Mirror Mirror

 

Challenge #295 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have another

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Our team mate Jenny snapped this fabulous pic of an antique store on one of her shopping expeditions - here's a closer look at this fabulous source of inspiration!

Challenge 299 is being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $25 store credit and the Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge and speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is  xxx - our winner from Challenge #294!  You can see how xxx was inspired by our photo as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!  I do hope you can take some Time Out and come play cards with us this fortnight!

I was immediately inspired by the frames and I was reminded how last year I realised one of my old Spellbinders oval dies can look very much like an antique frame.  Initially, I resisted the urge to make a mirror though many of the frames in the pic are mirrors!  However, as I had no suitable artwork ideas for the frame (other than the one I made last year) I looked for the shiniest mirror card I could find and went looking for a sentiment!  

Yes, obvious though it seems with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight vision, the "mirror mirror" idea did not dawn on me immediately!  I think it hit me when I started to consider how I would do the wall behind the mirror!   "Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?" - although in this case, the inside will read - "who's the handsomest one of all" because it's for my son!

I probably didn't need the "mirror mirror" sentiment - it's pretty obviously a mirror and it's very obviously a wall (Brickwork embossing folder by Tim Holtz)!  However, I thought it would remove any doubt if I made up a sentiment (using MS Word and the Decotech DL font) and cut with one of my favourite little frame dies (from Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles).

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #79 - NBUS sentiment set;

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 how to find you!

Kate

Non-traditional Christmas Colours

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 177 has just gone live and Helen has chosen Non-Traditional Colours as our challenge theme for the month of October!  When it comes to making up Christmas cards I often get inspiration from the many DP pads I have trouble parting with,  so that was where I headed first ... and this sheet of pink and black DP caught my eye!  

The gift images and all the sparkly silver accents inspired me further (particularly the black spotted presents) and I remembered this very old Sizzix Regular die (Gift 2) which is a large present with a wonderful big bow on it  and I made that up this spotted present with a big sparkly silver bow.  The bow and present are all one large piece (the Sizzix Original dies were not known for their fine detail were they) so I had to remove the present from the bow - following the curve of the "ribbon" and snipping at the bottom, and cutting it again from silver.

As well as the bow, I cut a little tag (Spellbinders Delivering Joy Sleigh) and a large "Christmas" sentiment from a NBUS set (Sizzix Holiday Words by Tim Holtz) from silver glitter card stock and the design came together pretty quickly (for once)!   I went over all that silver glitter with Glossy Accents so it wouldn’t shed!

Here's a closeup of all the sparkle

I do hope you are inspired by the rest of the Design Team at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge and can join us with a non-traditional colour combo card of your own - not long now till Christmas!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #79 - NBUS "Christmas" sentiment;

Simon Says StampWednesday Challenge - Think Pink; 

Word Power October Challenge;

Merry Little Christmas #64 - Anything Christmas 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

What a Blast!

 

Time Out Challenge #298 has just gone live and it's one of our new challenges for 2025 - a Pick 2 Challenge! 

The concept of a Pick 2 Challenge is obvious - we give you 6 word prompts to choose from and you use at least 2 to inspire your creation!  To be clear, you can pick more than 2 if you like - all 6 if you really want a challenge but just make sure to pick at least 2!

The Word Prompts for this challenge are

Spatter, Music, Season, Edge, Monochrome, Metallic

You can interpret these words any way you like but please explain if it isn't obvious and please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!  I hope you enjoy our challenge and that you can take a little Time Out and join us for some fun!  

Challenge #298 is generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to their store!  

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 xxx our winner of Challenge #293!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how xxx and my talented team mates were inspired by these six words!

This card is for a friend of mine - a fabulous musician and one of the most generous people you could ever meet.  She has been "gigging for bricks" here in Luxembourg to build a school in Tanzania and travelling there annually to teach and share her musical talent.  Up until recently she owned a string of creches with the name "Sunflower" and the name of her band is "Alizeti" which is Swahili for Sunflower - so obviously I had to include sunflowers (Sizzix Garden Shed by Sophie Guilar) and thought it might be fun to have musical motifs (Memory Box Musical Motif) as well as sunflowers bursting out from a saxophone!

I chose the saxophone (Leabilities Saxophone), not because she plays it but because I do (I have made her numerous cards over the years with guitars) and I realised that as it's made of metal I already had two elements picked for Challenge #298 and looked to the others to help me complete the card! 

Spatter was an obvious choice and I stamped some splats (WPlus9 InkSplats and WMS Splat-That) for interest and texture behind the sunflowers and musical motifs.

I realised I could place this NBUS sentiment along the "edge" of the panel (CreativeExpressions Stacked Sentiment Happy Birthday) and so I could make it to 4 - Music, Metal, Spatter and Edge!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #78 - NBUS Stacked Sentiment set;

Triple B September Challenge - Blooms (no Birds or Butterflies)

Simon Says Stamp 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 how to find you!

Kate

The Colour Purple

I was honoured a few weeks ago to receive a Guest Designer Star at Traumfabrik (for this card).  Traumfabrik (The Dream Factory) chooses a movie each month as a source of inspiration and this month they have chosen the movie Harold and the Purple Crayon!

Here is the movie poster and die Traumfabrik would like us to create something inspired by the colour purple - you can use other colours but the colour purple must be the main colour!  Traumfabrik welcomes any kind of handmade projects - card, art journal page, ATC, canvas or 3D project! 

My daughter-in-law loves the colour purple so for their wedding card, naturally I chose purple as the dominant colour!  

I cut all the flowers and leaves (Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms) from white card stock and coloured them with alcohol markers and used glossy accents on the main flower's centre for dimension, then arranged them on the horseshoe (Uniquely Creative) until I was happy.  The horseshoe was cut from brown cardstock and coated with Versafine ink and embossed with PSX Woven Tapestry embossing powder until I got a good coverage to give it an aged, rusty appearance.  This embossing powder has been in my stash for decades but WOW! has similar embossing powders.

The shadow for the sentiment (Sue Wilson Mini Shadowed Congratulations) was cut from purple card stock and the congratulations was cut from white and stacked then I tried to get an ombre effect using alcohol markers.  A sprinkling of purple pearls and a purple butterfly finished off the card!

I hope you'll be able to join us at die Traumfabrik for this fun challenge and check out what the talented Dream Team have made to inspire you here!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

Neglected Stuff Challenge 9/25 - Neglected Horseshoe, neglected embossing powder;

Triple B September Challenge - Blooms and a Butterfly;

Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. Week 3 - E = Embossing wet or dry;

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 how to find you!

Kate

Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall?

 

Another fun challenge has just gone live at Time Out Challenges - we would like to see how you are inspired by Your Favourite Season!

Challenge #297 is generously being sponsored by Waffle Flower and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to their store!  

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 Darnell our winner from Challenge #292.  Darnell’s blog is one of my favourite places to visit - be sure to check out how she was inspired by her favourite season and her latest escapades!  And you can see how my talented team mates were inspired by their favourite season over on the Time Out Blog!

I have always loved Autumn!  When I lived in Australia it was always a relief when the cooler months of Autumn gave us some respite from the summer heat.  Plus, my dad came from Tumut, which was nestled at the foot of the Snowy Mountains and known for its tall poplars and colourful Autumnal displays of trees that had been transplanted from Europe and it was always a special treat to visit my grandmother's farm at that time of year!  Of course when I transplanted myself  in Europe, I was in awe of  the of miles of country roads and whole mountainsides covered in all manner of deciduous trees!  So, definitely Autumn is my favourite season - especially when it comes to crafting!  I just love the challenge of trying to recreate that beauty!

For this card today I embossed a panel of Kraft cardstock using the Tim Holtz Lumber 3D Texture Fades Embossing folder and distressed it with Barn Door, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks, then went over it with some gold gilding wax. 

I cut some branches (Spellbinders Cherry Blossoms) and distressed them with Gathered Twig DI.  

Then I cut loads of oak leaves (Tim Holtz Fall Foliage) from snippets of Kraft cardstock and distressed each leaf using Mowed Lawn, Barn Door and Mustard Seed DIs.   It would have been easier to distress the card stock first and then cut the leaves but because the leaves were so small I couldn't see how I could make sure I got all the colours on each leaf so I placed finger daubers on 3 of my fingers and distressed each leaf leaf individally (see below).  

After lining up the branches across the base of the card and attaching the leaves I cut this NBUS Autumn sentiment (ORIGACH Month Week and Year Planner) and some alphabets from snippets of darker brown card stock.  I did distress these with the autumnal colours as well but because the colour was quite dark it's hardly noticeable.

I cut the letters for the "blessings" from card stock that had double sided tape on the back and "spelt" it out on a strip of temporary tape so it would stay put while I distressed it but could easily be removed afterwards - this was really useful for lining it up on the panel.

Finally I winked the sentiment and leaves to make them sparkle (as always tricky to photograph)!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #78 - NBUS Month Week and Year Planner (Autumn Sentiment);

Inspiration Station Challenge #77 - see pic below;

Four Seasons Fall Challenge September;

Word Power September Challenge;

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday for September - 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 how to find you!

Kate

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

 

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 175 has just gone live and Debs has chosen Add Some Holly as our theme for the month of September!  

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