a notch. Okay Heidi - we need next month's challenge :)

Downline Card Challenge

Saturday was my Crazy Stampin' Ladies meeting and we had our monthly card challenge - this month's challenge was from last month's winner - Heidi. She had us make our best card using Cherry Cobble, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla. This is a fantastic color combo and I'm sure I'll do more with it. The first card was from Lyn and I loved how she used the stamps and the way she tied and anchored her bow - very pretty.Here is Jeri's card - she did a great job - her embossed image was so clear and distinct, and I think she added a bit of shimmer to the raised portions - so nice. Next was Kathy B's card - this set just says vintage and aged without having to do much, but her use of the background paper, embossing and shimmer paint made it just lovely. Kathy's card came in 2nd in the vote and she'll get the prize because -My card WON - I can hardly believe it. I liked the card, but the vintagey part of the paper with the motorcycle on it became vintagey (is that a word?) because I got a smudge of cherry from my finger on the paper. I was going to throw it and quit, so I crumpled it and when I looked it again - I thought why not rough it up a bit. I really do like how it came out. So I'm happy.

May CSL Card Challenge

So each month at our CSL Downline Meetings we have a card challenge - the month's challenge was from last month's winner - Heidi - her challenge: your best 3"x6" card using brown, blue and orange (you must use all) and either White or Vanilla -

This first one is mine using the new set Bouquet Bunch out of the Summer mini - it's pretty dimensional in real life (doesn't show in the picture) as two sets of the layers are popped up on dimensionals. I like it - but alas it did not win :(
The next entry was Heidi's - A cute little birthday version of the challenge - also really nice -but not the winner.
Finally - here is the winner - Julie used my absolutely favorite new stamp set from the mini - Watercolor Trio - and some great colors and patterns - her card WON! Now Julie gets to set the challenge for next month's card.

April Downline/Blog Challenge

Once again - I'm asking you to play along with our monthly card challenge. So here is the challenge for our April downline meeting -

Make your best card using a card in the current Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog or the Occasions mini as your inspiration. You must duplicate the card you choose - using a different stamp set and different colors. You can use some of the colors that are in your catalog card - but the card as a whole cannot have all the same colors in the same places. All entries must be received by 9AM on Sat. April 3, 2009 (immediate downline in person at my home; others, please send me an email with a picture of your entry). Please indicate the page number and catalog of the card you choose for your inspiration. Hope that makes sense - have fun with this!!!

My downline will vote for a winners at our meeting (one winner from my immediate downline and one winner from all other entries received.) Each winner will receive a Stampin' Up! merchandise prize. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!! Please consider playing along!

Don't forget to play along -

Just a reminder - that you can play along with my downline card challenge of the month. Go to this post and check it out. All pictures must be emailed to me by 5:00 PM Friday, March 5, 2010.

http://crazystampinglady.blogspot.com/2010/02/february-downline-challenge.html

February Downline Challenge

Don't know why - but we tried this challenge two months in a row. In January only one entry and in February these two. I'm not sure why so few - as birds and circles are a great challenge. So here are the two great entries - Julie's - the winner - and Heidi's - nice job ladies!

So our next challenge from the winner Julie is: Make your best card using Very Vanilla, brown or multiple shades of brown and one accent color using this sketch from mojo monday. You can use any embellishments as long as they fall in the color group of the challenge. Use this Sketch from Mojo Monday -

and I'm asking you to play along. The cards from my downline will be voted on at our March 6, 2010 downline meeting. If you want to play along create your card and send me a picture and I'll have my downline vote on their favorite also, and the winner will receive 20 sheets of assorted 6x6" DSP both new and retired. So join the fun! All pictures must be emailed to me by 5:00 PM Friday, March 5, 2010. Looking forward to what you all do! The winning cards will be featured the following week on my blog, so be sure to check back to see who wins.