Glory to the New Born King

Challenge #136 has just gone live at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and here is my DT card!   As usual my team mates have created some wonderfully inspiring Christmas cards so be sure to pop over and check them out!  And of course we love to be inspired by your creations as well!

I cut a nativity scene from gold mirror card (sorry about the quality of the photo) and teamed it up with a panel of musical score designer paper on which I stamped a sentiment from one of my favourite stamp sets (Waltzing Mouse Seasonal Flourishes) - a very quick and simple card!  The inside and envelope are stamped with a Bethlehem scene from another WMS set Seasonal Remedies!  I miss this wonderful stamp company so much especially when I make Christmas cards!  

I was inspired by the ABC Christmas Challenge - G for Gold

and all the green in this lovely inspiration pic from Inspiration Station

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

On Track for a Twofer

Onefer :

I may have already mentioned we have been fortunate to have several Ukrainian women join our choir and I am blessed to call these women friends.  One of them has a young son and he loves cars!  When I found out he was having a birthday, I knew I wanted to make him a card with a moving car.  This Beetle from Taylored Expressions is probably my favourite vehicle - I love the little details it has!  I've used MFT Open Road to cut the little piece of road and channel and MFT Rolling Hills to create the ... rolling hills!  

His mother helped me with the "Happy Birthday Ilias" text in Ukrainian which I printed onto some white card stock and cut with one of the Memory Box Marshamallow Clouds.   I added a little sun so that it's peeking out from behind the cloud (Frantic Stamper Village Sky set) and added a little aeroplane from the same set to complete the scene.  I don't think cars should spin so I added two magnets to the back (side by side) so the car slides back and forth.

He loved it!

 

I'd like to enter this card in the Daring Cardmakers Challenge with the prompt Little Ones

Twofer:

While I had the Open Road and Rolling Hills sets out, I thought I'd use them to create a scene for this little hedgehog - I made it for a project a few days ago but ended up not using it!  I wanted the hedgehog to roll up and down the hill so I used the curved track piece from the Open Road set and tried to match the curvature to that of the rolling hillside.  I added this stacked "sending" sentiment (Simon Says Stamp) and a little cloud and sun (from Frantic Stamper Village Sky).  As I was cutting some of these little flowers for the meadow one of them fell on the Hedgehog and I quite liked the of a flower behind her ear!  I am just totally in love with these Whittle animals from Poppy Stamps - they have such amazing details!  I've coloured this little hedgehog with light and dark brown alcohol markers.  The little eyes and prickles have caught more of the ink and so are highlighted - love the effect!  

I also bought the matching Whittle Wild Animals Sentiment Stamp Set so you can probably guess what's on the inside of the card .....

Yup!  I'm sending hedge-hugs!

I almost forgot to include a video!

This little hedgehog is making his debut here so I'll be entering it in NBUS Challenge #48

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

Blowin' in the Wind

Timout Challenge 234 has just gone live and it's an Inspired By Words Challenge with this quote by Charles Dickens from Great Expectations…

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade”

You can use just one, some, or all of these words as inspiration … we can't wait to see how you interpret them!  You might like check out the inspiration from my fellow DT members and we're being joined this fortnight by Greta of GG Creations!  Why not drop by and say hi! 

Many of these words gave me ideas but in the end I decided on "Sun" and "Wind"!   The "Sun" part was easy but how do you capture something invisible like "Wind"?  And then the idea of a movement caused by the wind popped into my head and then a tumbling umbrella!  So that's where I went with my card!

When I saw Color Challenge PP631 at Paper Players I immediately thought of sun, grass, sky and clouds and that gave me inspiration for setting my blustery scene!  My yellow flowers (cut using Tim Holtz's Funky Foliage) have a slight curve to the left but I've exaggerated the tilt so they too appear to be blowin' in the wind! 

Happily, Simon Says Monday Challenge has a prompt of "Whatever the Weather" so I'd like to enter there.

This umbrella was cut with the Poppy Stamps Raining Frame - its first trip through the rollers for this card so I'd like to enter NBUS Challenge #48

I rummaged through my Snippet Bags (I've started keeping snippets in grocery shopping bags sorted by colour) for the right colour card stock for this project so I'd like to play along with the Snippets Playground Challenge #449.   Here's a photo of the snippets I found to play with (yes I remembered to take a photo of them this time)!  That plaid piece was just wide enough for the umbrella canopy and matched the colour scheme perfectly!

We're grateful to Top Flight Stamps who are offering a $25 store credit to our Time Out Winner as chosen by the design team.  Top Flight Stamps specialize in difficult to find art stamps from around the world - so do check them out if you haven't already!

I found a funny meme on FB the other day and thought of my growing mountain of NBUS!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day and if you do leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and where to find you so we can get to know each other a bit better!

Kate

Brushtroked Butterfly

 

If you read my post yesterday, you'll know I had a spare green and gold butterfly that hadn't worked out.  I decided to do something with it today instead of sticking it in a box where it probably won't see the light of day for a loooong time.  

I started out making a sympathy card and thought I'd go through my very much neglected embossing folders collection for some background texture.  I chose what I thought was a very unremarkable NBUS embossing folder which turned out to be quite lovely when I actually embossed a panel with it.  It's from Sizzix and I think it's called Sparkling but I bought it sooo long ago I doubt it still exists.  My eye was instantly drawn to the small crosses in the pattern which I thought would work rather well for Easter!  And as a butterfly is also a symbol of being reborn, I decided on an Easter sentiment instead!  

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Triple B (Birds, Butterflies and Blooms) Challenge March Challenge (their very first one)!

NBUS Challenge #48 - both the butterfly and ambossing folders are NBUS

Color Hues Challenge #59 

Double D Challenges who have this brilliant mood board - 

I drew mine from the bottom left photo - the door with the gold letterbox and the texture of the old wall

Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

who are back after a well-deserved break!

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

Shamrock 60th Birthday

A good choir friend of mine turns 60 later this month and she's also retiring.  She's having a big party and the whole choir is invited so I've made up this A5 sized card so everyone can sign!  She's Irish, and despite living in Luxembourg for many decades now and speaking multiple languages, her Irish heritage is still very much part of her identity, so shamrocks seemed an obvious starting point - especially with St Patrick's Day approaching and the plethora of challenges at the moment from which to draw inspiration.   

 I originally had a cleaner card in mind and cut a shamrock cut from this paper which I was going to use as a spinner element but I was daunted by so much white space - it's an A5 card front so none of my background dies or embossing folders were large enough.   So I changed it to a patterned background and my plan was to cut a golden shamrock but honestly it looked a little too gimmicky for such an important birthday celebration!

So I thought I'd use a butterfly as the spinner element - she loves butterflies!  The first butterfly I cut was a Tim Holtz Brushstroke Butterfly - an NBUS item I'd been dying (excuse the pun) to use!   It looked lovely but it had an awkward centre of gravity and didn't spin very well!  It will have to wait for another day - another St Patrick's Day perhaps because it was cut in green and gold!  Instead, I used this old favourite Tattered Lace Oriental Butterfly die. 

Since I didn't have any gold card stock strong enough to cut it from, I went with green.   A spinning element really needs to be sturdy but I didn't relish the idea of layering a die cut this intricate (and big)! This green card stock is quite thick, so sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of spinning backwards and forwards across a card front.  I then added gilding wax to the butterfly!  Previous attempts with gilding wax were unsuccessful - I had underestimated how light your touch needs to be!  Watching a recent Chrissie Stokes video I realized where I was going wrong and was much happier with this effort! 

 I did look like a Bond villain afterwards through, with my gold finger! 🤣 

Then it was just a matter of sorting out where to put Happy Birthday, her name and a "60" using dies from my stash (the shamrock I used in place of the 0 was a really old punch).  I added a "sweet" (Deco Time) before the 60 - she is after all pretty excited about her upcoming retirement!  I added gilding wax to all these and then glossy accents - I love how the gilding wax has highlighted the embossing on the letters in her name.

The inside is an A4 sheet folded attached to the right side of the card base.  I've added a good luck sentiment and a potted plant - for luck!  I might also add another folded sheet on the other side (with perhaps some school items because she's retiring from teaching) - there will need to be space for 20 + people to sign! 

Here's a video of the butterfly in flight

I would like to enter the following challenges

The Card Concept Challenge #190

Colour Hues Challenge #59

Traumfabrik Challenge #113 which has the movie Luck as its inspiration this month

Double D Challenges which has this brilliant inspiration photo

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Revealing Gingerbread Men

Challenge #135 has just gone live at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and here is my DT card!   As usual my team mates have created some wonderfully inspiring Christmas cards so be sure to pop over and check them out!  And of course we love to be inspired by your creations as well!

This one was a lot of fun!  I cut and stacked up a few cookie jar die cuts from Kraft card stock, stamped "Gingerbread" on the front and then "glazed" it with glossy accents.  I then wrapped a piece of red and white bakers twine around the top and added a few holly leaves.  Even though it's actually a candy jar die, I think it looks like an old fashioned cookie jar and a darned festive one at that!

I then set about creating a little scene for my gingerbread cookie jar - well a pretty yellow gingham table cloth at any rate!  

A die cut "sweet" sentiment above the cookie jar and a stamped "Christmas Wishes" and it could have been complete BUT as you may know by now, I often like to add little surprises on my cards!

So, I stamped this bunch of gingerbread men in the space behind where my gingerbread jar would sit on the table, attached a magnet to the back of the cookie jar and another magnet behind the front panel.  Et voila ... now you can see what's inside the gingerbread jar!  And you have a cookie jar fridge magnet - a card with a gift!

I really should have stamped them on white card stock and cut them out because you can see the table cloth though the colouring!  But I don't have a die for this stamp and I hate fussy cutting.  They are adorable aren't they!  They're from a Waltzing Mouse Stamp set called Chistmas Candy Jar Fillers and the Sweetie Jar die is also from WMS and despite having bought it in 2014, this is the first time I've actually used it!  The stamp set only has individual stamps for the jar and the lid, and I'm not very good at lining up stamped images - esp when they need to be die cut afterwards.  I'm so glad I figured out how to finally put it to use!

O no!  One of the gingerbread men escaped - I doubt I'll catch him now, even if I run, run as fast as I can! 😜

I'd like enter my card in NBUS Challenge #48

I'd also like to enter Krafty Chicks Challenge #653 - it's a Stamp Act Week and for once I've used stamping on this card!

I'd also like to enter the March Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge (hooray they're back)!  I didn't use the candy cane option on my card but this baker's twine is perhaps not a bad substitute!

I'd also like to enter Marry Little Christmas Challenge #48

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Elegant Leaves

Time Out Challenge #233 has just gone live and this fortnight, we are challenging you to be

Elegant!  

I immediately thought black and gold and this gorgeous Altenew Leaf Mix Die Set!   I searched through my pads of foiled papers and found this elegant cream with gold stripes.  I cut a stitched rectangular panel then set about cutting some leaves from gold and black snippets and arranging them on the panel. I was able to use some of the overlay cut out pieces to fill in the blank space between the leaves and I used a scattering of faceted black pearls until I was pleased with the layout.  I realised as I was clearing up afterwards,  that the cutout circles from the middle leaf could also have been used - with a few applications of glossy accents they're almost indistinguishable from flat backed pearls and much more post-friendly!  Needless to say I've stored these little circles away for a future project - little black circles always come in handy!!

I needed a thank you card and this small but very elegant little "thanks" from Verve Autumn Thanks (sadly Verve is NLIB) fitted the space under the leaf arrangement perfectly - again cut from a snippet of gold!   I used one the elegant overlay dies from the Leaf Mix set and more snippets of gold to decorate the inside and envelope. 

 What does elegant mean to you?  We’d love to see your interpretation in our gallery!  This challenge is sponsored by Altenew and our winner, as voted by the DT, will receive a $25 store credit.  They will also be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  Details are over at Time Out as well as heaps of inspiration from my  fabulous fellow DT members and our very talented guest designer Nora Noll from A Creative Touch.   Why not pop over for a visit with Nora and say hi - you’ll find tons of gorgeous inspiration!

Just a few challenges I'd like to enter are

Paper Players Challenge 629 with the following sketch

Inspirational Challenge #284 - Real or Faux Stitching - my panel has faux stitching

The February Sisterhood of Crafting Challenge - My panel has stripes

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Aran and Tartan

 

Challenge #134 has just gone live at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and here is my DT card!  It's never too early to make a start on next Christmas - you will be so glad when you have all your cards ready well before December rather than a last minute scramble!  If you're running out of ideas, my team mates have created some wonderfully inspiring Christmas cards so be sure to pop over and check them out!  And we love to be inspired by your creations as well so I look forward to seeing your Christmas cards in our gallery!

I had some snippets of tartan and gold as well as some fir trees (Alexandra Renke Fir Tree Frames) left over from previous projects that I wanted to use up.  After grounding the trees on the snippet of tartan, I thought some interest was needed behind the trees so I used this cable knit embossing folder as a cozy backdrop!   One of the snippets of gold was just big enough for a "merry" (WPlus9 Hand Lettered Holiday die set) and that finished off the panel which I then mounted on a forest green card base.

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

Snippets Playground Challenge #448

 ABC Christmas Challenge - C is for checked (tartan) base and D is for the die cut trees and sentiment

Jingle Belles RockChallenge - Embossable You

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Hip Hip Hooray!

Challenge #232 has just gone live at Time Out and it's a special one - we challenge you to Celebrate our 9th Birthday!

It's 9 years Sandie and Nonni started this fabulous challenge and to celebrate Sandie is joining us as our very special birthday guest, so do pop over and say hello to Sandie and leave her some love!

We also have the desert diva herself Hannelie joining us as our guest designer.  At the top of Hannelie's blog, she has a quote from Milton Glaser "There are three responses to a piece of design - yes, no and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for."  Prepare to be WOWed!

Last week I was reminded that I had bought the magnificent Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms Die Set as a birthday present last year but hadn't actually used yet!  As soon as I saw this die set used in a card, I just "had to have it" and then promptly forgot about it - to be fair I did have six weeks in Australia just after it arrived followed by Christmas!  

Anyway, I sat down this week and cut and assembled a bunch of blooms in various pinks and purples.  I raided my snippets for the blooms and foliage and added distress inks for depth and variegation. 

My choir director turns 50 next month and she loves flowers .... and her piano of course!  I thought the flowers would look stunning against the black and white of piano keys (Memory Box Piano Border).   I also thought the Bohemian Detail Plate would add just the right amount of detail in the background.  I laid the panel above the border die on a folded A4 card base and trimmed it down - I needed a larger than usual card because everyone in the choir will want to add their own wishes for our beloved leader and these magnificent blooms deserved the space this afforded!  As a result, it's an odd-sized card but it doesn't have to go in the post and I'll just deliver it in an A5 envelope or make one to fit!

This challenge is being sponsored by Newton's Nook Designs.

There's a very generous $25 Store Credit being offered to our winner as voted by the DT plus an invitation to guest design with us in a future challenge!   

How will you our 9th Birthday Celebration theme inspire you - I'm looking forward to viewing your lovely creations in the gallery - you have until March 1st to come play cards with us!  Pop over to Time Out where my team mates and two special guests have some lovely designs waiting to inspire you!

I'd like to enter my card in the following challenges (the link is under each of the photos)!

NBUS Challenge #47

Snippets Playground Challenge #447

Flower Challenge #77

Seize the Birthday Challenge #255 
My initials are K and L
Keys (Piano) and Leaves

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Tumbling Snowman

Challenge #133 is about to go live at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and here is my DT project - a Tumbling Snowman!  I love to make these spinner cards and I love to play with them afterwards.  This snowman stamp with matching die is from Craft Sensations.  I coloured his nose orange and his scarf red and added glossy accents to these and his hat and coal buttons.  I also stacked him up three times for stability - I didn't want those outstretched arms getting damaged during his acrobatic routine!

To make him tumble, I cut a track in this lovely buffalo plaid panel and popped it up on foam tape.  The cut out track piece I then adhered directly to the card base.  I added a magnet to the back of the snowman and created a spinner back by adhering another magnet to a 1" acetate disk (I reuse packaging).   The spinner back is therefore invisible but anchored in the track.  The snowman can be removed easily and used as a fridge magnet.   Tip : place the disk between the two magnets else the magnetic field may be stronger than your adhesive!  Use a flat magnet (1mm thick) and a fat magnet (3mm thick) - here's a photo of the flat magnet, the acetate disk and the fat magnet!

I kept the card design simple by just adding a die cut "sending" (Simon Says Stamp) above the snowman and "homespun hugs" (WMS Sewing Box Hugs stamped on black and heat embossed in white) below.  You can just tell by looking at him that this guy likes hugs and the buffalo plaid is so cozy and homespun!

Here he is in action?

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Colouring is Cool

I am finally overcoming my fear of colouring - in fact I think I've done a pretty"cool" job on this one!  But that could have to with the image being coloured.  This is Sadie with Icecream from Mirtallamente - who  are sponsoring our challenge this month at 613 The Avenue Create.  

I've coloured her using alcohol markers.  Don't ask me what colours - I had a lot out on my work space by the end of this session!  I'm not sure I achieved the faded denim look I was going for with the dungarees -  I'm a little short on blues (note to myself, get some more)!

I had to jazz her up a little with some red accessories because the optional theme this month is "something red that is NOT a heart".  She looks so cool, I knew I wanted a pair of red sunnies to complete the look!  As I was applying some glossy accents to the glasses, I also added a touch to her earrings, scrunchie and bangle!

I framed her with an A2 sized frame set that I rarely use because I prefer the metric A6 size but I love the scalloped frame in this set.  I paired a sentiment from Clearly Besotted Super Cool) with a Word Balloon (Poppy Stamps) and was delighted that it fit perfectly!  I shadowed the sentiment speech bubble with a red one and popped it up on dimensional foam tape. 

The Word Balloon from Poppy Stamps was a present to myself before Christmas and is having it's first outing here so I'd like to enter the NBUS Challenge 47.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Like a Rainbow

Challenge #231 at Time Out Challenges has just gone live and we have a treat for you this fortnight - we're CASEing a Gina K card!

Here's a closer view

If you're unfamiliar with CASEing, Ardyth Percy-Robb has a nifty acronym for helping you take inspiration from someone else's work and make it your own - LIMES!

List

Include

Modify

Exclude

Spin

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but the things that I loved about this design  were the rainbow colours, the lacy white floral pattern, the black mat, the stamped sentiment in black and the slimline band of colour.

To make this card my own, I've used die cuts rather than a stencil!  I started by cutting six Altenew Mixed Leaf plain leaves from white card stock and blended them with various distress inks - Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers and Dusty Concord.

I stacked them each up 3 times for stability and coated them with glossy accents.  When dry I overlaid them with this lacy die cut also from the Mixed Leaf die set and arranged them in the opposing corners of a slimline panel (Creative Craft Products Slimline Stitched Straight Edge die set).  

This left a small area in the centre for a sentiment.  The bright colours of the leaves inspired me to go with this Shine BRIGHT sentiment (from Verve Rise Above Stamp Set) mounted on a Colwell Label from Poppy Stamps (this too was stacked and I used dimensionals so it stood above the leaves.  

I added some some pearls which I coloured with some rainbow coloured alcohol inks.

This challenge is sponsored by Gina K. Designs who are offering our winner as voted by the Design Team, a generous $25 Store Credit.    So I hope you can take some Time Out and join us this fortnight.  You have until the 15th February to link up your entries and we can't wait to see how Gina's card will inspire you!

I'd like to enter NBUS Challenge #47 because the Altenew Mixed Leaf Die set was a Christmas present to myself and the Slimline Stitched Die was a belated birthday present!

I'd also like to enter my Rainbow coloured card into the Colorful Options Challenge for February 2023.

I'm so grateful you stopped by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments always brighten my day!  If you do leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate