Challenge #80 - Christmas Photo Inspiration

Our Challenge this fortnight, hosted by Fiona, is a photo inspiration challenge. Make a card or project inspired by the following photo. You can take inspiration from any part of it really, from the actual image or from the colours.

We are sponsored again by

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

and also by

CROP STOP

$15 Gift Certificate to the Crop Stop Store 

I chose to take the colours of the photo for my inspiration. I love the turquoise - but what caught my eye was the gold on the chairs. So I used those two as my main colours whilst bringing in a little white too.

Whilst looking for new ornaments for my tree, I came upon this turquoise sparkly snowflake ornament - and I knew that I wanted it for this project. It is rather large so I used an 8" square card - but it is rather light and doesn't make the card 'front-heavy'

I kept the glittery feel with white glitter card. I have a tonne of glitter card - I used to love using it all the time - but haven't done so recently - so there was plenty there for me to get stuck into. I used it to cut two Spellbinders Lace Doily motifs. These were laid on top of each other - one as a square and the other as a diamond. This provided the background for the snowflake. I also used the white for the scalloped square.

The gold card is from my local market - it's fairly lightweight card, but I love the fact that it is matt instead of shiny. I cut the small square for the snowflake using a nestie, and the large square was edged with the Classic Scallop Edgeability, and an insert from Decorative Inserts 6. 

The turquoise card is from the Create & Craft Pastel Textured Cardstock pad - I have both the brights and pastel and love them both!!  It was edged with an insert from the Classic Ric Rac set.

The wide ribbon and matching bow are from my stash - bought in Lidl several years ago. And the pearls are from Diamond Occasion - I have all sorts of colours of pearls from them!!

Take a look over on the Crafty Cardmakers website as there is loads more inspiration there from the rest of the fabulous Design Team.

Take care

Cxxxx 

Challenge #79 - More Than One Punch or Die Cut

Our challenge this time is hosted by BettyC and she would like you to use more than 1 punch or die cut. You can have a combination such as 1 punch and 1 diecut as that equals two, or two punches, two diecuts. You can use more if you wish as long as there is at least two in combination or two of either on your creation.



We are sponsored by Hobby Art with this fabulous prize of two stamp sheets. And by Milk Coffee Digital Stamps who are offering 5 digital stamps.
                                                  


This week's challenge was right up my street as I love die cutting with my Spellbinders. I had thought my creation would be an elaborate affair. But when it came to it, I actually went for something much more simple and restrained.

The base card just under 6" square and is from Craftwork Cards. The two mats are My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Papers - the largest cut with a simple square die - and the smaller with a scalloped square die. The pattern in the scalloped square was cut using one of the inserts from the Classic Triple Scallop Edgeabilties set. 

The flowers are cut from red card using the two largest dies from the Bitty Blossom set, and the letters with the X Cut DieLicious Rome Alphabet die. 

The finishing touch was a little bit of sparkle in the border with Cosmic Shimmer Aqua Twinkles. Overall, a really rather restrained card for me!! 

Pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog for more inspiration!!

Take Care,

Cxxx

Challenge 77 - Autumn or Autumn Colours !!

This week's challenge is set by the lovely Josephine who says 'There are always so many Hallowe'en challenges around! So instead of creating a Hallowe'en card I would like to see something that depicts the Season of Autumn, or maybe Harvest Festival, Guy Fawkes, Diwali or some other festival that happens in the Autumn. If your theme is a lesser-known festival, please tell us about it in your post! But remember, this is not a Hallowe'en challenge!'

We are sponsored this week by Milk Coffee Digital Stamps.

Well, it's been a while since I've been here on Blogger - pretty much a whole month!! I would so love to have more crafting time, but planning and marking has pretty much taken over my life in my temporary teaching post!! Ofsted is looming - and an air of urgency has entered every aspect of school (and home) life!! 

So, it was nice to sit down on Sunday morning and craft. To be honest, it also meant I could get my husband's anniversary card made at the same time. We will have been married 8 years on Tuesday, and we had a beautifully sunny autumn day for our wedding - with all the leaves looking so vibrant. The colours of the card match the colour theme of our wedding - burgundys, yellows and oranges - so this challenge seemed a perfect way to create his card.

I started by creating a heart template on the computer, and printing it onto 300gsm card. I then cut it out, folded it and inked it using Antique Linen, Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Aged Mahogany, Brushed Corduroy and Vintage Photo DI's. I didn't want a blended look, so literally splodged the foam onto the card - both back and front.

I then gathered together all my foliage dies - they are all Spellbinders and from a variety of sets including Foliage 1, and Spiral Blossoms. I also rummaged through my scraps box to use up smaller pieces of card - rather than cutting into anything new. I embossed them all for texture, and inked some whilst still in the dies.

These were randomly stuck onto the card to create a 3D textured effect - just like piles of leaves on the floor!! 

The finishing touch was the little plaque (cut using Spellbinders scalloped long oval) which I printed on my computer, and inked with Aged Mahogany whilst still in the die. !!

I am pretty pleased with how this turned out.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Challenge Up Your Life - Autumn/ Halloween

Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog - Autumn

Hopefully be back soon.

Cxxx

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 75 - Stitching & Lace

This week's host is our wonderful leader, Lin!! She would like to see stitching on your projects this time - hand, machine or faux, along with lace - this must be real NOT faux!!

We are sponsored by the wonderful Hobby Art stamps who are offering this wonderful set of stamps, and say: 
"As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain. Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range. We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries. Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X"

I have to admit that this one has been tough for me!! Not because of the subject - but because life seems to have just taken over. I have a teaching job for this term which came at short notice, along with all the planning and other things that come with it. I started on Monday having had a week's notice - and that week I was camping near Dartmoor so was not exactly conducive to planning and preparation for teaching. I literally came back on Sunday and went straight in on Monday. The picture is me on the zip wire over the Eden Project whilst on holiday - great fun!! My husband doesn't like heights so he took the photos from his vantage point safely on the ground. 

Anyway, all my plans for this challenge were put on hold whilst I frantically tried to get my head around what was happening. In the end I had to get up extra early on Saturday morning in order to find some time to do this. But, it did take my mind off everything else - and while it's not quite what I originally had in mind, I think it turned out OK.

At the end of my holiday, we did a slight detour to visit Crafty Devils in Barnstaple, and there I bought my new Sizzix Quilting dies. The 3" square (2.5" when finished), and the triangles which make a 3" square when sewn together. In this case, I didn't join them, just used them more like applique to make a background.

I sewed the two burgundy triangles onto a piece of the green floral quilting material (from a charm pack I bought - I think this one is from Pelenna Patchwork) using a decorative stitch on my machine. I used cream thread so that it showed up. I then stitched the square on top of this using burgundy thread (again so that it would show up). 

It was then stuck onto a piece of thick card to give it some rigidity. This, in turn, was mounted onto burgundy card, and green Bazzill. I covered an 8" card blank with burgundgy card, and stuck the mat onto it. I found the lace at a country fair craft stall - it came with the pearls already attached (probably why it caught my eye as I love pearls).

The glittery flowers have been in my box so long I cannot remember where I got them from, while the fabric one was from WH Smith (strange but true)!! 

Pop over the the Crafty Cardmakers blog to see what everyone else has been up to - and to welcome our new DT members! They have all created some stunning projects to inspire you!!

Will try to blog again soon - but won't promise anything.

Cxxx

CCM Challenge 74 - Winged Things

This week, our lovely host is Marie, who would like you to include something with wings!! It could be a fairy, angel, insect, bird - or anything else that has wings.

We are sponsored this week by Di's Digi Downloads, and also by The Stampman who are offering a £10 gift voucher for their store.

When this challenge was set, I was determined not to use butterflies - but have to admit that I couldn't really get inspired by anything else. In the end, I dug out my DCWV Safari Chic pad (the one that has been sitting around for 2 years waiting for me to scrapbook my Safari Holiday from 3 years ago!!) as I knew it had this gorgeous butterfly design!! 

I used the design to determine the colours for the rest of the card. The textured mats are all Bazzill, with the green patterned paper coming from a Brenda Pinnick pad I've had for years (so many sheets - I'm not sure I'll ever get through it!) 

I used the butterfly insert from the Spellbinders Edgeabilities Decorative Inserts Set 6 to cut the border on the light coloured mat. The leaves and flower are from the Carnation Creations set. I embossed them and inked through the die - Rusty Hinge DI for the flower, and Forest Moss DI for the foliage - to link with the orange and darker green of the design. 

The butterfly is from the Wings of Hope set. Because the butterfly paper is one sided, I stuck it back to back with the Brenda Pinnick paper, before cutting it as I didn't want the white showing. The other two layers of the butterfly are from the Bazzill card. 

I didn't want to use ribbon, so decided to colour some cream raffia with Rusty Hinge DI. Can't decide if I like it or not!! I filled the centre of the flower with gems from my Anita's Gemstone Wheel - both 2mm and 3mm. The little butterflies on the raffia and stem are the waste from the border. 

Don't forget to pop on over to Crafty Cardmakers to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the Design Team!! Then get your crafty stash out and link up your creation on the blog!! 

Cxxxx

What a Nitwit!!

It's my friend's daughter's 5th birthday next week, and I have to admit I was a little lacking in inspiration. My first attempt was great - but when I came back to it, it just seemed too grown up for a 5 year old. So, back to the drawing board!! I keep a box of odds and ends which I hope will come in useful at some point - and it was in there that I found the lamb left over from a Nitwits die cut sheet, along with the little heart I've placed on the sun, and the 'medal' too.

So, I then needed something for the background, and quite fancied having the lamb leaping up from grass!! So I dug in my CD-Rom box and found a freebie from Complete Cardmaking (probably from 2010) which had some Nitwits backing paper and other elements on!! So, I combined the fluffy cloud background for the sky with the green dotty one for the grass - along with the sunshine and grass from the elements. The orange stripe is also from the CD as is the yellow from which I have cut the letters and number.

I inked the edges of the bottom half with Shabby Shutters DI, and the top half with Scattered Straw DI. The lamb has some glitter glue to give it sparkle and texture, whilst its hooves and the heart have been glazed with Anita's 3D Clear Gloss Finish.

A fairly straightforward card - but still effective - and definately suitable for a 5 year old!!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Everybody Art Challenge - Anything Goes

Fashionista Challenge - A Card For a Child

Craft Your Days Away - Anything Goes

Don't forget, you still have time to enter the Seaside Postcard Challenge at Crafty Cardmakers - pop over for some inspiration!!

Cxxx

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #73 - Oh I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside!!

This week's challenge is set by the lovely Yvonne!! She would like to see postcards (6"x4") showing a beach scene. There must be some beach and sea in the background to the focal image.

We are sponsored this week by Digi Doodle Shop, who are offering a $10 gift certificate for their shop, and by One Stop Card Crafts who have a £10 gift voucher for their store.

So, I decided to do something completely different this week, and go completely digital using Serif Craft Artist. I've had a very limited play before, but I couldn't remember a whole lot so had to play around quite a bit before I finally achieved what I wanted. 

The sandy background is from the free Daisy Trail Holiday Photobook digikit. The other digikits I used elements from were Swirling Memories, Playground and British Street Party. I took the photos a while ago - this is them in their original state:

 

I knew that the software would fit my photos to the size of the frame - but I have to admit that it took me a while to realise I had to add the photos to the list at the side in order to do this!! The large frame is from Swirling Memories, and I really like the way that it gives the photo a much more aged look. The frame for the smaller three photos is from British Street Party. I sized the frame first and copy and pasted it, then dropped the photos in. The little group of buttons is from Swirling Memories, and the large button at the bottom is from Playground.

I created the caption using the Swirling Memories alphabet, and decided to make it a question - as while this is my idea of a great place to be - it may not be everyone's. So, do you "Wish you were here?"

Remember we are still looking for Design Team members, so pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers Blog to check out what the other DT members have been up to, then get your entry in, putting DT after your name if you would like to be considered.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Craft Your Days Away - Anything Goes

The Squirrel and the Fox - The Sea

Crafts 4 Eternity - Splish, Splash, Splosh

SJ Crafts - Summer Time

See you soon!!
Cxxx