Thanks for all your submissions! You guys are getting better and better each week! I particularly loved the entries this week because they were so bold--just what I wanted! :)

Anyhow, I'm visiting family in sunny-hot-Hot-HOT Arizona this weekend, so I don't have a card for you. But I do have the top ten and ten randomly selected. Enjoy!

TOP TEN
TEN RANDOMLY SELECTED

You all might remember the album I made a while back. I promised to show you all how I covered it and I finally had a chance to sit down and record it. :)

Please excuse the randomness of the video! :) I had no idea how I wanted to decorate the album, so I totally changed my mind mid-stream and had to improvise a bit to get it the way I wanted it. But it all turned out in the end.

The album is by Secret Scrapper, which was started by my cousin Mandy. She's the cutest girl you've ever seen and I love her to death. When I we were in Vegas last February I asked if she could make me an album like this and she said yes! So, I'm not sure if it's at her online store yet, but I'm pretty sure she'll be selling this exact album soon. Right, Mandy? ;)

I'll be sure to let you all know when you can buy one, too!

Anyway, on to the photos and video! Enjoy!

First off, I have to commend all of of you who guessed the musical artist of the song in my last video! You're all super smart. The song "To Love You More" gained popularity when Céline Dion included it on her 1997 album, Let's Talk About Love. However, I used the Lucia Micarelli version in my video. :) Thanks for all your guesses!

This week's color inspiration is actually sort of a stretch. ;) After the brown and white monochromatic card in yesterday's video, I found myself still in a monochromatic mood. AND when I saw these t-shirts over at johnnycupcakes.com, I just knew I had to borrow them for the challenge this week.

Aren't those the best shirts? I have one in brown that I wore at last year's Stampin' Up! convention in Denver and I love it! (BTW, I hate that photo of me... I was all tired and sweaty and not lookin' so hot... BUT I was having a ton of fun!)

Anyway, I couldn't leave ya'll hangin' with just a couple colors, so I threw in some Ruby Red and River Rock. But feel free to eliminate them if you want. Just a couple options for you. I guess the main challenge this week is to create a high-contrast, bold creation. Just like the t-shirt, find a bold/sassy phrase and let it "scream" at us!

Just have fun! I can't wait to see what you all create! :)

Oh, and sorry for the quick deadline. I wanted to get it in before the holiday weekend.

NOTE: I corrected the graphic above just a few minutes ago. I forgot to change the text to read "Whisper White" instead of "Going Gray," but it's correct now. If you used Going Gray before I corrected it, don't worry about it. For everyone else, Whisper White it is! Thanks, Savitri, for letting me know! :)

SO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE? Make a creation (card, scrapbook, etc.) of your own using the above colors. Then take a picture or scan your creation. Upload your digital image to your blog or in an online gallery, and then come back to kwernerdesign blog to share! Leave a comment on this entry with a link to your creation. Please link to webpages, not directly to image files. Who's in the Round-up? After the deadline, I'll share my creation with you as well as 20 submitted creations, consisting of ten randomly selected entries and ten of my favorites. Pictures emailed to me will not be considered for the Round-up. When does your creation have to be submitted? Thursday, July 3 at 7:00 pm MDT. NOTE: Those who have websites and blogs, you are welcome to use the above graphic on your blog. For swatches only, you can download the image file by right clicking here (or control+click for my fellow Mac users) and saving the file to your computer. Then upload the swatch image to your blog.

Good morning, all! (Unless, of course you're in a far away country where it's evening). :)

This week's Make a Card Monday came about because I had two packs of American Crafts rubons that I had rarely used. Both had the same designs but one was in brown and the other in white... Hmm... What to make?

I thought to make a card that uses only those two colors. But I substituted Very Vanilla for the white just so that it would soften the contrast just a bit. Even though the rubons were white, it doesn't really bother me too much.

It looks like a wedding card, huh? That wasn't what I was aiming for, but it certainly looks like one now. No complaints here, though. A card is a card. :)

Anyway, the card came together SUPER quickly! I wouldn't mind making a few more of these. :)

Hi all!

Sorry about dropping off the planet for a bit. :) I've been wanting to spruce up the blog here for a while so all my free time went to that. But, I got it where I want it so it should be free sailing for a hopefully a long time. Anyone who has a blog knows exactly what I mean--you're only content with how your blog looks for a short while and then BAM! You've got to change it up a bit.

During the revamp of the blog (which really didn't change all that much), I added a couple new things. First, I think I eliminated a lot of the things that caused the pages to load slowly. I took out a lot of images and used text instead. Did you guys notice a difference in how fast the page loaded?

I also added numbers next to all the comments. That mostly for me. In the past when I drew random comment numbers for give aways, I had to print out all the comments, and then pencil in the numbers. Now, the numbers are already there! :) Plus, if you guys want to reference each other's comments, just mention which number it was.

And, this last thing will take a while to get up and running completely, but I'm adding technique tags to all the entries that have cards or scrapbook pages in them. For instance, on this entry I tagged the term "faux stitching." At the end of this entry, if you click on the faux stitching link, you'll see a list of all the entries that have faux stitching in them. Pretty sweet, eh?

Like I sad, that one will take a while because I have to go through all 418 entries and manual type in all the tags. Just be patient. I'm working from the oldest entries and slowly making my way to current ones.

Anyway, this is the card I made for Color Inspiration Challenge #13. I actually had this all sketched out on Thursday night, made it Friday night, and am now just getting around to posting it. It's been a crazy weekend! :)

So enjoy the card, and be sure to take a look through all picks this week. Every week it's getting harder and harder to narrow the top ten down! You guys are truly amazing. :)

TOP TEN
TEN RANDOMLY SELECTED

Bloom Where You're Planted - All supplies from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted. Cutie Pie Designer Series Paper; River Rock,Wild Wasabi, and Whisper White card stock; Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi, and River Rock ink; corner rounder punches; paper piercing template; white gel pen; River Rock double stitched grosgain ribbon; Garden of Life stamp set (Papertrey Ink); white plastic flower (American Crafts).

Hi all! This week's color inspiration was borrowed from Tracy Porter. Specifically, this is the Rosewater Bedding. Isn't that gorgeous?

A special thanks goes out to one of the blog buddies, Amy, who alerted me to this site! Thanks, Amy!

Anyhow, I've had a few questions about participating in the challenges each week, but one in particular keeps coming up. Heads up! You asked, "Do I have to use the specific colors?"

No. If you have the Stampin' Up! colors it makes it a bit easier on your part, but if you don't have them, just use a similar color.

Hope that clears things up! :) Anyway, here are the usual details...