Boy, no sooner do I get caught up than I fall behind again!  Last week was a humdinger at work, we were very short handed and crazy busy.  I literally did nothing but work and sleep, with a little time for eating and spending with my sweetie.  That was it!  Luckily I had gotten to make a few cards in the early part of the week, but never had time to post them.  And I was able to get back to it this weekend for some 10-minute card challenges to myself.

First, last week's Clean and Simple challenge (CAS) at Splitcoast Stampers called for making a clean and simple card based on this inspirational image:

I went with both subject and color and got to play with an as-yet-unused digital image that I got from Pink Cat Studios when I was on my St. Patrick's Day shopping spree.  I couldn't resist this cute birdies with cupcake image:

I used the color scheme of the inspiration photo but unfortunately my colors didn't come out quite so pastel.  I printed the image on plain white cardstock, cut it out, and colored it with Prismacolor pencils, then blended with Gamsol.  I tried to really make it look like watercolors.  Although not pastel, I do like the end result.  I layered the colored image onto a piece of Crate Paper designer paper, and covered the front of the premade card with lavender from the back side of the paper used to mat the main image.  I stamped the greeting in purple Vivid ink; the greeting is from the Stampin' Up Mini Mates set.  Finally, feeling like it still needed something, I added a touch of glitter glue to the cupcake sprinkles.

On Tuesday, the weekly Teapot challenge took us on a trip to Paris!  An Eiffel-tower shaped teapot was the inspiration for the theme.  I took the opportunity to make a collage card:

The main image in the upper left was the basis for the rest of the card.  It comes from a great blog called Free Vintage Digital Stamps.  I printed out the image and sponged assorted shades of brown ink on it to age it.  I imagined it as the first thing an aspiring designer pinned on her bulletin board to represent her dreams of Paris one day.  Then I used assorted papers, scraps and accessories to create the rest of her "bulletin" board with images and "fabric" swatches from her current work in progress.  I had a great time making this card and love how it turned out!

When I finally got back to my table this weekend, I challenged myself to make some ten-minute cards, since I had been flipping through back issues of Stamper's Sampler's Take Ten series.  With Easter coming up, I made some cards to send to family members:

I limited myself to a few spring and Easter papers, some felt egg stickers, and my one Easter greeting stamp.  I like the variety I was able to come up with, and may have a few more in me before it's time to move on to Mother's Day cards, as well as finishing my Christmas card goals from March and April.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!