April New Release for Whimsy Stamps with Interactive Card!

I’m excited to be sharing this really fun and unique interactive design that I’ve made with one of the cute images called Stretchy Giraffe digital stamp from the new release!

Vicki-Giraffe Flies extended neck-April 2nd

This giraffe is so sweet and was fun to color up with Copic markers! (See below for the full list of the markers I’ve used.)

I took the extended neck version of the giraffe and made some fold marks in his neck so that when folded, it looks like the “regular neck” version of the image, but when you pull up on the purple balloon at the top, the neck extends up with it! LOL!

Check out this 18 second video below to see how it works:

I’ve used the Whimsy Stamps No-See Kinetic Basics die set along with the Kinetic Straight Basics die set to make the straight track behind the large cloud that is under the flying giraffe. This way there’s no track behind the giraffe to move the neck which I think is pretty cool with these special WS Kinetic No-See dies!

Because this was a giraffe with a long neck, I wanted to make a tall skinny type of card for this design. (It measures 3″ x 6″ when closed.) I’ve used a cloud die cut to hide the interactive track behind the giraffe and then I used a cloud stencil to sponge on some Wilted Violet and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide inks on the cloud die cut as well as the background white panel and the interactive pull behind the balloon so it all matches. I thought it would be fun to add some stars, so I took the star from the Snappy Birthday clear stamp set and stamped them with the Wilted Violet Distress Oxide ink. I also took the sentiment from the Dachshund Balloon rubber stamp set and stamped it on the bottom of the white card front panel. (I thought it was the perfect sentiment to go along with this image! LOL!) I’ve rounded the corners of the white panel and cloud panel with a corner chomper.

The giraffe was popped up with the black string wrapped around his left “antler” and then secured on the back. The other end of the black string was tied around the balloon which is attached to the pull tab underneath the cloud area. I covered the stars with a clear glitter brush and added some sequins filled with some Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops. I’ve used foam dots to pop up the giraffe over the design.

Here’s a closer view of the extended neck and the coloring I’ve done. Here is the Copic list that I’ve used:

giraffe body – YR24, YR21
spots, muzzle, mail & tail end – E15, E13, E11
Hooves & horns – E49, E47, E44
ears & belly – R20, R11, R00, R000
balloon – V17, V15, V12

I fussy cut the giraffe and the balloon separately from the image so that I could add my own string and make this an interactive card design.

Vicki-GiraffeFliesExtendedNeck-April 2nd-pulled tab

Really enjoyed creating this fun interactive card in a unique way with this adorable new stamp! I hope you’ve been inspired with it too! Would love to see what you come up with if you purchase this image!!

Thanks so much for popping in today!! I’ll see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

TGIF Challenge – Balloons (TGIFC205)
Alphabet Challenge – ‘A’ is for Animals
Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C477 “Trick Card”
Pammies Inky Pinkies – ATG (PIP1913)
Crafty Animals – Anything Goes + animal
613 Avenue Create – Anything Goes with optional: create a kinetic card

Time to Celebrate at Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends!! I’m very excited to share my card with you today for Cute Card Thursday! We are celebrating our 11th birthday this week!! WOO HOO!! So of course, the theme for this week is “CELEBRATE“!! Hope you can pop on over and celebrate with us by sharing your creation!!

This week we are sponsored by All Dressed Up Stamps and I have used one of their adorable images for my card today:

Vicki-CCT573-ADU-Celebrate

I have used this very sweet image called Time to Shine and she is having so much fun dancing around with all of the stars floating about her!

For the card, I have taken some silver sparkle cardstock and cut the stitched scallop frame and then placed some pretty papers behind it. I mounted these pieces onto a piece of black cardstock as well as the image that was cut out with another stitched scallop rectangle die, also mounted with a piece of black cardstock and then added to the center of the sparkle framed panel.

I also took some pretty, pink, silky ribbon and wrapped it around the corners of these layers and also tied a bow with it that I’ve attached to the upper right corner of the wrapped around ribbon. These layers were then mounted onto a white, top folding A2 sized card base. Lastly, I’ve added some stars that were die cut from the same sparkly cardstock and I’ve also added one to the center of the wooden star veneer that was glued in the center of the pink bow.

Here’s a closer look at the Copic coloring I’ve done on this image. I have added some extra sparkly details to the image by taking a Spectrum Noir Glitter Brush Pen and went over just the bottom portion of her dress. I then took a silver gel pen and colored in the stars around her and added some dots to her dress and hair with it as well. I wanted to create lots of sparkle and shine to this one! 🙂

Vicki-CCT573-ADU-Celebrate-flat

Thanks so much for dropping by! I really appreciate your kind comments and I enjoy reading them so much! Hope you have a fabulous day!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card in:

All Dressed Up Challenge – Anything goes + ADU image
All Dressed Up Facebook Challenge – Girly Girls
Crafty Friends – Ladies/Girls
Simon Says Stamp Monday – Feminine/Girly
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes

Celebrating at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies With a New Challenge For 2019!

Hello friends!! Happy New Year to you!! I hope you’ve enjoyed the celebrating with your family and friends! Are you excited about a brand new 2019?! I sure am! I’ve got lots in store to share with you this year! Hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am!!

Let’s start this year off with a brand-new challenge over at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies, shall we? Every first of the month there’s a brand new “Anything Goes” challenge…BUT you must use a critter somewhere on your project is all!

Vicki-2CCC22-Bugaboo

Isn’t this guy adorable?! I have used one of our sponsor’s image for my card today from Bugaboo. This is the Critter Balloons – elephant digital stamp. I have actually cut him out twice and colored him in, but I cut just his head and the balloon to pop them up with some foam tape for a little dimension.

I’ve made a Center Step Card for my design today. I kept the dimensions at an A2 standard size when it lays flat so that it will still fit inside an A2 envelope for mailing.

I’ve used some fun birthday style papers from my old stash and then I’ve used a sentiment from My Favorite Things More Essential Sentiments and white heat embossed it over a piece of black cardstock that I cut out with the Die-namics Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips. Lastly, I added some silver ribbon above that.

Here’s a bit of a close-up to see the dimension over the image. I’ve also taken a glue pen over the balloon image and added some clear sparkly glitter over it.

Hope that you’ve enjoyed my card today and I’ll be back very quickly with a second post today!

Challenges:

QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #328
A Perfect Time to Craft – Anything Goes

Celebrating 10 Years of Whimsy Stamps!

Today kicks off a weekend of fun to celebrate Whimsy Stamps 10th birthday! Yay!!! If you’ve been following along with me for a while, then you know that I have been a design team member at a few different times throughout the 10 years and I’m honored to be a part of the team again to help celebrate their 10th birthday!

I also wanted to share my birthday card inspiration:

Vicki-WS-IGhop-DoggieIcecream

So what could be more fun than this little Doggie Ice Cream digital stamp to help celebrate with! I have printed him out twice (I’ll explain below) and colored him up in the following Copic markers:

Doggie body: E27, E25, E23, E21, R20 (cheeks) and white gel pen
Doggie bib: BG78, BG75, BG72
Ice Cream bowl: C8, C5, C3 (Used C3 for ground shadow under image)
Ice Cream/bottom scoop: R85, R83, R81
Ice Cream/top scoop: E53, E51
Cherry on top: R39, R37, R35

I have taken some older Whimsy Stamps paper packs (this one no longer available called “It’s a Party”) to use for the background of my card design…he has to have a party scene after all, right?!

I then took a thin strip of black card stock to go along the edge of the paper to give it a nice finishing touch. I also took another piece of black cardstock and white heat embossed the fun sentiment from the Whimsy Stamps Bold Statements clear stamp set and then cut a banner and attached it alongside the black strip. Lastly, I’ve added some fun matching Whimsy Stamps “It’s a Party” enamel dots to finish off the design.

A closer look at my image, you can see that I’ve added some glossy accents to the cherry on top of the ice cream as well as the pup’s nose. I’ve used a Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen to over the ice cream scoops and then I took a liquid glue pen and sprinkled some more glitter under the pup image before attaching him to the paper.

The reason I printed out this pup twice is because I wanted to add some dimension to it. I colored and fussy cut out the entire image and attached him over the glitter ground. I took the second image and only colored his head/bib and the ice cream images. I fussy cut those out, then turned them over to rub a tool over which make it curl around the edges a bit. I used some foam tape to attach them directly over the image and it gives a nice dimension to it.

Vicki-WS-IGHop-Doggieicecream-dimension

Here’s a peek of what that dimension looks like underneath. Because the edges curl, you don’t see much sticking out, but it gives a nice dimension to your image.

Vicki-WS-IGhop-DoggieIcecream-flat

Hope you’ve enjoyed my card today and I hope you take part in the celebration with us at Whimsy Stamps in any way you can! I also wanted to thank each of you for the kind support you’ve given me with my Whimsy Stamps creations, it means so much!

Enjoy your celebration weekend and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Addicted to Stamps & More – Make Your Mark
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
Tuesday Throwdown – Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday (WWC200) – Occasions
CRAFT – Anything Goes

Feeling Young at Heart

Hello friends! Stopping in to share another guest design creation that I’ve made! Here’s another I’ve made using the very sweet digital set Doctor at Heart:

Vicki-SnSNov-YoungatHeart

Isn’t this image darling?! My first thought on this set was to try and go a little “vintage” with my design. I opened up a Word doc. to insert the image and sentiment and sized and arranged it how I wanted it to look. I printed it out on some cream-colored card stock and then cut it out with the Tonic Studios Follow Your Heart die using the frame portion only.

I wasn’t sure I wanted the image to look “vintage” so in asking hubby, he told me that I needed to color him up with blue shorts, brown/tan shoes, orange top and blond hair! He was very specific about that!! LOL! So I colored this cute image up with my Copic markers and gave some “outlining” shadows around the sentiment too. I took a gel Stardust Pen and colored in the ‘metal parts’ of the stethoscope and then added some Nuvo Crystal Drops Morning Dew (Gloss-clear) to the heart circle the boy is holding and let it dry. I then used some distress inks and sponged around the edges of the heart image panel and spritzed it with water, waited a few seconds and dabbed it up with a paper towel. I love the watermark look it gives to add that vintage flair and tie it all in together.

Vicki-SnSNov-YoungatHeart3

So when you tilt the card, you notice that the background looks like I’ve used some special glitter paper, but I did NOT! I made my own glitter paper for the background! I took another piece of black cardstock and covered the entire panel with VersaMark Ink and sprinkled it with some Black Magic embossing powder. Stunning sparkle!

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For the look on the ribbon, I took some cream-colored seam binding ribbon and sprayed it with some water and rubbed it in some ink that I smeared onto my TH Glass Media Mat and crinkled it up and then let it dry. I wrapped it around the embossed glitter background panel and added a bow with a button and natural twine for the center of it. I mounted this glitter panel onto a 5 1/2″ squared cream-colored card base that I’ve ink blended around the edges in the same colors that I’ve used on the heart. The heart image panel was then popped up over the ribbon strip and glitter background with craft foam and then the seam binding bow was attached along the edge of the heart.

Vicki-SnSNov-YoungatHeart1

For the corners of my card, I had a very old corner punch that I punched out from black card stock and attached them to the corners of the card. I then used the Nuvo Crystal Drops Ripened Pumpkin to add some “dot” in the middle of each punched corner piece to finish it off. I think that the tiny bit of orange color ties in nicely with the glitter background and his orange shirt.

I really hope that you’ve enjoyed my fun ‘vintage charm’ creation as well! Thanks so much for stopping in today and I’ll see you soon!

Challenges I’d like o enter my card for:

Little Red Wagon – “Remember When” (used Crystal Nuvo Drops – Rippened Pumpkin – meant to be for Halloween)
Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
The Creatie Crafters – Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy Friday – Anything Goes

Seeing Stars at Cute Card Thursday

Hello friends and welcome to Thursday already! It seems like the weeks are quickly going by faster and faster as we close in on the end of the year! It’s the “crazy crafting season” for sure! LOL!

Today brings up another Cute Card Thursday Challenge and for this week’s challenge, we’d like to see “STARS” on your creations! I think this is a good one for whatever it is you’re crafting even if it’s Christmas…or not! I have decided to make mine non-Christmasy this time:

I am pretty much “out-numbered” with males in my family, so most of my birthday cards are for men and I have a couple more birthdays to celebrate next month, so I thought this was a great opportunity to sneak one into my Christmas card-making time!

All the stamps and dies used on my card today come from My Favorite Things. (I have recently purchased some Christmas items and look forward to getting my hands crafty with some of it soon!)

I started my card out with the Blueprints 27 scallop rectangle die. I took some star images from a retired MFT stamp set called “Totally Happy” and randomly stamped them with VersaMark on this card front panel and then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. I taped off the scalloped edges so that they wouldn’t get inked. I’ve used the Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide inks and blended them over the stars for an ink resist effect. I also spritzed this panel and dabbed it with a paper towel for the water drop look.

I thought it would be fun to make a shaker card, so I die cut a star from this ink blended panel with the MFT Star Shaker Window and Frame Die-namics set and then cut the frame out from some black card stock.

What makes this such an easy shaker card is that MFT also has these Star Shaker Pouches that coordinate with the die! So I’ve taken this and fit it through the die cut star area on my card front panel and then filled it from the back with some confetti stars, I found some matching-colored seed beads and pretty sparkly silver glitter chunks to fit inside and then covered the back with some white cardstock. Just love the sound when it shakes because you can hear the seed beads! 🙂

I then took a strip of black card stock and white heat embossed the sentiment (same stamp set mentioned above.) to stamp the greeting. I first layered the scallop inked panel over a black piece of cardstock and then attached the sentiment strip and cut off the edges to match that layer. I then mounted this panel over an A2 sized top folding white card base. I finished it off by adding some silver star sequins filled with some Silver Stickles in the centers of each one.

Sometimes you wonder about “adding too much bling” for a guy, but I think this is a fun shaker birthday card that a male would enjoy too! Hope you’ve had some fun on my blog today! I thank you so much for stopping by! I will see you soon!

Challenges I’d like to enter this card for:

Challenge Up Your Life – Celebrate/Anniversary, etc. (Happy 100th Challenge!)
Use Your Stuff – Stars
Crafty Cardmakers – Lots of Layers
Shopping Our Stash – (SOS 380) Tic Tac Toe (I used the middle row going down: stamps, glitter was handed from my grandma to my mom and then to me..so yeah, older than 5 years probably! LOL & Happy Birthday)
Watercooler Wednesday – WWC196 – “All About Occasions”

Birthday Wishes for Hubby

Hello friends! Happy Friday! I wanted to share a few things from my husband’s birthday we celebrated last night along with the card I made for him.

Vicki-MFTDeer-Bday

I was going for a masculine look of course and I know that he likes nature, wildlife, etc. and with his birthday being in November, I thought a Fall scheme would work out nicely. Besides, I had gotten some My Favorite Things products and wanted to have a play with them, so I used the current color challenge when making this one. (See challenges list below)

For my design, I went with a Natural cardstock base, rounded the corners with a corner chomper and ink blended along the edges with some Vintage Photo distress ink. I got a little more carried away with the inking than what I wanted, but then went over it by spritzing some water and dabbing it up with a paper towel for the water marks. (I’ve also cut out some leaves with the Falling Leaves Die-namics die set and then sponged some colors around the edges for them as well. These were added as accents on the over-all design.)

Vicki-MFTDeer-Bday1

I was so excited about using this Delightful Deer Die-namics set. There are some T-I-N-Y bits in there to cut out and attach! LOL! I sponged around the edges and bottom of legs with a brown ink. I die cut some white dots and the piece for tail as well as cut out a couple of brown dots for eye and nose as well as cutting out his antlers. I also added a few extra “dots” with my white gel pen on the deer. It was popped up over the scene with some foam tape. The main deer was cut from Persimmon cardstock which is also what I’ve used to cut out a banner (from the Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips die-namics) that I white heat embossed the sentiment from the Essential Sentiments stamp set.

Vicki-MFTDeer-Bday2

For my scene, I took some of the MFT Candy Land Paper Pack and use the dotted “Sour Apple” color piece and die cut a panel of it with the Stitched Rounded Rectangle STAX die-namics and placed it over my ink blended natural card front base. I then used the Stitched Valley die-namics and cut some pieces from brown cardstock and lightly sponged some white ink over top of the “hills”. I placed those over top of my natural card front base and also cut out some trees from one of the FREE die-namics dies that I received with an order from some Sour Apple card stock and attached them over the “hills”.

Lastly, I wrapped some twine around the card front base, added my die cut leaves where I wanted them, attached this panel to a top folding A2 sized white card base that I’ve also rounded the corners on with a corner chomper. Lastly, I’ve added some clear crystal drops in random places.

I enjoyed creating this one using mainly die cuts and minimal stamping! I hope you’ve enjoyed my masculine card design as well! 🙂

Here’s the challenges that I’d like to enter this card for:

MFT Color Challenge – Persimmon, Sour Apple, Milk Chocolate, Neutral
Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies –
City Crafter – #437 Woodland Animals
Crafting By Designs – Anything Goes
Creative Moments – Anything Goes

If you happen to follow along with me on FB, then you may have seen where I’ve had the talented lady Dina Kowal create a portrait for me using a past photo from our beloved family member Mocca that passed away this last February. Dina is extremely talented with her pencils! My hubby was amazed and here is a photo of him with it last night after he opened it up for his birthday present:

BertBday-11-08-2018-gift

He said, “Oh wow!” when he opened it and wanted me to tell her that she did an amazing job, it looks just like her! I went through the photos with hubby (he’s not on social media) that Dina had shared of her on-going creative process with the portrait, and this was one from the beginning:

Mocca drawing photo 1

And this was the photo that she used for her creative process:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We are thrilled and honored to have this stunning work of ‘Mocca’ art in our home and look forward to getting it framed and put up! Thank you to Dina for sharing her talents with all of us! 🙂

Thanks for dropping by my friends! See you soon!

Food and Drink at Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends! It’s time for a new Cute Card Thursday challenge! This one may have a tendency to make you a little hungry as we are asking for your “Food and/or Drink” creations to add to the challenge gallery this week! We really look forward to seeing what you come up with for it!

Here’s my take on the challenge:

Vicki-CCT552-NachoBday

LOL! I can’t help but giggle at these silly puns and especially with the smiling faces on the food images too! 🙂 I just had to grab the Simon Says Stamp “I Chews You” card kit and I couldn’t wait to have a play with it! Everything that I’ve used on my card including the paper all come from this card kit.

There were some pre-scored card bases, so I used one of those for my card base, then I took a strip of the colored stripes paper and a thin strip of the gold glitter paper included in the kit and glued it on at the bottom with the glue included in the kit.

I then stamped the images and colored them with my Copic markers. I put the “salsa bowl” at the bottom so it looks like it’s setting on top of the colored stripes. I added the speech bubble with the punny sentiment inside of it too. I then added the sequins from the kit and then filled the centers with some Nuvo Crystal Drops for the centers.

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Here you can see a closer look at the coloring of the images. I’ve also added some shimmer with a Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter Brush Pen over the “salsa” images. I know that it shows it as “guacamole”, but I’m more of a “salsa” person myself and decided to go for that instead. Hubby is not a guac fan either, but we love to eat Mexican food! 🙂

Thanks for joining me today!. What’s on your menu?!

Challenges:

Moving Along With the Times – For a Man
Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes
CASology – Menu
Addicted to Stamps and More – Clean and Simple
Watercooler Wednesday (WWC192) – Marsha’s Masculine Anything Goes

I’ve Been Schooled!

Hello friends! Hope you are doing well and are having a great week!

I took some time over the last few days to try and follow along with all of the videos and classes going on over the My Favorite Things blog as they are doing “Session 2 of their MFT Summer School“. I don’t know about you, but I find that there is always something new to learn and different things to try with crafting and I enjoy learning about it so that I can continue to improve in what I already enjoy doing. Sometimes that self-doubt creeps into the skull to tell you that “you’re not good enough” and “give up”, etc. The way for me to try and stomp out those feelings is to take classes and try something new. I just want to enjoy the process and learning can help bring on more positive feelings.

Since there are SO MANY creations in this post, I won’t go into too many details other than share the links to the MFT Summer School links that I made each card for. I hope you enjoy having a look at them:

Day 1 – Monochromatic (CAS)

Vicki-MFTcamp-monochromatic CAS

I used several colors of MFT purple (of course!) cardstock and stamped a background stamp with VersaMark over it. I think the die I’ve used is from something retired.

Day 2 – Focal Point

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Really had fun with this sweet little bear! 🙂 I loved the layout so much from class and decided to follow that for my card here. The balloon and die cut sentiment actually have shimmer over them which doesn’t show in the photo very well.

Day 3 – Visual Triangle

Vicki-MFTcamp-VisualTriangle

This one took me quite a bit to put together. I think maybe part of it was all of the coloring, but I was struggling a bit with the concept…I’m hoping this was how she was going with it. 3 long strips at the bottom, 3 images at the bottom and 3 images at the top. The purple in the background was a watercolor wash like she showed in the video, but I didn’t heat emboss any image like she did.

Day 4 – Rainbow

Vicki-MFTcamp-rainbows

I have done this before, and I really like how you can use up your paper scraps in a colorful way. I used the same frame die here in a similar manner as I did the card above this one. I cut the sentiment several times before laying down the top one and then I slightly off centered it to show the white slightly behind it.

Day 5 – Ombre

Vicki-MFTcamp-Ombre

And here I go with another purple card! LOL! I actually remembered a fantastic video that I created this card based on a tutorial from Jennifer McGuire.

If you have any questions about these, please feel free to contact me or simply leave a comment below and I will be happy to reply.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will see you again on Thursday for a new challenge! 🙂

Splish Splash New Design Team FUN!

Hello friends! I am VERY excited to share my first post with you today as a new design team member for the Whimsy Stamps Digital Design Team! Woot!! Woot!

For those of you that have followed along with me for a while on my other blog know that I have previously worked with them as a DT member for other positions on the team over a period of several years. This is simply because I adore Whimsy Stamps along with the owner and several others involved with this company. I just love the images and working with them. What better way to enjoy creating and coloring with the products than being apart of the team! I’d like to share my creation today with this new image that was released at the beginning of this month:

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I find these penguins from Crissy Armstrong in the store absolutely adorable! They all make me smile, but how fun is this cute Penguin Bubble Bath image! 🙂 The image was colored with my Copic markers as well as certain areas with gel pens and then I brushed over the shower cap and bubbles with a clear glitter shimmer brush pen. I also decided to do a little paper piecing with her shower cap using the August release digital papers called Wonky Circles.

Of course, there is so much sparkly goodness on this card that it’s hard to capture in just one photo, so I tried to angle it a bit to give you another view from the sparkly gel pens on the bubbly drink, water and claw feet on the tub. The shimmer brush pen details can be found on her shower cap as well as the bubbles. And if that wasn’t enough sparkle, I’ve added a strip of glitter paper along the left side of the image and then finished it off with some Studio Katia Crystal Clear Confetti sequins.

The sentiment I’ve used in the upper right corner of the image panel comes from a Whimsy Stamps clear stamp set called Everyday Mini Sentiments.

I wanted to create a special birthday card with this image in mind, so that when you lift up the penguin image, the card opens up like this….

Vicki-WS-Aug-week2-inside

I’ve taken more of these Wonky Circles digital papers and used them for the inside of my card design and created a pocket for a gift card to fit inside. I thought a Bath & Body Works gift certificate would be fun to use with this image! LOL!

For the inside sentiment, I’ve used the Whimsy Stamps Happy Everything Clear stamp set. I stamped the sentiment in black ink and then added the circle elements with some ink to coordinate with the paper.

Here are some challenges I’d like to enter this card for: