2022 June 3 MTTC #483 Theme Bird/s WITH birdhouse or nest

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! What a delightful spring season theme to find crafty time making adorable birdie cards! My heart and soul got so excited anticipating this topic!

My Time To Craft challenge blog's #483 theme is Bird(s) WITH birdhouse or nest. Easy? Should be! While looking for a border option on another card, I noticed the very light pastel toned circle 'sheet' from Webster Pages that had the sentiment in the very center. Please use the cropped scanned closeup photo to see the "New Beginnings" bunting and nest image better. 

My DT inspiration commitment project for MTTC:

New Beginnings Birdies card:

Some design notes:

a. the cardstock platform for the wood laser die-cut birdies was put on thick adhesive foam tape in order to wrap the cording and help elevate these birdies even more; it also helps this recycled packaging yellow cardstock contrast with the soft yellow cardstock background layer.

b. sage green flat cardstock base dimensions: 4.25" high x 5.5" wide

c. Webster Pages for the New Beginnings sticker

d. 2 partial pieces of border stickers (oldies from Current catalog); the floral piece was placed on top of a bright pink cardstock scrap

e. birdies/chicks were plain wood to start with; 1 colored with yellow marker and the other with a yellow-orange marker; then a yellow-green glitter paint pen was applied over both

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MTTC #483 link=  https://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/06/mttc-483-theme-is-birds-with-birdhouse.html

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MTTC DT inspiration project #2:

Tweet--the bird is out of its cage card!

A few design and vendor notes for card #2: the yellow cardstock flat base is about 6.5" x 7"; the teal chevron stripe over old newspaper text print paper is from The Paper Studio; the pink gingham is a full sheet that's about 6" square from Hot Off The Press available through Paper Wishes website; the teal and white paper masking tape is Scotch Brands; the bird cage journaling card is from Webster Pages; the alphas are from Freckled Fawn; and the assortment of clear stamps are from Bo Bunny's Flower Garden Stamp Set. 

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other challenge blogs and Facebook groups where you will see a card photo/blog link are=

1. A Place To Start challenge blog; anything goes---not the option showing card #1 photo

link= https://hereisaplacetostart.blogspot.com/2022/05/challenge-052022-anything-goes.html

2. Critter Crazy Challenge Blog; Anything Goes with a featured critter; [card #1 photo will be the link due to the wood bird die-cuts plus more birds in the nest

link= https://2craftycrittercrazies.blogspot.com/2022/06/challenge-63-anything-goes-with.html

3. The Great Stash Bash April 2022; Card 2 is made from items I pulled to use in my kit; 

link- https://loriannie670.blogspot.com/2022/04/lisa-loris-great-stash-bash-april-kit.html 

**note= TGSB can be linked at Lori's posting or at Lisa's posting (Lori's got a link within her post to help if you're unfamiliar with )

4. The Seasonal Cardmaker group in FB; both are spring topics, pastel colors, birdies, 

5. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; stamping, decorative tapes, cording, wood laser cut shapes, glitter paint pens; ....

6. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group on FB; share Card #2 photo

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design Team member of : My Time To Craft and My Time To Craft Christmas challenge blogs

and

owner/lead designer of: Heart's Quest and FarmQuest Challenge Blogs

Finger Painting ATCS for a group swap

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog!!! Well, I can't believe I signed up for a finger painting event in a card making group but I did!!! It was one of 3 events for April and the last one for me to tackle. Literally, tackle. Extreme reluctance because I haven't done much painting of any kind for at least 6-7 years and then it was probably 25 years before that since the prior time. I have several relatives on each side of my family who are very talented in their painting, which might account for some of my resistance. 

I used white cardstock for my paint surface and light sage green cardstock base, 3 acrylic paints, and 1 gold tempera paint, and a small section of waxed paper as my paint palette. Oh, and then a fine detail point black pen to add in some structural lines for the tulips as well as signing each one. A black stamp pad was used to ink the white cardstock edges. That's it. Just some messy dabbing, streaking, swirling kinds of motions using 4 fingers, not the thumb. 

My results:

The above shown set are being sent to my 'swapee' in the FB club, For the Love of Cards.

The set shown below will either be kept or mailed to 1 or 2 special people...

What do you think? 

This was not my comfort zone but I'm just going to have to spend time dabbling if I want to build my confidence. There's also the fact of being my own worst critic. sigh....

Facebook groups or a few challenge blogs were I can link this post are:

1. For the Love of Cards (greeting style and ATCs only) club/group in FB; currently 14 members, I think, with a limit of 25. April 2022 event. Swap exchange.

2. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; small private group started by me; if interested in joining, please let me know; currently I've been the only one to do the sharing but would love to have others who would like to share when they used more than paper/cardstock for a project....

3. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group in FB; encourages usage of inks and markers for adding color; 

4. Crafting Happiness Challenges blog; May 1st start date; AG

link= https://craftinghappinesschallenges.blogspot.com/2022/05/123-may-anything-goes-always.html

5. Mixed Media Lovers challenge blog; May 3rd start date; any mixed media project

link= https://mixedmedialovers.blogspot.com/2022/05/challenge-13-mixed-media-lovers.html

6. Get Creative Challenges blog; May; use flowers; [my tulips ATC is the one to showcase]

link= https://getcreativechallenges.blogspot.com/2022/05/ch-111-use-flowers.html

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

also owner of 2 challenge blogs:

Heart's Quest & its current extra page challenge of Valentine's Day Cards 

and

FarmQuest & on May 14-27, FQCB will have an extra page challenge of Thanksgiving Holiday Cards

Sketch Layout Plus Ink Blended Background Card

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! Oh my! It's very unusual nowadays to create a card that is not a design team or my own challenge blog inspiration commitments. Three-and-a-half days ago, my personal email inbox got notices from PCC and MTC about their new challenges. I started on the MTC first and actually used 1 full sheet of white cardstock that I divided into 4 sections.

I used the same 4 colors stamp ink pads and 2 makeup sponges for the applications that varied in pressure, amount of ink, and direction of the blending and overlaying. This post's featured card is the first one to be released. The other 3 will be revealed in a few weeks for upcoming commitments. 

This is "A Happy Heart" thinking of you card=

More design notes:

An old stencil set from Pebbles that has been in my stash for about 12 years had been resurrected this month and one of the stencils provided the brackets. I thought this would be my own little creative twist on the 'label' shape seen in PCC's sketch. 

I forget the vendor for the stenciled message but it was the perfect fit inside the brackets. The glittery decorative tapes are in lieu of the thin long strips shown on the sketch. And due to the placement of the brackets on the right side of the ink blended DIY section, I only put the 'strips' on the left side. A blush pink cardstock is placed behind the panel as the secondary background panel. Then those were mounted on a brighter pink cardstock along with a few blue gems for accents and to give more blue on the card. 

I'm very pleased with the cheerful card. 

Link-ups of this card will be found at these blogs and FB groups=

A. Make The Cards Challenge #53

https://makethecardschallenge.com/make-the-cards-challenge-53/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=make_the_cards_challenge_weekly_prompt&utm_term=2022-04-20 

B. Paper Craft Crew challenges #467

http://papercraftcrew.com/pcc467-horizontal-sketch-challenge/

C. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group in FB

D. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB

E. Paper, Paper, Paper and DT Calls group in FB

F. Word Art Wednesday challenge Weeks

link= http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com/2022/04/anything-goes-weeks-539-540.html

G. Scripturally Inspired Creativity group in FB

H. Christian Card Making ~ Women's Fellowship group in FB

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

also owner of 2 fairly new challenge blogs: 

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog

and

FarmQuest Challenge Blog

2022 MTTC April 8 #479 Springtime Insects Theme DT card

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! The 2 featured cards I've made are showing butterflies, my favorite insects! I've heard the quote many times calling butterflies as fluttering flowers or flying flowers! The complexity of color and design in their wings and how graceful they look has always fascinated me. So when as a DT member I learned about this theme, I knew I had many to choose from out of my stash. 

My Time To Craft challenge blog #479 theme is Springtime Insects.

Released on April 8, 2022 at 12am CST/6am UK and will be open for participants until April 21, 2022 at 12am CST/6am UK.

link for #479= http://mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/04/mttc-479-theme-is-springtime-insects.html

Card #1= Pink and Black It's a Beautiful Life Birthday card

Card #1 design notes:

1. base is black, top-folded, 4.25" wide x 5.5" high, Pen + Gear

2. pink background panel, Astrobrights/Neenah

3. pink and white stripe panel, pink with white Xs, and the white with pink scallops, Mint Berry paper pad from The Paper Studio (this is my 2022 selected papers to bash this year; read earlier posts made in late January and early February about this)

4. the pink tonal floral strip and the featured sentiment journal card that was trimmed down are from My Mind's Eye, a collection I bought several years ago

5. embellishments: pale pink crystal gem, message stamp, black ink pad, and the corrugated backed butterfly are all stash items; I took off the corrugated butterfly layer and stamped it black in order to disguise the kraft color since this card also fits for a Pink and Black card swap challenge that only allowed white as an additional neutral

Card #2: Hello and Happy Birthday card=

Isn't this lovely! I'm glad I kept the color combination simplified. When I started assembling items to make this, I thought I wanted the base to be a pale peach/blush pink or to go to a bold orange but the chocolate brown won the dilemma!

Design notes for Card #2=

1. brown cardstock base is about 6" wide and 4.25" high; 

2. the pale green and white floral cardstock; Mint Berry pack from The Paper Studio

3. the olive green and crinkled copper/bronze specialty paper are scraps; cut as 2" squares

4. the white hello is a 'dazzle' from Paper Wishes website

5. the butterflies, amber heart crystal gems, sentiment stamp, black ink pad; stash items

6. an aqua/teal blue marker was used to add outline contrast to the thin font lines of the stamp used to make 'happy birthday'

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other challenge blogs and FB groups for Card #1

A. Creative Moments challenge blog; theme= for a special lady; all 3 projects are/have been sent to women; the pink and black was for a card club swap with all women members....

link= https://carabbiemomentsofcraft.blogspot.com/2022/03/creative-moments-challenge-232-for.html

B. Seize the Birthday challenge blog; Card 1 has some stripes in the pink and white diagonal background cardstock, so it qualifies for the topping option

link= http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2022/03/seize-birthday-235-stripe-it-up.html

C. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; 

D. 100 Pattern Papers Challenge group in FB; cardstocks from the Mint Berry pack from The Paper Studio were used for this card

E. Card Crafting Club [has closed since I started this draft; 2 moderators started "For the Love of Cards" private group] in FB; Pink and Black card swap was a Feb 2022 event; another pink and black card was made for the swap; this 2nd one shown above was made at the same time but not revealed until this MTTC challenge 

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other challenge blogs and FB groups for Card #2

a. The Four Seasons Challenge blog; April 2022 is open to the 25th; anything spring season; Card 2 has the butterflies and the pretty sage green and white field of wildflowers patterned cardstock

link= https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2022/04/april-spring-challenge.html

b. The Crafter's Cafe Challenges blog; current March 15 monthly challenge is still open; theme=use some flowers; Card 2 has the pretty sage green and white floral/field of wildflowers patterned cardstock

link= https://crafterscafeblogchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/03/15-march-283-use-some-flowers.html

c. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB

d. 100 Pattern Papers Challenge group in FB; 1 cardstock from the Mint Berry pack from The Paper Studio was used for this card; I was able to use all but about a 1/2" side strip of a full sheet that this paper pad stack with horizontal print layouts have...the remaining sheets and scraps are my 2022 goal to bash this year!

e. Paper, Paper, Paper and DT Calls group in FB

f. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group in FB; sharing site

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ATC--"What's buzzing?"

A few design notes about the ATC/artist trading card:

1. typical ATC size of 2.5" x 3.5"; thick kraft cardstock for base

2. the white with spring green Moroccan tile patterned paper is very old Colorbok bold print photo mat paper pad

3. the green and gold chevron stripe 'tag'--what's shown is only about half; the flower and bee are stash item embellishments; I just got a bunch of tag sets and I've already forgotten who the vendor is on this...sorry

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The ATC will be shared in 2 FB groups:

a. For the Love of Cards group; private greeting card and ATC making group; this is not for an April event but will share the ATC photo to the group

b. Homemade Card Making for Beginners group in FB; sharing site

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design team members:

My Time To Craft challenge blog

My Time To Craft Christmas challenge blog

Personal paper-crafting blog: Becca's Heart for Creativity

Owner of 2 challenge blogs:

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog; Color #2 challenge is open to the wee hours of April 13th

FarmQuest Challenge Blog; Theme #1 challenge is open to the wee hours of April 13th, too

Easter Card with floral and scalloped focal

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog!!! My heart's excited that I've made another Easter card! I love Easter Sunday almost as much as Christmas! My favorite Bible passage is John 14: 1-6. Such hope from those verses! We also became honorary grandparents this afternoon with the arrival of little Aubrey Bethany! My husband has been like a dad mentor figure and garage buddy to Aubrey's dad. Aubrey's mom is the former pet parent of our "Mr. Bennett". Little Aubrey weighs just under 6 pounds at 5 lbs. 10 oz., so I might have to shop for a few preemie outfits tomorrow. Not sure if they have any small stuff. We're hoping to meet Aubrey either tomorrow or Monday!!!! Exciting! 

But I've digressed. This Easter card is not for a DT commitment, so I will link it to other challenge blogs and share with several Facebook groups.

Floral Scalloped Focal Easter card=

Design notes: 

1. white cardstock base 5" wide x 7" high

2. pale pink cardstock inner base is 1/4" smaller than the white base

3. pink tonal stripe print paper has been in my stash for a long time

4. more white cardstock was used for the stenciled scalloped focal; stencils from Hot Off The Press/Paper Wishes website

5. pine green, grass green, magenta, purple markers

6. purple, red, and green glitter paint pens used on the center flower of the focal piece

7. gold cardstock scrap, fine black ink pen, and clear gems complete the card

Inspiration for pulling out the old stencil pack from HOTP/PW came from seeing Donna W's inspiration DT card at Four Seasons Challenge Blog. THANKS, Donna W!!!! I haven't used any of the stencils from the set for probably several years. Springtime is the perfect time to use the scalloped 'circle' and the flower (flipped to get opposite direction and then I altered it slightly to get a center straighter stem flower). 

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Challenge blogs and Facebook groups to share this beauty:

A. The Four Seasons Challenge Blog; April 2022; Anything Spring Season;

link= https://thefourseasonschallenge.blogspot.com/2022/04/april-spring-challenge.html

B. Crafting Happiness challenge blog; April 2022; Anything Goes

link= https://craftinghappinesschallenges.blogspot.com/2022/04/122-april-anything-goes-always.html

C. The Crafter's Café Challenge Blog; Use some flowers theme; 

link= https://crafterscafeblogchallenge.blogspot.com/2022/03/15-march-283-use-some-flowers.html

D. Mixed Media Creativity FB group; stenciling, glitter paint pens, markers, gems used besides paper/cardstock

E. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group; sharing

F. The Seasonal Cardmaker FB group; spring season = pinks, flowers, Easter sentiment

G. Paper, Paper, Paper and DT Calls FB group; sharing

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Crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

owner of Becca's Heart for Creativity blog

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog (1st challenge was posted 2/28/2022; 3rd challenge is still open)

FarmQuest Challenge Blog (1st challenge started 3/28/2022 and is still open)

design team member:

My Time To Craft challenge blog

My Time To Craft Christmas challenge blog

1 April 2022 MTTCC #31 Use 3 or more patterned papers format Christmas cards

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! It's that time in rotation to share the new challenge theme design team commitment for My Time To Craft Christmas challenge blog! At MTTCC the requirement will be how you format your Christmas card with 3 or more patterned papers. Yes!

There are lots of sketch layouts that suggest 2 by splitting on the diagonal, however what can you do with three? Use the link below to see what my teamies created. I chose to do snowy evening winter skies for 2 cards...actually I made 4!!! Only 2 are being shown at MTTCC. The only 2 you will see have more red on them. This challenge starts April 1st (no fooling) at 12 am Central Time/Chicago and goes to April 14th at same time. 

These are the 2 featured at MTTCC:

Design notes: White card base is 6" square or close to it. The black background is about 5.5" wide and 4.25" high. Silver and white embossed cardstock is from Martha Stewart. The navy blue with white stars cardstock is from Echo Park. The navy blue with snowflakes cardstock is from ..... The red Merry Christmas and the silver and blue dazzles are from Paper Wishes website. The 2 different ribbons that I overlapped were bought at Dollar Tree, I think. They both have a silver metallic stitching in the middle. The 2nd card has 3 blue crystal gems added for a corner accent. 

My Time To Craft Christmas challenge blog #31 competition link can be read here:

link=  https://mytimetocraftchristmas.blogspot.com/2022/04/mttcc-31-technique-to-use-3-or-more.html

 

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Other challenge blogs and Facebook groups where I will link to:

1. The Holly and Ivy Christmas challenge blog; Anything Christmas Goes; 

link= http://thehollyandivychristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/2022/03/challenge-112-anything-christmas-goes.html

2. ABC Christmas Challenge blog; Letters E, F, and G; my cards fit the Letter F (fussy and fancy); there is the shine of the foil dazzles and light bouncing off the gems; also the first card has the elegant ribbons...

link= https://abcchristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/2022/03/abc-christmas-challenge-e-f-and-g-are.html

3. Paper, Paper, Paper and DT Calls group in FB; sharing

4. The Seasonal Cardmaker group in FB; sharing for winter season

5. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group on FB; sharing

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The other 2 which could be featured separately on their own posting =

Design notes: Red 6" square (or could be 6.5" high and 6" wide) cardstock bases with the smaller black backgrounds. Paper choices are more mixed here. Silver mirror foil pieces are on the top card. A navy blue constellation sky cardstock is from .... More blue and silver dazzles (and red Merry Christmas) from Paper Wishes were embellished more with blue crystal gems. And red glitter foam hearts from my stash box. 

This version below is different with the addition of the dark red tonal star cardstock from Echo Park. More dazzles from Paper Wishes. The large silver glitter snowflake is a thick wooden laser die-cut ornament. A red heart crystal gem covers the tiny circle opening for thread. In person, these last 2 cards are very vibrant and to me are more festive. The first two don't have as much visual contrast with the only red being the sentiment and sticking closely to the black, blue, white and silver combination. 

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Thanks for reading my post! I also appreciate all who take time to comment. It will be fun looking at the linked submissions of participants to see different layouts (proportions of paper choices) and their choices of winter holiday papers and topics. 

I kept mine to snowflakes and night sky papers that came from different Christmas paper pad collections. 

Heartfelt gratitude and still crafting in the USA heartland,

Becca S

Design Team member of MTTCC and its sister blog, MTTC

owner of 2 new challenge blogs:

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog (https://heartsquestchallenge.blogspot.com) 

and 

FarmQuest Challenge blog (https://farmquestchallenge.blogspot.com)

(Come on over and check these, too!!!)

Under The Sea Themed Birthday card

 Welcome to Becca's Heart for Creativity blog! It's a rarity for me to get a card made that is not a design team commitment especially now that I've started my own challenge blogs! I hadn't looked at an AAA Birthday challenge blog for awhile and thought I'd try to get a card made before their deadline. However the theme of sea life became the challenge for me to conquer. This is very subtle but see what I came up with. Seize the Birthday's new challenge theme option is to "stripe it up" so this counts, too. The inspiration colors for The Card Concept match perfectly with the Seaside Retreat stickers used for "Under The Sea Birthday" card=

All of the stickers are from Seaside Retreat sticker sheet from Webster Pages. I've almost bashed this sheet. Zoom or enlarge the photo for details which I will describe. The bottom border sticker has sand dollars, fish, seahorses, and octopus. The short label sticker has a crowned fish! A short border of sand dollars are under the palm tree which was plain wood die-cut from Dollar Tree. I used a dark brown marker to color the trunk portion first then went over the whole surface with a green glitter paint pen. Then the other stickers are still part of the Seaside Retreat. A scrap of light yellow cardstock was stamped with the main sentiment 'happy birthday'. 

I was wanting this to a slimline card with just the blue and white being the card base however the cardstock was lighter weight and just felt too flimsy and I really wanted to get more sea life on there, so getting that bottom border sticker was vital. Overall dimensions are close to 8 or 8.25" wide and about 5-5.25" deep.

For my typical style, this is actually CAS--clean and simple. I still want to add more to it but I would have to go buy or do an online search for a free digital image/clipart. It is very hard for me to keep it simpler. 

Overall the symbolism of a scene was made: white for sky, scalloped border sticker is marking the horizon and to serve as land/seashore and blue for water. I don't use frames very often, but it was fun using the frame sticker from the Seaside Retreat sheet and creating a focal area. 

Link-ups for participation at certain challenge blogs and sharing in FB groups are:

1. AAA Birthday- birthday card challenges; #35; Under the Sea; 

link= https://aaabirthday.blogspot.com/2022/03/game-35-under-sea.html

2. Seize the Birthday challenge blog; anything birthday with option topping of 'stripes'= the scalloped border strip that separates blue from white or water from sky has short little vertical stripes of colors

link= http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2022/03/seize-birthday-235-stripe-it-up.html

3. The Card Concept challenge blog; started March 30th; #172; my inspiration for the card was to make it an under the sea themed birthday yet the color palette matches perfectly with the inspiration photo colors in TCC's photo=

link= https://thecardconcept.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-card-concept-172-easter-blessings.html

my card has a green card base and green palms, light blue 'sea' and light blues in the frame design, orange in the bottom border, sand dollars, and scalloped border stickers; and light gray in the scalloped border sticker. 

4. Mixed Media Creativity group in FB; brown marker, green glitter paint pen, blue ink stamp pad and HB stamping as well as inking the edges of the white and blue panel

5. Passionate Paper Creations and Friends group in FB; sharing

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Crafting in the USA heartland (and not from deep in the ocean!!!)--

Becca S

this is not a design team commitment project however the 2 challenge blogs I own are:

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog

and

FarmQuest Challenge Blog

please go check them out; I just started HQCB on 2/28/2022 and FQCB on 3/28/2022!!!!!!