Pink Pachyderm + CTMH Card Class 4/7/15

Here's another sheet of designer paper that I couldn't resist! 

I'm telling you it's an addiction!

I dug out a retired CTMH stamp set for the elephant and sentiment, paper pieced the ears, added a few skittles, a charm, bow, and white toe nails.  Pretty simple card.  I think this would make a really cute Mother's Day card from a kid, which is the current theme at the Send a Smile 4 Kids Challenge.

I am also entering this card in the following challenges:

Double Click Skittles Challenge #18 - funny or punny sentiment
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge #222 - Anything Goes
Clear it Out Challenge - Anything Goes + Stash item: anything goes (it's all from my stash!)
Loves Rubber Stamps Challenge #246 - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Anything Goes
Partytime Tuesdays Challenge #197 - Anything Goes
Crafting from the Heart Challenge #54 - Always Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion Challenge #255 - Always Anything Goes
Through the Purple Haze Challenge #84 - Anything Goes

****************

This week at Joyce's card workshop we learned a new technique for making backgrounds.  It is called Bokeh.  First we wet the paper, added drops of ink with a water brush and swirled it around for a marbled effect, dried the paper, then stenciled white circles over top.  If you'd like to give this technique a try, there are several videos on You Tube explaining how to do it.

Here are the 2 Bokeh cards I made:

(If you squint, you can see the white stenciled circles.)

I really didn't like how the background on this first card turned out and wasn't even going to finish it.  In fact, I used the back of it as scrap paper while making my next 2 cards.  I guess it grew on me.  After running it through the cuttlebug, I liked it a bit more.  Unfortunately it really toned down the white stenciled circles. With the contrast paper and ribbon, it's okay, but certainly not a favorite.
 

This one turned out a little better.  No squinting required.

For this next card we used sponge daubers to rub ink onto dry paper before stenciling.  This I like much better because the colors are more vivid.

Of course, I must have laid it next to something and got a blue mark at the bottom. 
I'll work on disguising that later.

And finally, we made this cute kitty card using a new CTMH Friendly Pets stamp set and one of the new paper packs, Jackson (very masculine paper; I like it)
 

I must have been having a very OFF card day on Tuesday.  This poor kitty looks like it got sprayed by a skunk and then got a bath in tomato juice.  It doesn't do much for the stink, but leaves the cat a funny color.

Hope you are having a great craft day!
Thanks for stopping by!