Winter Wreath of Joy

I just had to have this die set (Sizzix Festive Wreath) when I saw it - there were so many useful elements I thought it was great value!  However as is often the case, when it arrived it was a little bit bigger than I had anticipated and so it fell into that black hole that is my NBUS pile and I soon forgot about it! 

  Thankfully, Dawn has chosen Christmas Foliage as the theme for the month of April at  Sparkles Christmas Challenge 171, so I was inspired to dig a little deeper in my NBUS pile and found it!

Once I had constructed the layered elements and arranged them satisfactorily on my wreath I added a single word sentiment (from an old Reverse Confetti set I think) in red to pick up the red berries (both glossily accented) and added them to a red card base!

I'd like join the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #73 - NBUS Wreath die set;

The 12 Months of Christmas Challenge #121 - Anything Goes Christmas Optional Twist Vintage;

ABC Christmas Challenge - F is for Focal Sentiment;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #61 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Festive Friday Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Girls Creative Christmas Challenge #118 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge #84 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Ellibelle's Corner April Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate

Leap of Faith

Challenge #280 at Time Out Challenges has just gone live and this fortnight we want to see projects Inspired By Your Favourite Movie!  

This challenge is generously being sponsored by Claire Brennan Design and Illustrations and Claire is offering this incredible Stamp set as a prize for our Top Pick as chosen by the design team!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Ginger of Andora's Stamping Studio!  Be sure to check out how Ginger was inspired by her favourite movie as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!

Many of you will remember Claire Brennan from her Waltzing Mouse Stamps days!  As soon as I heard Claire was back I went shopping and this stamp set was first in my basket!  I love the mid 20th century city skyline which could be any city but I'm thinking New York ... and therefore the perfect backdrop for a card inspired by my favourite movie West Side Story.  With a little imagination, this NBUS dancer (Spellbinders Just Dance) could very well be Maria as she dances and sings I Feel Pretty!

I'd like to enter the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #72 - NBUS dancer;

Cut It Up Challenge #326 - The Colous of Spring (I'm thinking of the blossoms on my ornamental plum tree which are about to bloom);

Cards4Galz #246 - Spring time (who doesn't leap for joy when it finally arrives);

A Cut Above March Challenge - Anything Goes;

Word Power March Challenge

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate

Roll out the Red Carpet

Onefer

 

The 97th Academy Awards have just concluded and once again the bold and beautiful have graced the red carpet with their elegant (and at times eccentric) fashion choices!  Time Out Challenge #284 is all about past and present red carpet haute couture as inspiration!

Our challenge is sponsored by Picket Fence Studios who have very generously donated a $25 store credit to be awarded to our top pick as voted by the Design Team.  Our winner will also be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  Speaking of guest designers, we are joined this challenge by  Carol our winner of Challenge 279!  Please do drop by and see what she has made especially for this challenge and if you didn't come from the Challenge Blog, drop by there as well and see how the rest of the team were inspired by Red Carpet masterpieces!

Stephanie has handpicked a few creations from previous Academy Awards to help you on your way but feel free to find your own red carpet outfit  - please include a photo so we can appreciate how you were inspired!  Here's a closer look at Stephanie's picks

Can you guess which of these magnificent dresses was my initial inspiration for this challenge?  Yes it was Halle Berry's gorgeous number, though it was a tough choice as I also had ideas a few of the others and there was also a beautiful dress Liz Taylor wore for her first Academy Award in 1961!

Here's a closeup of Halle's dress!  Firstly the sheer bodice - I framed a panel of dark red vellum (so I'd have somewhere to hide any adhesive)!  Next the embroidery - I used this NBUS fuchsia die set (Memory Box Delicate Fuchsia Trio) to mimic the spray of greenery and flowers on Halle's gorgeous dress.

I did make up all three flowers from the trio but I only used one in the end so there was room for this "fabulous" word die (Honey Bee)!  I guess the alliteration appealed to me and luckily it just fitted inside the frame!  Lastly, once everything was in place I added a little sparkle to mimic the gold sheen in  Halle's dress with my newly acquired Wink of Stella pen (loving it)!

Twofer

I couldn't let all that inspiration go to waste and Zoe Saldana's dress with all it's billowing frills made me think of Ursula from the Little Mermaid and I was inspired to make this octopus card for my husband's birthday using 3 shades of purple - light to dark as in Zoe's dress.

The die is actually meant to be interactive with the bottom legs spinning independently of the rest of the body but I struggled to give it enough support while still allowing the legs to swing so I went with an action wobbler element instead.

And what would an Octopus do without his garden?  I cut some coral with dies from a few different sets from various coloured snippets (below is just a sample that I thought to photograph during construction).

The signpost die is from the same set as the Octopus but the sentiment is from a Poppy Stamps set (Whittle Sea Life Sentiment) - I performed surgery on it so it could be split across 2 lines.  

I'd like to enter both cards in the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #72 - NBUS Fuchsia die set, NBUS Octopus;

I'd like to enter Card 1 in the Snippets Challenge #501 - various coloured snippets were useful for cutting the coral;

I'd like to enter card 2 in the following fab challenges;

Fab n Funky Challenge #612 - Punny Sentiment;

Crafty Animals Challenge #92 - Include an animal;

Die cut Divas March Challenge - Include a critter (and a die cut);

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate

Sparkling Deer

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 170 has just gone live and Billie has chosen Christmas Critters as the theme for the month of March!

One of the most useful items I bought last year was this 3D-embossing folder (Sizzix 663613 Folk Art Pattern) the has added gorgeous texture and interest without detracting from the elegance of my Christmas Critter (Poppy Stamps Nordic Deer).   

Actually this is a redo of a previous design with much cooler stash than I had at the time - the deer, the banner (Spellbinders Make it Merry Sentiments Dies) and the "Sparkle" (Creative Craft Sparkle and Shine sentiment die).   

The banner die was another really useful item - it's a four die set with interchangeable sentiments.  So you can have a plain banner or any of the 3 sentiments included in the set - Jingle All the Way and Make it Merry are the other sentiments.   What I really love about this die set is the ridge that forms a border around the banner when the sentiment die is inserted ... also no poking required!

I cut the banner and lace collar from this lovely gold glitter paper I saved from a Christmas Cracker.

And once I'd cut and assembled the deer, I sprinkled glitter onto wet glossy accents for some real sparkle.  I did the same for the stacked "sparkle" sentiment.

I'd like join the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #72 - NBUS Nordic embossing folder, sentiment banner, "sparkle" sentiment;

Snippets Challenge #500 - Sneaking in with my gold snippets and hoping the Christmas theme, sparkle and touches of gold are celebratory enough

Crafty Animals Challenge #92 - Use an animal on your creation;

ABC Christmas Challenge - C and D - D is for die cuts;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #61 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Festive Friday Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you go away a little inspired!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and will try to find you!

Kate

Birthday CASE

 Challenge #283 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we are celebrating Time Out's 11th Birthday with a CASE of the fabulous Donna Mikasa.  Donna's work can be seen on her blog Three Umbrellas and there is always loads of inspiration to be had so I strongly suggest you consider following her!

Here's a closeup of Donna's lovely card!

For those unfamiliar with CASEing, there is a nifty acronym coined by Ardyth Percy-Robb for helping you take inspiration from someone else's work but making it your own - L I M E S!

List

Include

Modify

Exclude

Spin

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but this is the list of things I loved about this design (and included) 

the diagonally cut panel

the stencilled flowers

the overall dry embossing 

the sequins

the central sentiment panel with the scalloped border!

I modified the colour scheme and my spin (literally by 90°) was to make my card portrait!

The stencil I used was NBUS - it came with the Spellbinders Advent Calendar last December.  I have given stencilling a fairly wide berth till now (despite the many beautifully stencilled creations I've seen of late) but this CASE seemed as good an opportunity as ever to roll up my sleeves and challenge myself and of course use some NBUS stash!

This challenge is sponsored by Gina K. Designs who are offering our winner as voted by the Design Team, a generous $25 Store Credit.    

The Top Pick as chosen by the Design Team will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, we are joined this challenge by  Jacinda of LazzieJ's Crafting Corner - our winner of Challenge 278!  You can also see how   and the rest of the team have CASEd Donna's card over on the Challenge Blog!

So I hope you can take some Time Out and join us this fortnight.  You have until the March 12th to link up your entries ... we can't wait to see how Donna's card will inspire you!

I'd like to enter my card in the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #71 - NBUS Embossing Folder and Foliage dies;

Can You Handle the Pressure February Challenge - embossing, no masculine twist;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

Triple B February Challenge - Blooms only;

Twofer :

This is what my first the stencilled attempt looked like.  I had to cut the panel down because of smudges and the one of those pink spots hides another!  Still I'm glad that I could save it and pretty happy with the way the card turned out in the end!  The foliage in the background was cut from dies included in the Spellbinders Advent Calendar as well as some from an older Be Bold Blooms set.  The banner sentiment is also from the Spellbinders Advent Calendar - I'm getting a lot of use out of that calendar!

I'd like to enter my 2nd card in the following challenges

Seize the Birthday Challenge #300 - No Stamping;

Crazy is our Fame Stencils are our Game February Challenge - Stencils + Pinks and/or Reds;

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge - Red or Pink;

A Cut Above February Challenge - Anything Goes (with a die cut);

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate

In the Bag

 Challenge #282 has Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight it's an Inspiration Photo Challenge!

Here's a closer look!

This challenge is generously sponsored by Kim Heggins of Running Stitch Design.  Kim is offering this lovely bag as a prize for our Top Pick as chosen by the Design Team (inside USA only - thank you for understanding).   Many of you will remember Kim as a former Design Team member at Time Out!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  Speaking of guest designers, we are joined this challenge by Arlene Rose of Sunday Stamper - our winner of Challenge 277!   Arlene and the rest of the team have plenty of inspiration for you over on the Challenge Blog!

I used an old Cuttlebug embossing folder (Snowflakes) to emboss a panel of black card stock and an NBUS 3D Textured Impressions folder (Sizzix 664509) to emboss some red card stock.    Unfortunately, I decided after this to use nested dies to cut the pieces down to size which flattened the patterns a little!   However the patterns are still visible and I do prefer the rounded edges of a die cut panel to the rough edges of an embossed panel.  I added the red panel to the black with a slightly taller panel of white in between to create a border between the black and red.

As a nod to the little zip charm, I added a stacked snowflake with a gold centre.  This large "Let it Snow" sentiment (Avery Elle Let is Snow Die set) seemed like the obvious choice.

I did add Wink of Stella to the sentiment and snowflake but this proved difficult to photograph!

I'd like to enter the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #71 - NBUS Embossing Folder;

Little Red Wagon Challenge #794 - Red Alert;

Can You Handle the Pressure - Anything Goes Optional Flocon de Neige (snowflake);

Kraft Chicks Challenge Week 2 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Word Power February Challenge - Focal Sentiment;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and should be able to find you!

Kate