My Very First 10 Minute Craft Dash!

Well, well, well....I was in a crafty mood today.  Felt like making a card...or earrings...or something.  That's when, as I was getting caught up on emails, I found the current 10 Minute Craft Dash.  For those of you who don't know, this is a challenge where you have to make a card/project in 10 minutes or less.  I don't know about you, but I can barely decide which stamps I want to use in 10 minutes, let alone create an entire card!  Anyway, the great thing about this challenge is that you CAN have a plan in place before you start.  You can set up all your supplies, but then you start the timer as soon as you start crafting.   Here is a picture of my pre-set area:

Well...I like to think that I have many skills....crafting under time constraints?  That may not be one of them.  My plan of attack was to stamp and color my image first and get that out of the way.  Rookie Mistake #1:  picking an image with lots to color.  Oops.  I figured I could allow myself one minute to stamp and color.  TRY 3.5 minutes!  I looked up, and WHAM!  Three and a half minutes...GONE!  ACK!  PANIC MODE!  I quickly punched my image and set it aside, but then realized I needed some other plan.  I wanted to use some Wondertape and glitter to create some awesome diagonal stripes, but...Rookie Mistake #2: don't attempt techniques you've never tried before.  This requires a little more time and precision than I had.  So, I had to settle for a couple quick horizontal stripes instead.  At this point, I had almost no time left, so I adhered the stamped circle and TADAA!  9 minutes 48 seconds....and one highly disappointed Amy.  This was NOT the card I envisioned in my head.  And, my craft area was a disaster!

But, here is the finished card:

Well, I have to remind myself that it WAS my very first attempt, and I learned some very valuable lessons.  BUT, being OCD, I still had a vision of a card in my head, and I was desperate to see it completed.  So, I decided to set the stopwatch again and see how long it would take me to finish the card as I wanted.  The result?  40 minutes and 23 seconds.  LOL!  BUT, I'm quite pleased with the result.  

Please note that only the card completed in less than 10 minutes is eligible for the challenge, but I wanted to share this card with you, too.

A little side by side comparison:

9:48          vs         40:23

All in all, this was a fun little challenge, and I am bound and determined to master the 10 Minute Craft Dash...but I'll have to save that for another day.  ;)

Happy Stamping!

Amy

DeNami Design's April Blog Hop: FANCY FAVORS!

Ok, this is going to be REALLY FAST!  It is almost 4am, and I had to work late, and it is REALLY down to the wire with this post so here goes...

You should have arrived here from Lisa Elton's blog.  Not only is Lisa incredibly talented, but she is also super sweet and awesome!  She hosted a blog giveaway last month, and I won the world's cutest jar of DeNami Design boutique buttons!  You can see one of those buttons on my project today!  THANK YOU, LISA!!!

If you're lost on the hop and/or need to start from the beginning, go to DeNami Design's blog.

So, the theme this month is FANCY FAVORS, so we were to make some sort of gift/party favor.  One of my all-time favorite gifts was my Keurig coffee maker, so I thought it would be cute to make a little gift bag for a Keurig K-cup!  It just so happens that THIS TEMPLATE from DeNami Design totally works!  The K-cup stretches the bag a bit so it's more rounded than flat on the sides, but it still works.  See?

I used glittery paper and my Sakura Glitter Pens to add lots of glittery touches.  Here's a close-up of the adorable little chickie!

FYI:  I printed this template directly onto cardstock so I could just stamp and cut!  Voila!  However, may I suggest that you do your stamping on the opposite side of the paper that the guidelines were printed on.  Oops. Silly errors happen at 3am!

The stamps I used for this project were PF09 Espresso Stamp Set and CL-C91 Coffee Cup Chickie.  I also layered some glitter ribbon on top of some grosgrain ribbon to make the bow extra special.  I was on a roll with glittery sparkle!

Next stop on the blog hop is Ruza Rebel's blog!  She's so creative!  I can't wait to see what she's made!  Let's go check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure to leave comments on all the blogs for your chance to win a gift certificate to DeNami Design!

Happy Stamping!

Amy