Non-traditional Christmas Colours

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 177 has just gone live and Helen has chosen Non-Traditional Colours as our challenge theme for the month of October!  When it comes to making up Christmas cards I often get inspiration from the many DP pads I have trouble parting with,  so that was where I headed first ... and this sheet of pink and black DP caught my eye!  

The gift images and all the sparkly silver accents inspired me further (particularly the black spotted presents) and I remembered this very old Sizzix Regular die (Gift 2) which is a large present with a wonderful big bow on it  and I made that up this spotted present with a big sparkly silver bow.  The bow and present are all one large piece (the Sizzix Original dies were not known for their fine detail were they) so I had to remove the present from the bow - following the curve of the "ribbon" and snipping at the bottom, and cutting it again from silver.

As well as the bow, I cut a little tag (Spellbinders Delivering Joy Sleigh) and a large "Christmas" sentiment from a NBUS set (Sizzix Holiday Words by Tim Holtz) from silver glitter card stock and the design came together pretty quickly (for once)!   I went over all that silver glitter with Glossy Accents so it wouldn’t shed!

Here's a closeup of all the sparkle

I do hope you are inspired by the rest of the Design Team at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge and can join us with a non-traditional colour combo card of your own - not long now till Christmas!

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

NBUS Challenge #79 - NBUS "Christmas" sentiment;

Simon Says StampWednesday Challenge - Think Pink; 

Word Power October Challenge;

Merry Little Christmas #64 - 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 should be able to find you!

Kate

What a Blast!

 

Time Out Challenge #298 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 obvious - we give you 6 word prompts to choose from and you use at least 2 to inspire your creation!  To be clear, you can pick more than 2 if you like - all 6 if you really want a challenge but just make sure to pick at least 2!

The Word Prompts for this challenge are

Spatter, Music, Season, Edge, Monochrome, Metallic

You can interpret these words any way you like but please explain if it isn't obvious and please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!  I hope you enjoy our challenge and that you can take a little Time Out and join us for some fun!  

Challenge #298 is generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 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 xxx our winner of Challenge #293!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how xxx and my talented team mates were inspired by these six words!

This card is for a friend of mine - a fabulous musician and one of the most generous people you could ever meet.  She has been "gigging for bricks" here in Luxembourg to build a school in Tanzania and travelling there annually to teach and share her musical talent.  Up until recently she owned a string of creches with the name "Sunflower" and the name of her band is "Alizeti" which is Swahili for Sunflower - so obviously I had to include sunflowers (Sizzix Garden Shed by Sophie Guilar) and thought it might be fun to have musical motifs (Memory Box Musical Motif) as well as sunflowers bursting out from a saxophone!

I chose the saxophone (Leabilities Saxophone), not because she plays it but because I do (I have made her numerous cards over the years with guitars) and I realised that as it's made of metal I already had two elements picked for Challenge #298 and looked to the others to help me complete the card! 

Spatter was an obvious choice and I stamped some splats (WPlus9 InkSplats and WMS Splat-That) for interest and texture behind the sunflowers and musical motifs.

I realised I could place this NBUS sentiment along the "edge" of the panel (CreativeExpressions Stacked Sentiment Happy Birthday) and so I could make it to 4 - Music, Metal, Spatter and Edge!

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

NBUS Challenge #78 - NBUS Stacked Sentiment set;

Triple B September Challenge - Blooms (no Birds or Butterflies)

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 how to find you!

Kate

The Colour Purple

I was honoured a few weeks ago to receive 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 Harold and the Purple Crayon!

Here is the movie poster and die Traumfabrik would like us to create something inspired by the colour purple - you can use other colours but the colour purple must be the main colour!  Traumfabrik welcomes any kind of handmade projects - card, art journal page, ATC, canvas or 3D project! 

My daughter-in-law loves the colour purple so for their wedding card, naturally I chose purple as the dominant colour!  

I cut all the flowers and leaves (Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms) from white card stock and coloured them with alcohol markers and used glossy accents on the main flower's centre for dimension, then arranged them on the horseshoe (Uniquely Creative) until I was happy.  The horseshoe was cut from brown cardstock and coated with Versafine ink and embossed with PSX Woven Tapestry embossing powder until I got a good coverage to give it an aged, rusty appearance.  This embossing powder has been in my stash for decades but WOW! has similar embossing powders.

The shadow for the sentiment (Sue Wilson Mini Shadowed Congratulations) was cut from purple card stock and the congratulations was cut from white and stacked then I tried to get an ombre effect using alcohol markers.  A sprinkling of purple pearls and a purple butterfly finished off the card!

I hope you'll be able to join us at die Traumfabrik for this fun challenge and check out what the talented Dream Team have made to inspire you here!

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

Neglected Stuff Challenge 9/25 - Neglected Horseshoe, neglected embossing powder;

Triple B September Challenge - Blooms and a Butterfly;

Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. Week 3 - E = Embossing wet or dry;

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

Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall?

 

Another fun challenge has just gone live at Time Out Challenges - we would like to see how you are inspired by Your Favourite Season!

Challenge #297 is generously being sponsored by Waffle Flower and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 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 Darnell our winner from Challenge #292.  Darnell’s blog is one of my favourite places to visit - be sure to check out how she was inspired by her favourite season and her latest escapades!  And you can see how my talented team mates were inspired by their favourite season over on the Time Out Blog!

I have always loved Autumn!  When I lived in Australia it was always a relief when the cooler months of Autumn gave us some respite from the summer heat.  Plus, my dad came from Tumut, which was nestled at the foot of the Snowy Mountains and known for its tall poplars and colourful Autumnal displays of trees that had been transplanted from Europe and it was always a special treat to visit my grandmother's farm at that time of year!  Of course when I transplanted myself  in Europe, I was in awe of  the of miles of country roads and whole mountainsides covered in all manner of deciduous trees!  So, definitely Autumn is my favourite season - especially when it comes to crafting!  I just love the challenge of trying to recreate that beauty!

For this card today I embossed a panel of Kraft cardstock using the Tim Holtz Lumber 3D Texture Fades Embossing folder and distressed it with Barn Door, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks, then went over it with some gold gilding wax. 

I cut some branches (Spellbinders Cherry Blossoms) and distressed them with Gathered Twig DI.  

Then I cut loads of oak leaves (Tim Holtz Fall Foliage) from snippets of Kraft cardstock and distressed each leaf using Mowed Lawn, Barn Door and Mustard Seed DIs.   It would have been easier to distress the card stock first and then cut the leaves but because the leaves were so small I couldn't see how I could make sure I got all the colours on each leaf so I placed finger daubers on 3 of my fingers and distressed each leaf leaf individally (see below).  

After lining up the branches across the base of the card and attaching the leaves I cut this NBUS Autumn sentiment (ORIGACH Month Week and Year Planner) and some alphabets from snippets of darker brown card stock.  I did distress these with the autumnal colours as well but because the colour was quite dark it's hardly noticeable.

I cut the letters for the "blessings" from card stock that had double sided tape on the back and "spelt" it out on a strip of temporary tape so it would stay put while I distressed it but could easily be removed afterwards - this was really useful for lining it up on the panel.

Finally I winked the sentiment and leaves to make them sparkle (as always tricky to photograph)!

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

NBUS Challenge #78 - NBUS Month Week and Year Planner (Autumn Sentiment);

Inspiration Station Challenge #77 - see pic below;

Four Seasons Fall Challenge September;

Word Power September Challenge;

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday for September - 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

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

 

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 175 has just gone live and Debs has chosen Add Some Holly as our theme for the month of September!  

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

One in a Million

Challenge #296 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have the theme

Friendship/Encouragement/Support!

This challenge is generously being sponsored by Claire Brennan Design and Illustrations and Claire donated this incredible Stamp set earlier in the year as a prize for our Top Pick as chosen by the design team!   

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 LeAnne Pugliese of Wee Inklings our winner of Challenge #290!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how LeAnne and my talented team mates were inspired by our theme!

Sadly Claire has since closed her store so this is your "last chance to see" this stamp set.  Many of you will remember Claire Brennan from her Waltzing Mouse Stamps days and will be just as saddened as when WMS closed its doors!  I am lucky enough to own many of Claire's stamp sets from her WMS days and a few of her newer ones to and will treasure them always!

I needed a quick card for my gymnastic dance instructor and decided to use a butterfly as a focal element (though an elephant would perhaps have been a more accurate choice LOL)!  This stunning NBUS butterfly (Poppy Stamps Nordic Belle Butterfly) was cut from snippets of various coloured card and I swapped the layers around until I was happy!  It's such a stunning butterfly it didn't really need anything else except a sentiment and I found the perfect one in Claire's Mid Modern City Stamp Set!  Stamping on this highly textured card stock is difficult so I used my stamping platform but the quality of Claire's stamps is such that the stamping worked perfectly on the first attempt with Verafine Onyx Black Ink.  I winked everything though you'll have to take my word for that since it's hardly noticeable in the photo!  And after winking, I went over the body of the butterfly with glossy accents for stability  - now it sparkles and shines!

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

Snippets Playground Challenge #513 - see below for snippets

NBUS Challenge #77 - NBUS Butterfly;

Triple B August Challenge - Birds, Butterflies or Blooms;

Allsorts Challenge #830 - Something beginning with "B" (Butterfly);

Double D Challenge - Butterflies;

Twofer:

Since I had cut the butterfly layers from several colours, I assembled a second card (this time a portrait orientation), using this "thanks" die cut sentiment in place of a stamped sentiment.  

Again I winked everything (including the sentiment) and again I went over the body of the butterfly with glossy accents - sentiment too!

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

Celebration Fika

 

Challenge #295 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have another

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Here's a closer look at this fabulous source of inspiration that our team mate Jenny snapped of Queenscliff Harbour !

Challenge 295 is being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $25 store credit and the Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  

The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge and speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Kathy Schweinfurth of Stamps at Play - our winner from Challenge 290!  Be sure to check out her gorgeous creation inspired by our photo as well as those of my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!

Be sure to see how my talented team mates were inspired over on the Time Out Blog and I do hope you can take some Time Out to come play cards with us this fortnight!

What I noticed straight away was that yummy pastry (Jenny's two feathered visitors seem to be eyeing it as well).  Which made me think of this NBUS Gummiapan Swedish Fika set and the timing could not have been better because one of my oldest friends in Luxembourg celebrates her 60th birthday this year and she just happens to be Swedish!  

A little gilding wax and a few more NBUS items later and finally had a design I was happy with and I hope Lena will love!

Here's a photo I snapped in the sunshine earlier in the afternoon.

And here is something I found on FB

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

NBUS Challenge #77 - NBUS Gummiapan Fika die set, Gummiapan Mini Banner die set, Gummiapan frame (from , Gummiapan Coffee Stain Rubber Stamp;

Ellibelle's Corner August Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

First Cup Challenge #5 - Anything Drinks Related (hopefully the coffee stains acccompanying my Fika count);

Heart's Quest Challenge Blog #76 - Include a red and/or orange heart (mine is tiny);

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

Sparkling Trees

 

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 175 has just gone live and Debbie has chosen Include a Tree as our theme for the month of August!  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!   For this project, I included two trees from a Charlie & Paulchen set  - Winterliche Bäume which translates to Wintry Trees!  

Wintry trees calls for sparkle and since I still had some of the white glitter card stock on my desk from last month's Christmas Sparkles Challenge, that's what I used!  

The falling snow background was created by using another NBUS set (Snowbanks by Justine Hovey) to cut a black panel which I laid on a white card base.  The snowbank (also from the Snowbank set) was also cut from glitter card stock, as was this "sparkle" sentiment (Creative Craft Sparkle and Shine set)!

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 #77 - NBUS Snowbanks set and Winterliche Bäume set;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #63 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Darnell's IDEAS - anything goes week;

Krafty Chicks Challenge #779 - Anything Goes week;

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #188 - 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 should be able to find you!

Kate

Rise Above

 

Time Out Challenge #294 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 you pick at least 2!

The Word Prompts for this challenge are

Torn, Transport, Star, Stripes, Rainbow and Book

 Challenge 294 is being sponsored by Newton's Nook and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $25 store credit!

 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 Bonnie Klass our winner of Challenge #289!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Bonnie and my talented team mates were inspired by these 6 words!

My design was inspired mostly by the words book and rainbow - The Wizard of Oz was a favourite book (and movie) of my children when they were younger and the classic song from the movie Over the Rainbow is also one of my favourite songs too!  And as I was thinking about the story, I was reminded that the Wizard's mode of transport was hot air balloon so I made up this hot air balloon (Elizabeth Designs Hot Air Balloon with Pop-up set) using some DP with rainbow stars!  

This sentiment (Verve Rise Above) worked well I thought!  I added some clouds (from the same set Elizabeth Dies set) as a "sun" (Memory Box Small Circle Burst) to complete the scene!  The balloon was mounted on a wobble spring so it jiggles a little - a super easy way of making the card a little more fun!

See how easy it is to Pick (at least) 2 - I started with 2 and ended up with 4!  Hopefully these 6 words will challenge you to take some Time Out and join us!

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

Traumfabrik Challenge 141 has chosen the movie Spotlight as it's theme, and as the "sun" is shining on my hot air balloon I hope this works!

The Alphabet Challenge has home as it's theme and as anybody who has ever seen the Wizard of Oz knows, "there's no place like home"!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

Darnell's IDEAS - 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

I Saved a Few and I Keep them in a Jar

 

We have a fun challenge for you this fortnight at Time Out Challenges - we would like to see you inspired by Your Favourite Song!

Challenge #293 is generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to their store!  

 The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!   Be sure to check out how my talented team mates were inspired by their favourite songs over on the Time Out Blog!

I have literally hundreds of favourite songs so picking just one of them for this challenge was the hardest part - a bit like asking which is my favourite child 😉!

Have you guessed yet, which song I eventually chose as my favourite?  It's Fireflies by Owl City, particularly a line from the the last verse - 'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar!  I do love this song, it always makes me feel happy when I hear it and as you can guess I've been singing it the whole time I've been planning and making this card!

This song also gave me an opportunity to use this NBUS Fireflies set (Greetery) that I bought almost 2 years ago!  Also this NBUS jar die (Sizzix Thinlits Die Set Jar Of Flowers #665079) which I bought around the same time (possibly I was inspired by the song even back then)!

I wanted a glass jar and I keep any acetate from packaging for just this purpose but this acetate's almost impossible to cut even though it's not very thick so I thought I'd cut the jar from the front panel and lay the acetate underneath the aperture (which also avoided the problem of hiding the foam tape)! Then it was just a matter of raising the panel with foam tape to allow enough space under it for the fireflies and adding the screw-top pieces.

I cut all the fireflies from a snippet of textured card stock - here's a photo I took during the process (though in the end I needed more fireflies) along with the snippet of acetate (packaging from double sided tape) which was perfect for sitting behind the aperture!

I always feel the need to add a sentiment, even if it's only a single word but just what to say eluded me for a while until I remembered I had this "Shine" sentiment (from Creative Craft Sparkle and Shine set).  Well these little lightning bugs certainly do shine and this sentiment works for encouragement, graduation, farewell, anything really!

I think fireflies actually have black wings but I coloured my fireflies' wings using a very light grey and then winked them all.   Here's a closeup of some of the fireflies though they actually sparkle a lot more in real life!

I'm looking forward to reading all about your Favourite Song and how it inspired your creation so I hope you can take some Time Out and come join us!

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

NBUS Challenge #76 - NBUS Fireflies and Jar dies;

Snippets Challenge #510 - see above for snippets used;

Crafty Animals Challenge #96 - Anything Goes with an Animal (insects count);

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

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