May 20th Themed Challenge

June 4, 2013 Winners Announced 

Winners for the May 20th Make Your Own Background Challenge are:

First Class card is #29 Susan Kennedy

Cards that are In The Mail Box are:  #5 Andrea W, #11 Barbara Daines, #12 Shar B, #30 Darlene Pavlick and #31 Beth F.

Congratulations!  Please send an email to cardenvydt@gmail.com with First Class Winner or In the Mail Box Winner as your subject line and I will send you your winner's badge to display on your own blog! Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun for this challenge!

~Sandy and the Cards in Envy Deisgners 



Hello and welcome to our  May 20th  Themed Challenge!  This time we'd like to see cards that you used a technique to Make Your Own Background!  What this means is....share cards in which you have taken a white or neutral color card base or paper and actually created your background by stamping, embossing, inking, paper piecing or  some other fun technique to make your own background.  Confused? I hope not, if you have ANY questions you can send me an email at strefger{at}gmail{dot}com. And please share what technique you used to make your background as we'd all love to know!

Remember,  Cards in Envy is for cards that fit into a regular first class postage envelope.  The most common size being the A2 (5.5 inch x 4.25 inch) OR a square card ( 5 inch x 5 inch or SMALLER).  And please, no lumpy bumpy embellishments.  A good rule of thumb is--only one layer of foam tape, no buttons on foam tape, flatter flowers (paper flowers are good), no rosettes, no super thick buttons or brads, etc.  If all layers and embellishments together on your card are thicker than 1/4 inch then it's not a card for Cards in Envy.   

The challenge starts today, Monday, May 20th and runs until June 2nd.  The Designers will pick one card  as the "First Class" Winner for best all around card and three or more cards will be chosen as "In the Mailbox" for runners up.  All "winners' will be awarded one of our new Cards in Envy badges to proudly display on their own blog.

And now some inspiring cards by our Design Team featuring some fun techniques to Make Your Own Background.

All design team cards are A2 size unless noted otherwise.

Andrea (Permission to Create)
Background Technique:  Swiped different colors of distress ink on to a  craft mat, 
 then pulled the cardstock through it and sprayed it with liquid perfect pearls.

Cissy (Cissy Murphy.com)
Background Technique:  Sponged Versamagic chalk ink in cloud white onto
Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake cardstock using The Crafter's
Workshop 6x6 Mini Bricks Template.

Danie (D-Dazzled Scraps)
Background Technique: Gelli print created with acrylic paint
and Damask Stencil by Donna Downey

Denise (Scrappy D's House of Cards)
Background Technique: Ink pad, foam pad or dauber and stiff piece of plastic.
Inked to create this amazing patterned background.

Karen, 5.5" long card made from two tags (Calm Creations)
Background Technique:  Inking and stamping with alcohol inks,
Tim Holtz  "On the Railroad" Stamps and black archival ink stamp pad
Card with ribbon folded easily fits in A2 envelope for one first class postage stamp!

Katie, 5x5 card (Crafty Khandy)
Background Technique:  Background Map stamped with a Stampin' Up! World Map stamp
and Stampin' Up! Open Seas Collection stamp set used  for the other background elements.   

Lisa (Lisa's Creative Niche)
Background Technique:  Repeatedly stamped the design for the
background and added color with water color pencils.

Marilyn (Marilyn's Cricut Cards)
Background Technique:  Used scraps of paper to piece together the sunburst background.
Instructions for this technique will be on Marilyn's blog.

Sandy, Challenge Host (Sandy's Crafty Creations)

Background Technique:  Used small bubble wrap and an ink pad to stamp
the background with the bubble wrap to get the dotted/bubble look.

Tanya (Generation Promise)
Background Technique:  Used red ink to stamp a Stampin' Up background stamp

Share with  us your card and tell us your fabulous technique that you used to Make Your Own Background!   

Remember all cards linked must be flat to fit in an envelope. No lumpy, bumpy embellishments and   6x6 cards are NOT eligible. Square cards must be 5x5 or smaller, regular cards should be A2 or 4.25 x 5.5  

Entries for cards that clearly will not fit in an envy for first class postage will be deleted.  Limit 3 entries per challenge and all entries must be current blog posts, no backlinking.  Thank you!

Please visit the Design Teams blogs by clicking on their names above their card creations and let them know you were there.  Thank you and have fun creating! ~Sandy