Safe Harbour

Challenge #266 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight it's an Inspiration Photo Challenge!

This challenge is perfect if like me, you're missing your Vitamin Sea!  Here's a closeup!

This challenge is 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! 

Speaking of Top Picks, we are delighted to welcome Joyce Mehrberg (our Top Pick of Challenge 262) as our guest this fortnight!  Many of you will already know and probably follow Joyce's blog Cards By The Sea - definitely worth a visit and leave her some comment love while you're there!

And you'll find plenty more inspiration from Joyce and the rest of the team over on the Challenge Blog!

I love anything to do with the sea and so does my hubby and my father-in-law was a naval commander so I have accumulated quite a few nautical stamp and die sets over the years - some still NBUS!  But this photo reminded me so much of a card I made ages ago that I've CASEd myself on this one except that I've swapped the sentiment for a New Baby (a friend of mine is expecting her first grandson) and I also cut everything for this card from white card stock (apart from the base panel) and used distress inks (Shabby Shutters, Squeezed Lemonade and Blue Lagoon) and alcohol markers to add colour rather than using coloured card stock.  The sentiment is from WMS Ocean Bound and fits perfectly on this Spellbinders Wonky Frame which I think resembles a ship's square sail fluttering in the wind, 

I'd like to enter these fab challenges

Papercraft Challenges #106 - For the Boys;

Allsorts Week 785 - Masculine;

Make My Monday Challenge #228 - Outdoor Summer Fun;

Word Power Challenge #6 - Make the sentiment the focus of your card.

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

Hip Hippo Hooray

I recently won as 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 Inside Out or its German title Alles Steht Kopf (which Google translates as Everything is Upside Down).

Here is the movie poster (both English and German versions) and they would like us to create something Upside Down or perhaps be inspired by the colours and layout of the poster(s).  Traumfabrik welcomes any kind of handmade projects - card, art journal page, ATC, canvas or 3D project!  

When I recently asked my youngest son Simon what he wanted for his upcoming birthday, he jokingly replied "a hippo"!  He loves Christmas and spends much of the year listening to Christmas music and he especially loves that corny old Christmas song "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas (look it up on Youtube but I'm warning you it's both very corny and very catchy)!   Well a hippo may be out of the question, but a hippo birthday card was definitely within the realms of possibility.  So I was already planning a hippo birthday card when Rosi invited me to join Traumfabrik as a guest!  And the upside down prompt gave me just the inspiration I needed - a spinning hippo card - and slowly this design evolved.

I coloured my tumbling hippo (Poppy Stamps Happy Hippo) with alcohol markers and then liberally coated him with Glossy Accents so he'd be nice and plump and blubbery!  I cut a blue lagoon for my hippo to frolic in (Memory Box Underwater Collage) which caused a problem as it's only meant to be an aperture die so there were two unattractive spots on the lagoon shoreline.   But I managed to hide those with a life preserver ring (from the 2024 Gummiapan Advent Calendar) and a younger smaller hippo (Poppy Stamps Whittle Floating Hippo which came with its own life preserver).  

I stamped the two sentiments on the front panel (Poppy Stamps Whittle Wild Animal Sentiments), worked out where I wanted my lagoon to go, I cut a track in the lagoon and the front panel and added the lagoon to the panel (lining up the track) and added the panel to the card base with foam tape.   I've devised a mechanism for my spinner cards that utilises magnets.  I find the magnet system is sturdier and the spinner element can be easily added to or removed from the card - if you're interested, you can see how this system works in this blog post.

Here's the hippo in action

and the right way up!

As I was about to pack everything away, I suddenly had yet another idea ... based on the English title of the movie - Inside Out! 

For this card I made an aperture card so that the inside was on the outside!  I cut an aperture (Poppy Stamps Whittle Wave) from the card front and coloured this blue and added some waves with a white Posca Pen.  I then added it to the inside of the card so it lined up with the aperture.  I used the hippos again though the smaller one is now wading while his mama looks on from the edge of the lagoon.  I used the same life ring I used on the first card but also added a beach umbrella and a palm tree from the same set (Gummiapan Advent Calendar 2023 Day 5).

Here's the inside

 I do hope you will be inspired by Traumfabrik's movie title this month and I do look forward to seeing your upturned creations in Traumfabrik's gallery!

I'd like to enter the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #63 - NBUS Happy Hippo, Floating Hippo, Underwater Collage and Gummiapan Advent Calendar Day 5;

Crafty Animals Challenge #84 - Anything with an animal;

Four Seasons June 2024 Challenge - Anything Summer Goes;

Seize the Birthday #284 - no topping;

Thanks for stopping by - your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and will (hopefully) be able to find and visit you!

Kate

Under the Mistletoe

 

Challenge #165 has just gone live at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and here is my DT card. 

I am on a mission to use all the NBUS items in my stash and this card is the first outing for these bears (Poppy Stamps Nordic Bears).   I thought purple might be a nice change for their vests and a little gold is always a good idea for Christmas.

Once I'd made up the bears, they appeared to be kissing so I decided to put them under some mistletoe (Memory Box Mistletoe Bundle).  I cut the mistletoe from green card stock (stacked twice) but I did go around the edges with distress ink which always helps to add a little dimension.

It's rare for me to have no sentiment, but sometimes there just isn't the space and sometimes the image says it all!  

I'd like to enter these fab challenges

NBUS Challenge #63 - The Nordic bears were NBUS;

Crafty Animals Challenge #84 - Anything Goes with an animal;

Make My Monday Challenge #227 - B is for .... bears;

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday Challenge June and July  - Anything Goes;

Girls Creative Christmas Challenge #76 - Ijsberen - Polar Bears;

The 12 Months of Christmas Challenge #111 - Optional Twist of North Pole;

Sparkles Christmas Challenge #161 - Use Dies;

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 will hopefully be able to find you!

Kate

Always Flowers

 

Challenge #265 at Time Out Challenges has just gone live and this fortnight we have an Inspired By Words Challenge with this lovely quote from Henri Matisse 

 “There are always flowers for those who want to see them”

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.

 This fortnight we are generously being sponsored by Altenew and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design team $15 store credit and our Top Pick will also be invited to Guest Design with us in a future challenge.  

Speaking of guest designers, we're joined this challenge by the very talented Arlene Rose as our guest!  Be sure to check out her gorgeous interpretation of our quote as well as the rest of the team on the Time Out Blog!

How do these words inspire you and where do they lead your imagination?  We hope you can take Time Out of your busy schedule to come play cards with us!

I think it's fair to say there are always flowers (and lots of them) in any card maker's cache - I certainly have one or two (hundred) flower stamps and die sets in my stash and this lovely Altenew Dog Rose Panel Bundle is just one that I haven't got around to using yet!   As Altenew is sponsoring our challenge this fortnight at Time Out, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a play with it! 

There are two dies in this bundle and for my first card, I cut the two panels from two shades of cream and backed it with gold and added a "thinking of you" sentiment below it.  Love the dimension!

Then I noticed the word "always" in the quote and I had another idea so I made up another panel, this time with green, cream and gold and added the die cut word "always" (Winnie and Walter) under the panel.

 Space was tight, so it had to overlap the panel, which wasn't straightforward because the Dog Rose Panel was three layers high ... so I cut just the bottom half three times and stacked them up so that these were the same level as the panel.  Then I cut the complete word and added this to the top, overlapping the panel.

I can't wait to try new colour variations with this fab die set!

I'd like to enter the following Challenges

NBUS Challenge #63 -  NBUS Altenew Dog Rose Panel;

Triple B Challenge - Birds, Butterflies and/or Blooms;

Inspirational June Challenge - Flowers;

Inspirational Challenge #317 - Word Prompt Frame;

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