Cards for two challenges.

 I'm back from my  5 days away - we did a little road trip south of Auckland.  We had a lovely trip away, did lots of walking - along the beach at Papamoa, through the bush in Rotorua and a short walk to see the Huka Falls in Taupo.  And some soaking in the Thermal Pools in Rotorua and in a warm creek riverside in Taupo.   Had fun riding the Luge in Rotorua and generally had a relaxing time.  

So today I have two cards to share.  One I made on Saturday after getting home from babysitting little Grace.  She had a bit of a hard week - ending up spending 2 days in Starship Hospital (Auckland's Children's Hospital) last weekend with high temperature and not being able to weight bear on her leg.  After lots of tests and scans she went home on Monday but got a call back on Wednesday and spend another two nights in hospital with more scans and blood tests.  She had a bacteria in her blood that caused the joint pain but is now much better.  Back to her smiley self. 

On to my cards... Both are for challenges hosted by my blog friends... Gail and Jo.  First up for Christmas Kickstart Challenge.. the theme is Festive Sweet Treats 

My card uses some Catherine Pooler Designs stamps - Candy Cane Lane and the matching dies.  I used Green Skirts and Rockin' Red CP inks to stamp the Candy Canes and Peppermint sweets and die cut them out.  I used the Grass Skirt to make the Plaid background - also a Catherine Pooler Design stamp.  The sentiment is just perfect for the sweets.   

My next card is for a brand new challenge blog - started by Gail and assisted by Jo.  It's called "Let's Squash It" - and is all about embossing folders.  Gail admits to being a bit obsessed with Embossing Folders... and so am I!  I just counted how many I have - 139 full sized folders and 23 border folders.  

So for the first challenge the theme is "Geometric and Metallic"  Use a Geometric EF and Metallic paper/card.  On the blog, Gail has a tutorial on making your own metallic paper.  For my card I used a faux metallic technique I did years ago from a video by Jennifer McGuire (here) using ink and Perfect Pearls.  

I used some Catherine Pooler Sauna ink and Gold Perfect Pearls to make my panel.  Then used a We Are Memory Keepers 3D Geometric die to emboss.  I trimmed the panel and layered it with some black card and then onto my white base.  I added a black die cut from  Penny Black.  

I have to say this was the second card I made using this technique.  I miss read the the challenge and didn't use a Geometric Folder.... so I have another card up my sleeve.  You'll see it sometime in the future!

Thanks Gail and Jo for starting this fun challenge.