Festive Fir

 Challenge #303 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have another

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Our lovely team member Ishani shared this photo with us of a family celebration and we thought it might inspire you - here's a closer look!

Challenge 299 is being sponsored by Birch Press and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $20 store credit!

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 Trina Pham of Phamtastic Designs - our winner from Challenge #298!  

You can see how Trina was inspired by our photo as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!  I do hope you can take some Time Out and come play cards with us this fortnight!

There was so much inspiration in this photo it was hard to know where to start but eventually I decided on the left dress and made up a Christmas tree (Gummiapan Divided Fir) using a patterned paper that was as close to the colour of that first dress as I could find!  I draped a sentiment banner (inspired by the wrap) across the middle in green and added some green baubles and a star.

And of course by swapping out alternate segments of the fir with plain white I get a twofer!  

Then I thought I'd try the same with dress 2 and after an exhaustive hunt through Christmas papers, found this lovely paper and made up another two trees with some snippets of copper mirror card stock.

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

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - It's Die-cember so use those dies!

Make My Monday Challenge #266 - Christmas Tree;

Die Traumfabrik Challenge #145 - The Movie is Candy Cane Lane (Anything Christmas Goes);

Peace On Earth December Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #627 - Christmas;

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

Butterfly among the Poinsettias

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 179 has just gone live and Melissa has chosen Poinsettia as our theme for the month of December.

To add interest I thought I'd make a spinning poinsettia card - well it seemed like a good idea at the time!

I found this cute poinsettia paper among my (many) Christmas paper pads and cut a background panel and cut a channel in this for the spinning mechanism to work.  I then cut and layered a poinsettia for my spinning element (Spellbinders Floral Stag, Spellbinders Delivering Joy, Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia) from some special glossy, red glitter card stock I've been saving for years now.  

I was underwhelmed to say the least - the poinsettia was a bit lost on the background paper!  I tried cutting a few more poinsettias (I only had enough of that glossy card stock for 1 more poinsettia so I used plain red and winked them) and randomly added them to the panel.  I was a little happier but still not loving it!  Here it is in motion!

And then I thought ... wouldn't a Butterfly (Justine Hovey Butterfly Mix) make more sense flitting about among those poinsettias and I already had a few of these left over from an earlier project!  Much happier!

Here it is in action

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

Snippets Playground Challenge #520 - Snippets of that red glossy glitter cardstock and gold below;

Simons Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Simon Says Anything Goes;

A Cut Above December Challenge - Anything Goes with a Die Cut;

ABC Christmas Challenge - W is for Wings;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog - Anything Christmas Goes;

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday Challenge for December - 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

You Have (Christmas) Mail

 

Time Out Challenge #302 has just gone live and it's our last Pick 2 Challenge for 2025!  

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

Emboss, Movie, Nature, Corner, White, Sparkle

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 #302 is generously being sponsored by Poppystamps 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 Margreet Burger of Margreet's Scrapcards our winner of Challenge #297!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Margreet and my talented team mates were inspired by these six words!

Since this is the last Pick 2 Challenge of the Year, I wanted to use all 6 prompts but I wanted to make it a Christmas card and movie had me stumped - all the Christmas movies I could think of (Elf, the Santa Chronicles, The Santa Clause) all seemed to require red and/or green and I wanted to keep it white on white!  In hindsight I could just as easily have made a white elf (these words are only meant to inspire not restrict) but that didn't occur to me (blame it on a MIA mojo)!  In the end I changed tactic and tried to think about any movie (I started with ones I own on DVD and enjoy watching again and again) and finally You Have Mail popped into my head ... which was perfect because I have loads of NBUS Mail stash!  So now I had my movie, it was just as a matter of how the other 5 prompts could work!

I began with a dry embossed background panel (Cuttlebug Snowflakes) to add some background interest and use that word emboss!   

I made up an envelope (NBUS Poppystamps Large Stitched Envelope and Postage) then cut a deckle edged note to slip inside it and tried the word "joy" (Sizzix Holiday Words Script By Tim Holtz) cut from white glitter card stock for some sparkle!

I wasn't happy with it (way too plain) so embossed the notelet with some background text using an NBUS stamp (Kaisercraft Script Texture) with Weiße Diamenten embossing Powder) - more emboss and sparkle!   

It still needed something more and as I wanted some nature I added a flower spray from another NBUS set (Spellbinders Sitting Pretty) cut from white and glitter card stock.  

To finish it all off, I added a "25" to the smaller of the 2 postage stamps (from the envelope set) and added it in the top right corner!

Then the design seemed a bit unbalanced so I added a "Sending" sentiment (Simon Says Stamp) cut from more white glitter card stock (yet more sparkle).  I should have stacked it as it's lost on this embossed background but it was very late, I was tired and TBH I couldn't be bothered (I almost always regret these decisions the next morning)!  Still, overall I was pleased with this card (and lately that's not often been the case) and I managed to use all 6 word prompts!

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

NBUS Challenge #80 - NBUS Envelope, Text Stamp, Flowers;

Triple B November Challenge - Blooms (no Birds or Butterflies);

Cut it Up Challenge #343 - Favourite Colour (I love white esp the challenge of only using white);

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday Challenge for November - 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

On Your Guard

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

Challenge #301 is generously being sponsored by Angie Blom 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 Stef Perry our winner from Challenge #296!   You can check out how Stef and my talented team mates were inspired by their favourite holiday celebrations over on the Time Out Blog!

I do get inspired by the Christmas season and I find myself buying a lot of Christmas stash - usually at a rate faster than I can possibly use it!  This cute little Danische Garde set from Charlie & Paulchen fell into my shopping basket about a year ago and I finally got around to using it!  It reminded me of the tin soldier from the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale - which makes me think of Christmas for some reason ... and the set came with this "God Jul" sentiment so I guess I'm not alone in that!

The die cuts can be snipped apart and layered up - the soldier was a fiddly because of his size but I was able to build up the guardhouse easily - giving the little soldier a comfortable nook to stand in!  I used a brick embossing folder (Tim Holtz brickwork) for the whitewashed castle wall behind the guardhouse.  

Of course I couldn't resist adding glossy accents to his shoes and bearskin hat!

What is your favourite holiday celebration and how does it inspire you?  We hope you can take some Time Out and come play cards with us - we'd love to see your creations in our gallery!

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

NBUS Challenge 80 - NBUS Charlie & Paulchen Danische Garde;

ABC Christmas Challenge October - U for Uncluttered and V for Vertical;

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #560 - A few of My Favourite Things are die cutting, embossing folders and glossy accents;

Ellibelle's Corner Wednesday Challenge for November - Anything Goes;

A Cut Above November Challenge - Anything Goes with a Die Cut;

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

Snow Business

 

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 178 has just gone live and it was my turn to choose the theme and I chose Festive Wear for the month of November - mostly because I was itching to use this NBUS die set (Papertrey Ink Build-A-Hat)!

I found this sheet of grey plaid among my many Christmas paper pads and teamed it with some snippets of greys left over from cutting card bases.  

I used the smaller snowflake from the Build-A-Hat set to spell out "SNOW" (MB Vintage Varsity Alphabet) and a Craft Emotions Lower Case Alphabet die to spell out "business"!

I do hope you are inspired by the rest of the Design Team at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge and can join us with some festive wear of your own - not long now till Christmas!

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

NBUS Challenge #80 - NBUS "Christmas" sentiment;

Snippets Playground Challenge #518 (see below);

Jingle Belles - Dashing Through the Snow;

Merry Little Christmas #65 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

Kraft Chicks Challenge Week 5 October - 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

Pumpkin with Personality

Challenge #300 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have the theme

Autumn Celebrations Around the World

Challenge 300 is being sponsored by doodlebugsWA 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!  

Speaking of guest designers, our guest designer this fortnight is Jaydee of Stamping with Jaydee - our winner from Challenge 293!  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!

I'd been havering for days about which direction to go for this challenge - I was thinking of the Vizfest celebration (apple pressing) we have here in Luxembourg in Mid October or possibly Oktoberfest which is also popular here!   But yesterday I received a lovely surprise in the post - a stamp set from Donna Walls of Inspiration Station which included Halloween elements so I decided to go with a Halloween theme and use the new stamp set for tone on tone interest behind this very old but still NBUS pumpkin die (Sizzix Movers and Shapers Pumpkin Jack by Tim Holtz).  I also bought the matching Movers and Shapers Mini Scary Jack-o-Lantern Set all those years ago (2014) and both have been overlooked.

I cut the pumpkin with the face from yellow card stock and shaded with some Carved Pumpkin DI, then backed it with a black pumpkin without the face.  The mouth and eyes looked a little dull, so I went over them with Wink of Stella, added the stalk and arranged the new stamps on my stamping platform and stamped with Versamark for a subtle effect behind the pumpkin.  Here's a closeup!

I did have to make a larger than normal card base to accommodate this pumpkin - these Bigz dies are just that!  It measures 12.5 x 17cm (just under 5" x just under 6.75") so should fit in a 5 x 7" envelope.  The larger size is probably why it's sat unloved for so many years.  How many dies have we bought that were much larger (or smaller) than anticipated when they were bought online???

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

NBUS Challenge #79 - NBUS Pumpkin Jack, Jack o'Lantern, Bloody Good Halloween;

Four Seasons October Challenge;

Two Old Bats October Challenge;

Traumfabrik Challenge #144 - Coco Day of the Dead (Halloween Theme);

Inspiration Station Challenge #78 - See below (I was inspired by the pumpkins);

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

Mirror Mirror

 

Challenge #299 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have another

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Our team mate Jenny snapped this fabulous pic of an antique store on one of her shopping expeditions - here's a closer look at this fabulous source of inspiration!

Challenge 299 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 Verena of Simple Stamper - our winner from Challenge #294!  You can see how Verena was inspired by our photo as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!  I do hope you can take some Time Out and come play cards with us this fortnight!

I was immediately inspired by the frames and I was reminded how last year I realised one of my old Spellbinders oval dies can look very much like an antique frame.  Initially, I resisted the urge to make a mirror though many of the frames in the pic are mirrors!  However, as I had no suitable artwork ideas for the frame (other than the one I made last year) I looked for the shiniest mirror card I could find and went looking for a sentiment!  

Yes, obvious though it seems with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight vision, the "mirror mirror" idea did not dawn on me immediately!  I think it hit me when I started to consider how I would do the wall behind the mirror!   "Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?" - although in this case, the inside will read - "who's the handsomest one of all" because it's for my son!

I probably didn't need the "mirror mirror" sentiment - it's pretty obviously a mirror and it's very obviously a wall (Brickwork embossing folder by Tim Holtz)!  However, I thought it would remove any doubt if I made up a sentiment (using MS Word and the Decotech DL font) and cut with one of my favourite little frame dies (from Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles).

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

NBUS Challenge #79 - NBUS sentiment set;

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

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 Jaydee of Stamping with Jaydee - our winner of Challenge #293!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Jaydee 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