Trying to make a card in 10 minutes......

That's the name of the game over at the newest challenge on the block - 10 minute craft dash - http://www.prettypinkposh.com/2012/08/10-minute-craft-dash-1.html  The first challenge is breaking us in easy so it's a free for all.  I'm glad it was gentle as it wasn't that easy!  I am TOTALLY a tortoise and not a hare when it comes to card making and very rarely take less than an hour to make a card so I thought it would be good to push myself and give it a go.

However, my first attempt was a total fail - I went over the time limit :(   I used the stop watch on my phone and photographed it with my finished card.

I thought this was simple enough to make in 10 minutes - even with the fussy cutting of, and acetate in the glasses (woodware stamp set) but my choice of navy card for the sentiment didn't work with black text so I flipped the strip of card over and stamped and embossed in white (and I didn't static dust as I was running out of time and this was my second mistake as it then took ages to get the bits off I didn't want!)  1 minute and 4 seconds over the time limit - damn it!

Not one to give up though, I decided to have another bash and this time be even more CAS in my design choice to ensure I got under that time limit.  I turned to a cute cat from Papersmoochest this time and stamped her on kraft cardstock in brown ink and selected a matching scrap  of DP to sit her on.  I added some glossy black to her eyes, nose, mouth and necklace, and some white, green and gold to the eyes and left the rest in kraft.  I stamped the sentiment in black directly on the card but then felt it needed a little something more so cut some thin strips of black card to put at the top and bottom of the DP to ground it a little further.  Yeah-hah - almost 2 minutes under this time (so if you average the two out I made 2 in under 20 minutes so I hope that counts!)

Looking forward to playing along with this one (it's bimonthly) to see if it makes me a faster crafter!