Enjoy the Journey

Summer has finally arrived in the Northern Hemisphere and that means vacation time for many - so this fortnight at Time Out Challenges we have a theme challenge of Travel!  So whether it's a particular destination you're headed for (or wish you were headed for), or how you plan on getting there or what you plan to do when you arrive - we'd like to see how you're inspired! 

Challenge #292 is generously being sponsored by Angie Blom Designs and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $20 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 Sherri Schmidt our winner from Challenge #287!  You can see Sherri's creations on her Flickr account here or see what she made just for our challenge over on the Challenge Blog as well as how the rest of the team were inspired!

I wasn't so much inspired by a destination so much as the notion of travel and so was inspired by this lovely old-fashioned suitcase (still NBUS from last year's Advent Calendar from Spellbinders)!  Anything I make these days is usually inspired by what is NBUS - the flaw in my logic is that I also visit the NBUS challenge and come away "needing" more stash, thus adding to my NBUS and so on ad finitum!

 I was lucky enough to find this "snippet" of patterned paper that was left over from cutting card fronts from a 12x12 paper - it was too narrow to use for a card panel for any of the cards I usually make but it was the perfect for a slimline so that too influenced my design.  And the timing was fortuitous since I needed a slimline card to accompany the prize from our previous challenge at Time Out!

I was able to raid my snippets boxes for almost everything else too, I just needed to cut down a card base for the brown mat and an A4 sheet for the card base.  The snippet of white was distressed with Antique Linen and Gathered Twigs DIs - I love the texture of this card stock and thought it would be perfect for an old beat up suitcase!

Here's a closeup of the suitcase!  I don't make slimline cards very often and was a little daunted by all that space but eventually I decided to let the background DP carry the design  (i.e. ran out of time to do anything other than rely on the background paper to carry the design) and just added a single word "enjoy" (Spellbinders Woodland Tales Sentiments) which is also NBUS and actually pretty perfect for what I needed the card for since it is to accompany the prize (a die set) from our last challenge and does anyone else think that suitcase resembles a Tim Holtz Vagabond die cutting Machine?!

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

NBUS Challenge #76 - NBUS Suitcase and sentiment dies;

Snippets Challenge #509 - see above for snippets used;

Paper Players Challenge #PP744 - Tic Tac Toe bottom row (postcards in the DP, layered suitcase, masculine colours) or centre column (plane on the suitcase, only used die cutting, layered suitcase);

Word Power July Challenge;

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday June/July 2025 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

fa la la la la

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 174 has just gone live and Sue has chosen Sparkle and Bling as our theme for the month of July!  These days, I always try to use at least one the many NBUS  (Never Before Used Schtuff or Stash) items that I haven't yet had time or opportunity to use!  So my mind went straight to which of my NBUS items could I make sparkle ... and my eye fell on this Gummiapan Candy Cane Set.   Well, that was in May - then came June (which you can read about here if you're interested) but basically my son and his fiancée were indecisive about their wedding invitations, and then it was a race to get them finished!  The month of June disappeared, it's now days till the end of the month and I'm still trying to make a Christmas card that Sparkles! 

Monsieur Mojo was, as usual nowhere to be found, so I pushed on with my original idea to make up some sparkling candy canes!  Now I know I have some red glitter card stock somewhere around here, but do you think I could find it ... never mind, red mirror card will suffice!  Fortunately, I found some white glitter card stock for the overlay to which I added double sided tape before cutting because I didn't want to risk wet adhesive on mirror card ... it didn't stick very well to the glossy surface of the mirror card but never mind glossy accents will keep it all together and the white glitter will still sparkle through!   

And then I had no idea how to continue!  Well the canes needed a few hours to dry so I went to bed to "sleep on it"!  The next morning while playing around with the canes, I noticed that if I attached the little bow that came with the set to the right facing cane, it resembled an "f"  and if I turned the other can upside down well it resembled an "l" ... and finally an idea began to take hold!   I tried various ornament dies but all I could see was "fo lo lo lo lo" so instead opted for a plain "a" (MFT lower case alphabet)!  And eventually with the help of yet another NBUS item (Studio Light Nested Slimline dies) I had something I could photograph!

Now you're probably thinking there's shine but where's the sparkle?   There is some sparkle (though I wish I'd been able to find that red glitter card stock) and eventually I managed to capture some of it on the terrace in the afternoon sun!   

I also realised when this card was finished, that the little bow could transform the "l" into a "t", now that could be be "sweet" don't you think?!  

I do hope you can join us at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge and are inspired by the rest of the Design Team!  It's never easy making Christmas cards in the summer heat but given how fast this year is disappearing, December will be upon us before we know it!!!

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

NBUS Challenge #76 - NBUS Candy Cane set and Nested Slimline dies;

Everybody Art Challenge #582 - Christmas in June;

Festive Friday Challenge - Christmas theme;

Girls Creative Christmas Challenge #131 - Anything Christmas Goes; 

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 should be able to find you!

Kate

Foxes and Bluebells

was the theme my son and his fiancee chose for their wedding invitations.  They visited us earlier in the month and it was a busy 2 weeks but I managed to get the majority of the invitations finished before he returned to Scotland and the rest finished and posted in the following week.

Here's how I did it

• I found a digital image of bluebells online, lined 4 of them up on an A4 page and printed on vellum suitable for laser printers, then cut the A4 sheet into 4 with my guillotine;
• I cut the card bases and front panels from a sheets of A4 card stock using my guillotine (58 eventually although it started as 44, then 48) - I made pencil marks on my guillotine so I could repeat the cuts without having to measure each time;
• Centred the vellum on the front panel so that the blue bells lined up with the bottom of the panel, folded it over and taped it to the back of the panel with double sided tape and added more double sided tape so it could be attached to the gold mat;
• Cut A4 sheets of gold paper into 3 as mats for the front panel, added the front panels and trimmed using the guillotine (definitely the trickiest stage since the paper would bend sometimes rather than cut cleanly)
• Attached the gold matted panels to the card bases;
• Cut loads of left and right facing foxes (Poppy Stamps Nordic Foxes) in gold and copper and the bases in white;
• Assembled the foxes and, coloured their noses and added them to the front panel;
• Designed the inserts with ceremony details and printed 3 to an A4 page on vellum (my clever husband worked out how I could create a QR code to add to the invitation for directions to the castle - there are plenty of companies willing to provide you with a QR code if you pay money for a subscription but you don't have to pay for this!  The guy who invented QR codes gave the technology away for free and the functionality is available for free through some browsers - QR codes are a great piece of functionality and certainly beats entering a complicated link to a website!
• Cut the vellum inserts to size (again I made pencil marks on the guillotine so I didn't have to keep measuring them) and added them with a dot of glue - I would have liked to add some Nordic flowers to hide the glue dots but alas ran out of time but the glue was barely noticeable;
• Found the most gorgeous "eucalyptus" envelopes with and gold lining on Amazon (yes, they were pricy but matched perfectly the bridesmaids dresses and the green in the bluebells image);
• Created an XL spreadsheet with the names and addresses we knew about and designed a Mail Merge document to create 8 mailing labels to an A4 page and printed these on normal printer paper;
• Added strips of wide double sided tape to the back of the mailing labels and cut with a deckle edged frame and added these to the envelopes (for the addresses we already had) at which point my son realised he need at least another 8 (I made another 12 just in case);
• Designed a separate "business" card with live streaming details (another QR code) for our relatives in Australia and other friends who can't make the journey to Scotland and was able to include a photo from the pre-wedding shoot that had just taken;
• Printed 8 of these cards to an A4 sheet of smooth white card stock, cut these with a deckled frame and went around the edges with gold gilding wax (so happy with how these turned out);
• Cut hearts from gold mirror card for envelope seals;
• Posted the ones my son didn't take back to Scotland with him because we either didn't have addresses yet or weren't for the UK anyway;
• Collapsed from a mix of exhaustion and relief and realised June had almost disappeared!

Invitation Fronts - half were copper right-facing with gold overlays and gold left-facing with copper overlays and the other half were reversed!

Vellum Insert and "business" card for live streaming and those gorgeous envelopes!

This was taken during the construction process.  These foxes were just added for the photo - I attached all the panels to the card bases first ... and all the vellum bluebell wraps before that!  Throughout the construction I kept left and right foxes separated - those saddles pieces were too easily confused and it helped keep track of the number!   If you look closely you can see the double sided tape added to the back of the panels (they're upside down at the back of the larger box) and the card bases at the front of the box.  Even though I used double sided tape, I did use a little wet glue to facilitate positioning.

My son was pretty impressed with the invitations and how quickly I was able to get them done - to be honest I didn't think I would be able to do it especially when he realised he needed extras!  And his friends were pretty impressed too - here are screen shots my son sent me of messages from one of his friends

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you find this useful should you ever have to produce a large number of invitations in a rush - I hope I never have to do this again at least not in such a short period of time!   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

Shell Ahoy

 

Challenge #291 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have another

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Here's a closer look at this gorgeous piece of art from Alyson@romantheocean!

 Challenge 291 is being sponsored by Frantic Stamper and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $20 store credit and the Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  

Be sure to see how my talented team mates were inspired by this pic over on the Time Out Blog - I do hope I'll see your creations in the gallery and and I look forward to seeing how you're inspired!

I chose a scallop shell (Memory Box Grand Scallop Shell) because it most closely resembled a heart shape and distressed it with Spun Sugar and Antique Linen Distress Inks.  I added some coral to resemble the reeds in the pic and a few shells in the lower right corner (all from Charlie & Paulchen Ozeankranz).  And I was happy to use this NBUS sentiment (Sugar Pea Ahoy Word with Shadow) finally!

Everything was "winked" (though it's difficult to tell from the photo) to give that salt encrusted look!

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

NBUS Challenge #75 - NBUS Ahoy Die;

Snippets Challenge #508 - How lucky was I to have this perfectly sized snippet (with double sided tape on the back) left over from cutting an oval frame (I even managed to get another piece of coral cut from the middle of the brown after this photo was taken), the same for this snippet of white (could have even cut some more shells if I'd had time);

Everybody-Art-Challenge #581 - Maritime;

Papercraft Challenge #119 - Summer Vibes (collecting shells on the beach is my best memory of summer as a child - can still remember the smell of the sea when I think of sea shells);

As You Like It Challenge - To add a sentiment or not - I definitely like to add a sentiment because I don't think a card is complete without it, even if it's just a simple "hugs" or "hello";

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

Parisienne Delights

 

Time Out Challenge #290 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 self-explanatory - we give you 6 word prompts to choose from and you use at least 2 of them to inspire your creation!  To be clear, you can pick more than 2 if you like - all 6 if you really want to challenge yourself but just make sure to pick at least 2!

The Word Prompts for this challenge are

Recycle, Weather, Ribbon, Bold, Repeat and Place

We don't have a sponsor this challenge but I have a brand new die set (ordered twice oops) which I will send anywhere in the world to our Top Pick as chosen by the design team members!  Here's a photo of  this 23 pce die set from Sizzix - Garden Shed by Sophie Guilar!

And as usual, our 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 Jaydee our winner of Challenge #285!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Jaydee and my talented team mates were inspired by these 6 words!

I do hope you enjoy our challenge and I do hope you can take Time Out and join us for some fun!  And please, if it isn't obvious let us know how these words inspired your creation!  And please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!

This card is a very belated birthday card for my daughter-in-law!  My son took her to Paris to celebrate her first birthday as his wife so I knew I wanted a Parisienne theme!  I found this very old but still NBUS stamp set while looking for all things Parisienne in my stash (Just Rite Greetings from Paris)!  I don't know why I never used it before because it stamped beautifully and makes a very simple add-on element when paired with the matching Spellbinders Label 25 die!  So Paris became the PLACE!  And of course no trip to Paris would be complete without the Eiffel Tower - cut from brown card stock and Winked (though the sparkle is as always difficult to capture)!

The first thing I noticed on this stamp was Le Chocolat and as I got some new sweetie dies with the Gummiapan Easter Advent Calendar, I thought I'd add a few of those cut from this piece of RECYCLED (from an old Christmas cracker) gold card stock!  

 Then as I was assembling the card I smudged the background panel - uggh what could I use to hide that 🤔!

   

Inspired by the WEATHER prompt, I thought clouds may very well be obscuring the top of the Eiffel Tower!  At this point the design was decidedly unbalanced so I added some ferns (Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms) REPEATED of course, to the base of the card!

So 4 Word Prompts achieved on my card - PLACE, RECYCLE, REPEAT and WEATHER!  But as I said it's only necessary to Pick 2!

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

NBUS Challenge #75 - NBUS Stamp Set, Gummiapan Sweeties;

Neglected Stuff Challenge June 2025 - Neglected Eiffel Tower (from Spellbinders French Frills die set) bought in 2013 last used 2018 and Just Rite French Frill stamp set bought 2015 and NBUS;

Snippets Playground - Snippets above;

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #549 - You are So Sweet!

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

Merry Forest

 

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 173 has just gone live and Melanie has chosen Include the word Merry as our theme for the month of June!

I don't think I'll ever get to the bottom of my NBUS (mainly because I keep adding to it) but it's fun to try!  I was playing with this 3D embossing folder (Sizzix Trees by Kathrin Breen) last month!  The first time I cracked the card stock so I remembered the trick of dampening the card stock slightly before embossing and that worked!  

Since the prompt for Sparkles was to use the word Merry, I thought I'd use this rather elegant Merry Christmas die I ordered from Gummiapan late last year.  However because it's so wide the orientation really needs to be landscape and as I wanted to use it with this embossed panel, I thought about leaving the "Christmas" off after fiddling a bit I tried the sentiment diagonally and this is what I came up with!    

I added a tree (Yvonne Creations Family Christmas Window) to the lower right corner because it was a little too plain! And then went over everything with the Wink of Stella Pen to make it sparkle! 

I know it seems strange to make Christmas cards in June but this year is flying by and it will be December in no time!  So I hope to see your "Merry" Creations in the gallery over at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge!

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

NBUS Challenge #75 - NBUS embossing folder, Merry Christmas Text die;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #62 - Anything Christmas Goes;

As You Like It Challenge - My Favourite Type of Embossing is definitely dry embossing!

A Cut Above June 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