Crocheted Christmas Bloom

 

Tiem for a new challege at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Card Challenge and time to add a new card to my stash for next December.  As the weather gets warmer, it can get increasingly difficult to concentrate on cards for the winter months!  My youngest son loves Christmas and particularly Christmas music so it's not unusual to hear Christmas classics blasting out throughout the year, which definitely helps me get in a Christmas mood but if you're struggling with Christmas inspiration, my teamies have loads of inspiration for you and our our gallery will soon be filling up with even more - I do hope you'll join us!

This lovely little flower (Sue Wilson Spiral Pearl Flowers) reminds me of a crocheted flower and I think it frames this oval die cut (Create and Craft Ornate Ovals) perfectly!  Both sets were recent prizes from the Snippets Playground!  They weren't designed for Christmas, but make up something in red, green and gold ... et voila! 

There's a fair bit of dimension with the flower and leaves - each consist of three layers and I've used foam tape to mount the oval and again on the flower - I used some doubled up foam tape where the flower overhangs the oval to keep the levels even.   The inside was decorated with the smaller of the two flowers.  

I stamped and embossed this sentiment (Waltzing Mouse Stamps Compliments of the Season) with Topiary Embossing Powder which is a dark green with gold flecks.  I wasn't sure how it would go on this pre-foiled background DP but I was happy with the outcome - it's certainly legible anyway!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Snippets Playground Challenge #455 - Snippets of Gold from previous projects;

NBUS Challenge #50 - NBUS Spiral Flowers and Ornate Ovals;

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round May Challenge - lots of gold in the gold foiled background DPs and the embossing powder as well the the bottom layer of the leaves and flowers (which was devilishly difficult to photograph);

Happy Little Stampers May Christmas Challenge

Merry Little Christmas Challenge - anything Christmas Goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Rudolph Day Christmas Challenge - 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

Cheers Time Out

Challenge #239 has just gone live over at Time Out Challenges and this time we have a photo inspiration for you!

Here's a closer look at all that mojo-sparking inspiration!

There were so many elements I had difficulty focusing my attention.  I tried to emulate that sleek trolley with silver and gold mirri card - but abandoned that idea after the second attempt led nowhere fast and instead I created a fancy cocktail that I imagined might be made up on that sleek trolley!

  I cut and stacked multiple tulip glasses (Tim Holtz Happy Hour) from upcycled acetate packaging using glossy accents.  The drink "contents" were cut using another die from the set and coloured with distress inks.  I added it onto the back rather than the front - again with glossy accents - and added several coats of glossy accents to the front of the glass to make it more realistic.  Of course I had to add a little cocktail umbrella from the Happy Hour set! 

The background panel was a lucky find that I unearthed while searching for a suitably tropical paper for the umbrella canopy!   My timber "bar" was inspired by the floorboards in the photo and the gold stacked sentiment was a nod to the brass frame of the trolley!  I couldn't ignore the bowl of oranges and I also added a cherry and a few mint leaves as a nod to the bowl of berries and the green foliage!

We're really looking forward to seeing how you're inspired by our photo - it might be a single element, several elements or the general vibe of the photo - but please tell us what it is that inspired you if it isn't obvious!  If you're stuck, there's plenty of inspiration from my fellow DT members and we're also joined by the very talented Joyce Mehrberg as our guest designer for this challenge!

 

I'd like to give a shout out to our sponsor for this challenge - 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.

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Make My Monday Challenge #201 - Theme of Masculine

The current As You Like Challenge It Challenge has asked whether we prefer masculine or feminine cards.  Feminine cards are definitely easier, but most of the men in my life them love getting a handmade card from me just as much as the women!  This card is for my eldest son who recently celebrated his 30th birthday (where did those years go?)

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

Hooray Squirrels

 

My little great nephew has just become a big brother.  I thought this pair of squirrels (Poppy Stamps Whittle Squirrel) would make a cute big and little brother.  

I wanted to make my squirrels spin so I placed them on a leaf (Poppy Stamps Whittle leaf).  It was trickier to balance than I had anticipated and I ended up addding two leaves to the left side (Tim Holtz Fall Foliage) and a bit of bling!  Finally it spun properly without just hanging vertically.

You might think an Autumn theme at this time of year is an odd choice but it is heading for the Southern Hemisphere where it is Autumn!  Not that there is much in the way of European trees or squirrels in the coastal area where my niece lives but I wanted to send a little bit of Europe down under .... plus the squirrels just looked so Autumnal!

I used MFT Open Road to create the track on which these two little fellas can enjoy their journey together!

I'd like to enter my little Squirrels in the Inspirational Challenge #289 which has Word Prompt Mini!

I was able to use a snippet of gold from a previous project so I'd like to enter the Snippets Playground Challenge #454!

I'd also like to enter the following challenges

Crafty Aninmals Challenge #72 - Anything Goes with an Animal;

The Male Room Challenge #174 - Animals;

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Simon Says Interactive;

Use Your Stuff Challenge #484 - I used alcohol marker blending to colour the squirrels and leaves;

NBUS Challenge #50 - The Whittle Squirrel and Whittle Leaf dies were new;

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

Kate

Mini Framed Poinsettia

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #140 will be live by the time this post is published.  I do hope you'll join us in getting ready for next December well in advance.  My talented teamies have loads of inspiration to help you out if your Christmas mojo is missing and we are blessed to have many talented crafters share their creations in our gallery!

My make was inspired by a few challenges I saw!  Firstly Inspirational Challenge #289 forced me to put on my thinking cap with the word prompt mini, which led me to dust off this Mini Poinsettia die from Marianne D! 

The Day of the Month chosen for the Day of the Month Club Challenge #51 is 'International Picture Frame Day' so I thought I'd add a frame to my card so I could enter their challenge!

And the  Christmas Crafts All Year Round May Challenge has a theme of 5 gold rings so I purposely added a lot of gold to my project!

I'd also like to enter the following challenges

Happy Little Stampers May Christmas Challenge

Triple B May Challenge - No birds or butterflies, only a bloom today!

 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

Treasure of the Sea

 

Challenge #238 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have an Inspired By Words Challenge with this quote by Aberjhani 

"Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.” 

I not only focused my attention on the words "rainbow" and "gold" but also on the notion of treasure being found at the end of a rainbow.  I serendipitously stumbled upon this very old stamp in my stash while looking for another item, which led me to create this ocean themed card - which is about as far away from my initial idea as you could possibly get!  But that's the fun of challenges - you never know where they will lead you and  I do love to be beside the seaside so I don't mind at all being led there!

I'm on a mission to use up my NBUS items so I always check them first and I remembered I had not yet used this magnificient Nautilus Shell (Memory Box Grand Spiral Shell).  It's a 2 part die and I stacked up 2 of the solid die cuts in white before adding the rainbow die cut and finally the detail die cut from gold mirror card - I used the white die cuts to create some distance between that busy patterned paper and the shell.  

I'd like to enter NBUS Challenge #50 - it's always fun to enter Darnell's NBUS challenges though inevitably I'll find one or two things that I simply must have when visiting there so my NBUS stash is not decreasing at all!

How lucky was I to have this snippet on my desk from a project I made last week, which just accomodated the shell!  

 

I found some DP which resembled water, but it had a stark white background so I blended squeezed lemonade and sailboat blue DIs over it to give a dappled ocean appearance,  I dried that, ran over the anti-static pad and heat embossed the "treasures of the ocean" text directly onto the panel in gold!   Use Your Stuff Challenge #483 has a theme of water so I'd like to enter there!

I'd also like to enter Retro Rubber Challenge #206, which is a tic-tac-toe challenge and I've used row 3 - patterned paper, embossing and my choice of gold!  The Treasures of the Ocean text stamp is from Crafty Individuals Stamp set #272 Sea Shells.  I added it to my photos library (which I use to catalog my craft stash) in 2010 but it could in fact be older than that as my records only go back so far.  

Finally, I'd like to enter the Happy Little Stamper Anything Goes with Dies May Challenge!

We can't wait to see how you interpret these words - you can use just one, some, or all of these words as inspiration and please, if it's not obvious please explain to us how the words inspired you!  If you're stumped, you might like check out the inspiration from my fellow DT members and we're being joined this fortnight by Greta Hess of GG Creations - I'm sure she'd love you to drop by and say hi.

Varada Sharma is our sponsor this month - as well as being a brilliant crafter and blogger, she has designed some really gorgeous digital stamps and cut files.  She has kindly offered 2x$15 vouchers - which means we can offer 1 of those vouchers to our winner as voted by the DT team, and another randomly.  Check out the Time Out Challenge Blog for details!  

And as always our winner will also be invited to share their talents as a guest designer in a future 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

Say it with Flowers

 

The optional theme for the month of May at 613 The Avenue Create is 

Say it with Flowers

which presented me with an excellent opportunity to make another lollipop flower - this time an interactive one!

I used this "thanks" text die (Winnie and Walter Big Bold and Comfort) to create a stem for my flower - if you really want to say it with flowers can you think of a better way!   I cut it from some lime green patterned card stock (a snippet left over from a previous project).  I also cut some leaves to ensure it looked like a long-stemmed flower rather than a bunch of circles stuck at the end of a die cut sentiment!   The leaves were cut using a NBUS set (Memory Box Sturdy Stem)!

The flower head is made up of three slightly offset circles.  The bottom circle has a hole punched in it and is attached to the card front wih a brad so that it can spin.  Simple really, although the flower head will spin more freely if you surround the brad with strips of foam tape so that the foam tape is higher than the head of the brad - this ensures the layer added on top won't bulge or more importantly interfere with the movement of the brad.  I added the top circle with foam tape too but just for consistency.   The flower does looks a lot better with foam tape separating the layers anyway!  I also added the panel to the card base with foam tape to give it the best possible chance of spinning freely.

I try to make sure the hole in the bottom circle is fairly well centred so it stays centred above the stem and doesn't spin off to the left or right or up and down but by placing the other circles off centre you get an off-kilter wonky spin which is much more effective in my opinion.  

Here it is in action

We are sponsored by Mirtallamente and there are prizes to be won so check out the challenge blog 613 The Avenue Create for details - you'll also find loads of floral inspiration from my lovely team mates!  I do hope you'll come and hang out on our front porch this month!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #50 - the leaves die is NBUS;

Snippets Playground Challenge #453 - snippet of patterned paper used for the "stem" and leaves;

Papercraft Challenges #93 has a theme of Spring;

Allsorts Challenge Week 727 - April Showers Bring May Flowers.

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

Kate

Snowflake Sprig of Joy

Time for a new Challenge at  The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge  and time to add another Christmas card to the stash!

This was a fairly quick one made up using another panel of this lovely Lindsay tartan with gold foiling. I added a gold sprig (Memory Box Snowflake Sprig) and the word "joy" (Reverse Confetti Winter Words) and scattered a few snowflakes and that was it!  It didn't really need anything else!

There may not be "Lots of gold" but hopefully enough to enter my card in the May Christmas Crafts All Year Round Challenge!

I'd also like to enter Bastel-Traum Challenge #23 with the prompt celebrate!

Make My Monday Challenge #199 has the prompt flowers and I hope the delicate snowflake blooms on this die cut image qualify!

And Peace on Earth Challenge #38 where the prompt is always Anything Christmas Goes!

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

Kate