Polar Expressions II

Time for another Holly and Ivy Challenge and time to add another card to my stash.  This is a redo of a previous design from a few years ago.   I cut these two bears (Amy Design Winter Friends) from white card stock and then from white felt and stacked them up so my bears have a lovely fur coat to keep them warm on the long winter nights up at the North Pole.  I added small black circles (cut with various flower centre dies) coated with glossy accents for their noses - I had tried to colour their noses with black markers but that didn't work out very well as you can imagine.  I added depth (or at least tried to) with just a little broken china DI around the edges of the bears and the snow bank.

The shadowed sentiment (Poppy Stamps Proper Merry Christmas) was cut from black card stock, coated with glossy accents and sprinkled with holographic glitter in keeping with this starry night DP panel.

Here's a cloeseup so you can see the details on the sparkly sentiment and the fur coats on the polar bears! 

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Alphabet Challenge Blog - L is for Literature and this is the book cover that inspired my card;

Just Add Ink Challenge #670 - Just Add Wildlife;

Crafty Animals Challenge #76;

Krafty Chicks Challenge #681 - Week 2 Christmas;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make it Cute;

The Sisterhood of Crafters - Die Cuts;

Happy Little Stampers September AG with Dies;

Happy Little Stampers September Christmas Challenge;

Merry Little Christmas Blog Challenge #52 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge #48 - 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 how to find you!

Kate

Hoppy Birthday

Challenge #247 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and it's an Inspiration Photo Challenge!

Here's a closer look at all that Fall Fabulousness!

This challenge is being generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design team a $25 voucher to their store.  

Our top pick will also be invited to guest design with us at a future date so I hope you will take some Time Out of your busy schedule and come play cards with us!  

Where will our inspiration photo lead you, what has grabbed your attention - I 

can't wait to seeing how you will be inspired!

The autumnal colours, particularly that orange tent were what caught my eye and I pulled out this NBUS Lawn Fawn Acorn House to begin with.   The musical instruments gave me the idea to add a grass hopper from A Bug Deal (also NBUS) because I love the sound of grasshoppers (not too crazy about the actual critters mind you)!  And of course he's going to hop right over that little house ... so I went with a spinner card and a "Hoppy Birthday" sentiment!

I used another Lawn Fawn set (Puffy Clouds Border) to cut some cloud stencils from a sheet of repurposed acetate packaging and used these to create my blended sky then cut a curved spinner channel in this.  I stamped and embossed my grasshopper and coloured him with alcohol inks and added some highlights with a white Posca pen.  Can't you just hear his "wheeee" as he sails over the house?

I cut all the pieces for the acorn house from Bristol Paper and coloured with various DIs.  The Acorn body I coloured with Carved Pumpkin DI and then overstamped it with a woodgrain stamp from my stash.  The door and roof were coloured with Ground Espresso and Gathered Twig DIs and the computer generated sentiment was cut with one of the first dies I ever bought (Spellbinders Small Tag S3) and distressed with Gathered Twig DI.  I coloured a little bit of twine with Carved Pumkin DI and used it to attach the little sentiment tag around the stalk of the acorn.  I also added yellow vellum behind the windows.

The grass was cut from Bristol Paper using another NBUS set (Lawn Fawn Meadow Borders) and  coloured with Mowed Lawn DI.   I cut some leaves using the Acorn House set and blended with Mowed Grass, Apple Red, Carved Pumpkin and Gathered Twig DIs - and yes my fingertips and nails were a lovely mess!  I cut the dinky little keyhole for the door from a teeny snippet of gold mirri card - I now have a reason to keep even the really teeny snippets of gold now!

 

Challenge #247, we're joined by the extremely talented Trina Pham as our guest designer and her blog is well worth a visit as well as those of my talented team mates!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #54;

The Four Seasons September Challenge;

Simons Says Wednesday Challenge - Make it Cute is the theme and Lawn Fawn = cute!

Snippets Playground Challenge #462 

- the leaves were cut from a snippet of card stock that I'd blended with various autumnal tones for a previous project and of course there was a snippet of gold for the key hole!

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

Sweet Christmas Pudding

 If like me you're starting to get nervous about how fast Christmas is approaching, you might like to give your Christmas Mojo a boost with inspiration from my talented teammates over at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and share your Christmas creations with us as well - we could all do with some inspiration!

This newly acquired Christmas Pudding die (the Greetery) was so much fun I made up 4!   I cut the pudding from kraft card stock, blended Ground Espresso DI, splashed with water and blotted with paper towel.  

The icing layer cut was cut from white card stock and I went over it with glossy accents and sprinkled glitter for sparkle.  

The set comes with a little serving plate, a beautiful big bow and holly leaves and berries.

Just look at all that sweet detail!

 I stamped Christmas Wishes (2 separate stamps from WMS Say it Loud Winter) directly onto some plain white panels.  It was a bit of a pain lining up these tiny stamps but I used a stamping platform so only had to do that once for the four panels!  

The "sweet" die cut sentiment (Love 2 Craft Home Sweet Home) was cut from striped DP and stacked  and coated with glossy accents for some shine.

I do hope you'll join us this fortnight and I look forward to seeing your festive creations in the THICC gallery!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

The Library Challenge #84 - with the following yummy inspiration;

Christmas Craft Creations August Challenge - CAS;

NBUS Challenge #54 - new Christmas Pudding Die Set;

Alphabet Challeng - K is for Kitchen (anything Food Related);

Little Red Wagon Challenge #724 - Small Holly Berries, Large Word Die;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - anything goes;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #52 - anything Christmas goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge #47 - 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 how to find you!

Kate

Beautiful Bonsai

 

Challenge #246 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight it's an Inspired By Words Challenge with this Chinese Proverb

 “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

An Inspired By Words challenge works exactly as you would expect - you take the words from the featured quote and use them to inspire your creation!   You can use one word, multiple words or just the general idea of the quote and if it's not immediately obvious, please explain how you were inspired!  

We're joined this challenge by the very talented Jennifer Elliot as our guest!  Be sure to check out what she and the rest of my talented team members have made to inspire you.  

Obviously the word "tree" was what grabbed my attention, and I have a few trees in my stash, but decided on this very old Bonsai Tree (Spellbinder D-Lites) it's not NBUS but has only been used once prior so thought it could do with some love!  I cut it from a snippet of DP left over from a previous project and stacked it for dimension.   I was at a loss for what else to add to the card as my mojo is nowhere to be found at the moment!  After staring at it for waaaay too long, this was the best I could come up with - a simple "Hello Beautiful" sentiment (WMS Hello Happy Thanks).  With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight vision, it occurred to me a "HUGS" sentiment would have been a better alternative as this tree just looks like it wants to hug someone don't you think?

I used an NBUS detail plate (Pink Fresh Studio Stitched Ovals) to add a little background interest.  I think it's rather lovely - the stamped sentiment was unaffected by the detail plate and I love the subtle tint of green from the card base peeking through! 

Challenge 246 is being sponsored by Varada Sharma  who has very generously donated two $15 store credits - one voucher will go to a randomly selected winner and the other will be go to our Top Pick as voted by the Design Team!   And as always, our Top Pick will be invited to join us as a guest design in a future challenge.  I hope you'll take some Time Out and join us!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #53 - NBUS Sttiched Ovals Detail plate;

Snippets Playground Challenge#461 - Snippet of DP used for the tree;

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

Sing Joy to the World

Time for a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and time to add another Christmas card to my stash.  If like me you're struggling to find Christmas Mojo in July,  you might like to check out the challenge and see what inspiration my lovely team mates have come up with!   And do please take time to leave them some comment love if you can - we all like to know our efforts are appreciated!

I placed an order with a UK company last month that stocks The Greetery and this"Noted" die set and co-ordinating "Sing a Song of Christmas" stamp set were in that order (along with loads of other lovely goodies I just couldnt resist).   My plan is to try and mock up some other song lyrics using WordArt in MS Word so I can use the stave die for lots of occasions!  I really like how the song title nestles under the stave and wanted to make a Christmas card for my choir director that incorporated the stave, a suitable Carol from the "Sing a Song of Christmas" stamp set and a nativity scene!  The idea was sound, just the over-complicated execution left a bit to be desired!

The rustic log frame (PTI Mix and Match Plaid) was a questionable choice with a scene from Bethlehem!
If I'd gone with a white card base, I might have got away with that PTI frame!

That vellum overlay just caused more trouble than it was worth - but if you're going to use a frame to hide the adhesive needed to attach vellum, at least choose a frame with a decent width to add adhesive to!

 O well we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes (says she through gritted teeth) and I'm sure my choir director will appreciate the love and effort that went into it anyway!

At least the gilding wax at least is growing on me (though I did look like a Bond villain for a bit there)!  In particular, the word "joy" (Greetery Bold Alphabet) really came alive with the addition of gilding wax. 

Challenges I'd like to enter are

NBUS Challenge #53;

Peace on Earth Challenge #46 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Happy Little Stampers Christmas August Challenge;

Make My Monday Challenge - 3 letters in the word joy;

Use Your Stuff Challenge #491 - the gilding wax added a touch of Vintage.

Thanks for stopping by!  Your visits and comments (especially any constructive criticism) are always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Colourful Candy

 

Time Out Challenge #245 has just gone live and this fortnight the challenge is to be

Colourful

and this seemed like a good opportunity to break out this NBUS Pinata set (Year 7 Lawn Fawn)!

The candy was a little bit of work but not as much as you would think!  The three pieces of candy are all on one stamp and the matching die is just one die which lines up perfectly with the stamp!   

The Pinata and candy were all coloured with various colours of alcohol markers and highlights were added with a white Posca pen.

Lawn Fawn are sponsoring this challenge and are offering a $25 store credit to the winner of this challenge as chosen by the Design Team and our winner will also be invited to join us as a guest designer in a future challenge.  

I hope you'll join our Colourful Challenge and I look forward to seeing you in the Gallery.  If you're stumped, my team mates have plenty of inspiration for you and we're joined this challenge by the very talented Fran Wing of Franmade in Oregon!  Do drop by and say hi!

I'd like to join NBUS Challenge #53; 

Colourful Options August Challenge - Rainbow Option;

The Library Challenge #84 has the following book cover for inspiration!

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

Branching Out

Time for a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and time to add another Christmas card to my stash.

This one was a lot of work - I lost count of how many branches (Tim Holtz Winter Foliage) I cut in the end!  But I was quite happy how it turned out.  I added little glass beads in random spots to represent ornaments in the tree and added a shooting star (Love2Craft Sky Elements).  I had a snippet of this blue holographic paper on my desk from the peacock I made last week.  In keeping with this serene scene, I stamped this "Peace" sentiment (Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas) in Deep Lagoon Versafine (the stamp is a reverse stamp) on white and coated it with glossy accents to keep up with the shine from the glass ornaments and the holographic paper.  The background embossing folder is from Craft Sensations.  

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges

The 12 Months of Christmas Challenge #103 - Playing with optional twist of Stars (well Star anyway);

Pixies' Snippets Challenge #460 - I used several snippets of white for the branches and a small snippet of the holographic for the shooting star;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #51 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge #45 - 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 how to find you!

Kate

Waving Elf

The challenge for August at  613 The Avenue Create is CAS and we are sponsored by  Conie Fong Art & Design!  I do hope you will join us this month!

I made up this imp (Charlie& Paulchen Wichtelreihe) earlier in the week when I made up this card.  The set cuts 3 imps so it made sense to make up another at the same time.  This friendly fellow looks like he's waving so I couldn't resist adding a "hi" (Greetery Bold Alphabet).

I'd like to enter this happy chappy in the following challenges

Christmas Kickstart #77 - Just Elfing Around;

Christmas Craft Creations July Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge #45 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #51 - 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 how to find you!

Kate

Hello Beautiful Peacock

 

Challenge #244 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have a theme challenge

 

Monochromatic

The Miriam Webster disctionary defines Monochrome as "of, relating to, or made with a single color or hue".   I've chosen blue - mostly because it's my favourite colour but also because it gave me an opportunity to make up this gorgeous peacock (Birchpress Regal Peacock) which is NBUS.

I gathered a few different shades of blue including a rather lovely snippet of blue holographic and set about assembling the peacock.  I used the blue holographic card stock to cut the body of the peacock and I had enough left over to cut this "hello" sentiment (Birch Press Honey Script Hello) which is also NBUS.  The "beautiful" is from a really old stamp set (WMS Hello Happy Thanks) which I stamped with Versafine Deep Lagoon.  

What colour will you choose?  Can't wait to see your monochome creations in the gallery.  If you're stuck, there's plenty of inspiration from my fellow DT members and we're also joined by the very talented Stephanie Serrano  as our guest this fortnight.  You can find Stephanie's work at Stephanie's Stampin' Spot and more frequently on Instagram at @22Stepanieserrano!  Do drop by and say hi!

Challenge #244 is being sponsored by Varada Sharma  who has very generously donated two $15 store credits - one will be awarded to our top pick as voted by the Design Team and the other will be selected randomly!   Our top pick will also be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Cardz4Galz Challenge #204 - Something beginning with "P";

NBUS Challenge #53 NBUS Peacock and Hello dies;

Triple B August Challenge - Just a Bird, no Blooms or Butterflies;

Crafty AnimalsChallenge #75 - All Occasions

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

A Jolly Elf

A very quick card made for the Day of the Month Club Challenge #53 - National Simplicity Day.  I left lots of white space one element, a simple stamped sentiment and a simple colour combination of red, black and white.

I finally get around to using this NBUS die I ordered almost 18 months ago from Charlie & Paulchen - Wichtelreihe (Row of Pixies).  I was going through my sentiment stamps recently in the hopes of finding my mojo and found this lovely bold sentiment from WMS 'Tis the Season and thought it was perfect for this jolly little chap to use as a springboard!  Once I'd coloured him with alcohol markers and assembled him, I added glossy accents to his nose to make it bulbous and added glossy accents and glitter to the bobble on his hat.

There wasn't a lot to this card but I did use a snippet of white left over from a previous project to cut the elf so I'd also like to enter Challenge #459 at the Snippets Playground - the main reason I made my CAS card a Christmas one!

I'd also like to enter Merry Little Christmas Challenge #51 - Anything Christms Goes;

The 12 Months of Christmas Challenge #102 - Anything Christms Goes;

My Time to Craft Christmas #65 - Cute Christmas;

Christmas Kick Start Challenge #76

And also NBUS Challenge #52!

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

Blue Christmas

 

Challenge #144 has just gone live at The Holly and Ivy Challenge and now it's only 5 months to Christmas and I'm beginning to panic!  I've decided to go to Australia late October and as most of my cards are headed there, I need to have them finished before I go so I can take them with me!  And I won't have much time to create the rest of them when I get back either, so I really need to get cracking!  

I went through my stash of Christmas papers and found a 12x12 sheet of navy blue card stock with gold foiled snowflakes from which I was able to cut 4 panels.   I thought I'd make some quick spinner cards up but unfortunately this (unbranded) snowflake die was not a good choice - it's far too finicky plus there was a large hole in the middle which made made it very difficult to attach a magnet!  I did manage to plug that hole with a navy blue flat backed crystal that sparkles as it spins!  Seeing it finished, it does look magnificent but I will be using a different snowflake die for the other 3 other panels!

 Here it is in action!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Sparkles Christmas Challenge #150 - include Gold;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #51 - Anything Christmas Goes;

12 Months of Christmas Challenge #102 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Scrappy Mo's July Rudolph Challenge

Double D Challenges - Christmas in July;

Happy Little Stampers July Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Little Red Wagon - Brrr.. It's Cold Over Here.

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

A Little Sparkly Unicorn

 Challenge #243 has just gone live over at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have a photo inspiration for you!

Lots of inspiration here and it was difficult to focus my attention until I spied the little unicorn on the second top shelf and used this charming set A Little Sparkle from Lawn Fawn.  I also used Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Borders and cut one of the layers from pink vellum as a nod to the sheer pink curtain in the photo.

For extra sparkle, the unicorn's, horn, mane and tail were coated with glossy accents and sprinkled with glitter as well as the fairys' wings.  "SPARKLES" was cut from white glitter card stock and coloured with the same pink alcohol ink used on the unicorn and rainbow.

Here's another closer look at our inspiration photo!  How does it inspire you?  Are you ready to take some Time Out and join us?   Should you need more inspiration, my lovely and very talented team mates have plenty of inspiration and we're joined this challenge by Heather Heroldt as our special guest - why not drop by and say hi!

I'd like to thank our generous sponsor Lawn Fawn who are offering a $25 store credit to our Time Out Winner as chosen by the Design Team!  

I'd like to join NBUS Challenge #52 as the A Little Sparkle and Puffy Borders sets were NBUS.

The prompt for this week's Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is 4-legged friends.  I don't have a unicorn for a friend but I sure would like one!

I'd also like to enter the Fairy and the Unicorn Challenge since my card has both!

I'd also like to enter the Happy Little Stampers July Anything Goes with Dies 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 how to find you!

Kate

Polka Dot Dress

Onefer:

This dress was inpired by Library Challenge #82 and it's ending soon.  For some weeks now I've been trying to find time to make up this party dress - but like my mother used to say, when you can't find time you have to make time!  Who needs sleep anyway?  

I love the Library Challenges - I love the inspiration a book title or cover photo might provide ... or the story itself if I've read it!

I haven't read this one but the cover and the title were enough to kick my mojo into gear and I just happened to eye a large piece of blue polka dot in my scraps from a previous project.

  

Some of you may recognize this dress - it was cut with one of the original Sizzix thick cut dies and must be getting close to 20 years old now!  It's actually on a dress making dummy but it's easy to trim off stand and you're left with this fabulous dress ... and the shoes!  I mean if you're going to have a fabulous dress, you've got to have a pair of matching shoes too - am I right!  There is a handbag too, but I always struggle to fit it on an A7 card front!

I love this cover plate die (Simon Says Stamp Bohemian Detail) because it adds a little background interest but I can still stamp a sentiment directly on the panel (before the detail cut is done).  The sentiment stamp is also very old - a no name mounted on a wooden block which I picked up in a bargain bin if my memory serves me right (which it rarely does these days I should point out)!  It still stamps well though (which worried me as I usually rely heavily on my stamping platform these days)!

The die also cuts pieces for the neckline and waistband and I thought I'd add a pop of colour!  The flip side of this DP has sunflowers so I guess that's where I got my inspiration to cut these in yellow ... and to add the sunflower corsage!  With the corsage, I thought it might work for a birthday or graduation - I know a few people who are graduating from high school this year!  This lovely teeny sunflower is from a recently acquired set called Garden Shed by Sophie Guilar (Sizzix Brand).  Amazon kindly suggested I might be interested in this die set on one of my recent visits - so nice of them to encourage me to buy new dies (like I need any help in that department)!  For this reason, I'd like to enter it in NBUS Challenge #52 (Darnell must be getting heartily sick of me over there but I've barely scratched the surface of things I haven't used)!

I'd also like to enter the As You Like It Challenge which asks Plain or Patterned Paper.  There's nothing like patterned paper for speeding up a project - whether it be for a background panel or for paper piecing a large die image as here!  

Challenge Up Your Life Challenge #160 also has a Patterned Paper Challenge!

And finally I'd like to enter the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge!

Twofer :

This was a pretty quick A5 card made up over the weekend for a young woman just graduated from the European School and is off to follow her musical dream next September in London! If you want to know HOW talented she is, you can listen to two (so far) of her original songs on her YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChXrRlLvi1I1C3LiD7kZ9Tw) and Spotify - written, sung and played be her (did I mention she plays multiple instruments as well). 

I've known this young lady had talent since she sang a solo at her (and my youngest's) First Communion 9 years ago and it has been a privilege to watch her evolve as a performer!  She has a beautiful rich voice but mostly prefers to accompany our choir on the violin - if you listen to her singing you can only image how good she is on the violin!

I just figured out how to download a video her mother took of her Bac performance from Whatsapp and have added it here.  It's an ABBA song and the performance was A M A Z I N G!  Considering this is a live recording taken with her mother's phone, I can on;y imagine how good this girl is going to sound once she hits London and has access to the equipment at The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance!

Eva's favourite colour is green which is why the colour scheme if fairly monotonal!  This gorgeous butterfly (Memory Box Gypsy Butterfly) is meant to represent her beautiful self creating a melody as she flits back and forth on the treble stave - can you see the hidden channel in between the two highest lines on the stave?  Unfortunately it didn't spin as well as I would have liked which is why I didn't bother trying to take a video.  Plus I had very little time before I had to take it in and have all the choir members sign it on Sunday morning!  I could have used one of the more symmetrical butterflies die in my stash but this butterfly is sooo her - tall, elegant and commanding and it's NBUS as well!

I'd like to enter this card in the Triple B Challenge July 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 how to find you!

Kate