It's Time To Celebrate!!!!

Can you believe it?  The Cupcake Inspirations Challenge has reached its 200th challenge.  Thanks to all our wonderful sponsors, who generously supply prizes for a winner and samples for the design team to use.  We have been so lucky to work with these companies and  every week one of our fans has been the lucky recipient of a prize.  This week is a really big deal.  Each of the design team members have a prize to give away and there's a Grand Prize worth over $200 on the Cupcake Inspirations Blog.  Some of the sponsors are offering special discounts this week in honor of our celebration.  You can find out those details on the CIC blog post.   

We've set up a blog hop so you can visit each of the designer's blogs.  For a little more fun we're being joined by some of our past designers.  If you are following the blog hop you should have started at the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge blog, if you didn't start there you can go back and start from there now, I'll wait here for you to come back.  You should have gotten here from our past designer Anita's blog, Anita Be Stampin' and when you're finished here you'll be going to visit Christine's blog Sweet Pea Cards.  If you get lost along the way just stop back at Cupcake Inspirations where you can find the list of all the participants as well as the links to their blogs. 

For this challenge we've asked each of the designers to pick a favorite cupcake from the past challenges.  I had a ridiculously difficult time picking a favorite.  I don't think there was a single one I didn't like.  Let me give you a piece of advice.  Don't look for your favorite cupcake on an empty stomach (don't ask me how I know).  I gravitated towards the cutesy cuppies.  In the end I decided upon these adorable chickies.  They look yummy and they make me think of spring.


Each of the design team members has been teamed up with a sponsor and I am so lucky to be paired with a Day for Daisies who are giving away a $12 gift card.  In order to be entered to win this prize all you have to do is leave a comment at the end of this post, it'd be nice if you were a follower but you don't have to be.  To win the Grand Prize all you need to do is make a card inspired by any one of the 200 inspiration photos and link it up on the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge Blog.   You have until Saturday, March 8 2013 at 12:00 noon CST to make your comment here and/or link up your creation to the CIC blog.  You'll have to visit the other designers to find out how to win the prizes on their blog.  So when you're done here just start hopping along and enter whatever ones you'd like.

 

I do love a Day for Daisies.  It was love at first sight for me.  I think the designs have a unique, crisp and fresh look to them.  They can be used as is or they can be colored.  Here's what ADFD have to say about themselves:

A DAY FOR DAISIES Offers the very best quality and variety of digital stamps. Enjoy themed categories of over 1500 fun and whimsical digital images, including fairy tales and magical mermaids, cutie kids, vintage illustrations, sentiments and lovely designs for all occasions! We also offer an exclusive freebie section so visit us at the shop www.adayfordaisies.com and come play with us!

 

When I make a card for CIC I try to find an image which resembles or has something in common with the inspiration photo and I try to use the color scheme too.  For this card I used the image "Nesting" because I thought the little hatchling chicks looked like the chickies on the cuppies and I used papers that were in shades of beige and yellow like the cuppies.  Because these colors are so soft and subtle I chose a peach ribbon to give the card a little pop.  The lace that's under the ribbon was originally white.  I used Copic E40 refill ink to color it.  It's alcohol ink so it dries very quickly.  All you need to do is drop the lace (this works well with ribbon too) in a baggie and squirt in a couple drops, mush it around a little and it's done in a couple seconds.  If you're concerned about the drying just blast it with your heat gun for a couple seconds.

Here's the deets:
stamp - A Day for Daisies "Nesting"
ink - hp printer
paper - Rubber Soul "Garden Variety Collection" dp; My Favorite Things "Natural" card stock; Stampin' Up "So Saffron" card stock
miscellaneous - copics; Stampin' Up "Festive Paper Piercing Pack" and "Window Frames Framelits"; My Favorite Things "Circle Stax" die-namics; lace; ribbon; pearls; machine stitching

Here's the challenges:
Cupcake Inspirations CIC200 - use your favorite CIC photo
A Gem of a Challenge - Add a Bow
4 Crafty Chicks #131 - You've Got Me In Stitches
Simon Says - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by.  Don't forget to leave a comment before March 8, 2013 at 12:00 Noon CST if you'd like a chance to win the $12.00 gift certificate to A Day for Daisies.


In case you haven't been to the CIC blog yet you might be wondering what exactly is the Grand Prize. Well hold onto your seats, here's a list of its contents:

a $25 gift certificate from 7 Kids College Fund,

a $30 gift certificate from Bugaboo Digi Stamps,

a $50 gift certificate from Crafter's Companion,

a $12 gift certificate from A Day for Daisies,

a selection of 20 rolls of Washi Tape from Downtown Tape,

a $20 gift certificate from Freckled Fawn,

3 digital images from Fresh Brewed Designs,

3 cupcake digital images from Limited Runs Digital Stamps,

3 digital images from Pink Cat Studio,

a $25 gift certificate from Prairie Fairy,

2 digital images from Robyn's Fetish,

and a selection of cupcake stamps from Verve Stamps!

The next stop along the blog hop is Christine's Sweet Pea Cards.