Card Challenge

JANUARY *CCC *Christmas Card Challenge & Goal Report

Erika L Hayes5 Comments

Well, as the end of January makes its way toward us, I wanted to share the first 10 of the 120 Christmas Cards for 2023. I put the main product used for each card in the caption. If you see something and want to know what it is, just shoot me an email and I can most likely give you the product name or where I picked it up. I keep pretty good notes in my Color My Life App.

  • JAN 2023 – MFT Stamps
  • JAN 23 – Simon Says Stamps
  • JAN 2023 – Stampin’ Up!
  • JAN 2023 Simon Says Stamps
  • 2023 – My Favorite Things Stamps
  • JAN 2023 Cathy Z with Simon Says Stamps
  • 2023 – Pink & Main
  • JAN 2023 – Spellbinders
  • JAN 2023 – Stampin’ Up!
  • JAN 2023 – CC Designs with Silhouette Cameo 4

I hope that you find some kind of inspiration from these cards, and know I am excited to show what’s in the mix for February. It’s kinda fun to know you can get out your Christmas goodies and play all year long. I have a lot of great ideas and am really excited to use some of the products I got this year more than just for a month!

Some other fun cards that went out this month include some birthday and and a few anniversaries. Of course some of my encouragement cards are going out tomorrow or the next day.

I completed a class from Sandy Allnock. The pen & ink class I started and didn’t finish is now done! Upcoming classes I am signed up for include, The Altenew/Spellbinders class in February and in March the Concord & 9th class. I am very excited for both of these classes. I have also several classes I have in the wings.

Some of the stuff I learned in Sandy’s class was amazing. I don’t want to share the techniques as it wouldn’t be fair to give away her content. I can tell you she has a way of teaching that is fun. You don’t really feel like you can do it wrong, or that you aren’t good enough. She really did give some great ideas and I enjoyed the class a lot! If you are interested, you can follow this link to the class I took. (It is NOT an affiliate link, I get nothing for sharing this class). As of the timing of this post, the class is at a discounted price so….check it out!

Feburary has some fun stuff I’ve made for Valentine’s day I will not share just yet.

MFT Superstar Contest!

Erika L Hayes3 Comments

This year I am entering the contest. They have three categories my first is the coloring category. In the past, I’ve gone overboard trying to guess what they are looking for and add my own art. This year I made a fun little scene and I didn’t think about it. I didn’t draw a ship or add anything but the stamps I put them center stage. So here is my color entry

Next up was the Out of the box challenge! I love the out of the box challenges. They are so fun to put together. I got the idea for my HoHoHo Santa is coming to town card while sitting in my studio sorting stamp sets! Here is my entry for the out of the box category

Finally, CAS (clean and simple). I’ve had this idea since last year. I struggled with which to make for the contest and went with my other idea last year. This little baby has been waiting 360+/- days to be created. I sketched it out but waited to make it. Now that I have made it I wish I would have made it last year. Here is my CAS entry

Now, I’m not expecting to win anything, but you never know. I really do this contest for the fun of it. I love MFT Stamps (just look through my blog, you’ll see lots of their product is my literal favorite things.

I hope you get joy or inspiration from these cards. Enjoy your night!

Blessings!

ErikaLee

Birthday with Lawn Fawn

Erika L Hayes2 Comments

One of the best things about new releases is the inspiration! I did an online event on Facebook with Jenn Shurkus {creative chick} and Lawn Fawn called #LFcreatewithus. It is using the spring 2022 line from Lawn Fawn. After the class, I was so full of ideas that I made this card. I really enjoyed making the flap surprise on the front. The opening is a fun surprise for the card’s receiver. (Even more for the maker.)

Lawn Fawn has many of these cute online classes that are not only FREE but have PDF printouts! The next class is on April 8th (2022). Click here for more info on the upcoming class.

ALSO Lawn Fawn has a regular challenge to inspire you and help you get the mojo going. The current challenge is here why don’t you give it a try. I hope to see your cards posted there.

CLICK PHOTO to go directly to the challenge.

I also am working on my written instructions for interactive dies. I have a few Lawn Fawn done, and will be posting them online once they are all prettied up. Enjoy your weekend.

Erika L Hayes

CAS – Clean And Simple

Erika L Hayes1 Comment

Another fun category that I can roll with is clean and simple. I love this look. For the MFT Superstar Card maker contest this year, I had to wait for the stamps to come in. I saw them and thought… Yes, what better set than these to use for this contest. The stamp set is called Iconic Christmas available at MFT here.

I don’t usually purchase stamps for contest. I had seen them in the sneak peek and thought, wow those would be awesome for some CAS cards. The contest was on my mind while coloring my other entry for Coloring Virtuoso and this card popped into my head. I had to stop what I was doing so I could sketch it out. I LOVE this card. I don’t care what or who wins I really like how it came out. Simple to make and you can change it up a little here and there with changing the trees, sentiment, or colors. Seriously, you could make all your Christmas card in one swoop. Anyway, here it is my 2021 CAS entry.

2021 Clean and Simple Entry

I should also mention, the dry embossed trees in the background, were a stack of MFT tree dies I used to make the embossed look. I didn’t use a folder. I simply layered several trees and ran through a machine with paper to get that letterpress look. It took a bunch of tries to get it straight and to get it to line up. I had to cut edges of the branches and what nots to get it too look clean. I also realized I cut it a little short in a few places but figured it works.