Shell Ahoy

 

Challenge #291 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have another

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Here's a closer look at this gorgeous piece of art from Alyson@romantheocean!

 Challenge 291 is being sponsored by Frantic Stamper and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a $20 store credit and the Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!  

Be sure to see how my talented team mates were inspired by this pic over on the Time Out Blog - I do hope I'll see your creations in the gallery and and I look forward to seeing how you're inspired!

I chose a scallop shell (Memory Box Grand Scallop Shell) because it most closely resembled a heart shape and distressed it with Spun Sugar and Antique Linen Distress Inks.  I added some coral to resemble the reeds in the pic and a few shells in the lower right corner (all from Charlie & Paulchen Ozeankranz).  And I was happy to use this NBUS sentiment (Sugar Pea Ahoy Word with Shadow) finally!

Everything was "winked" (though it's difficult to tell from the photo) to give that salt encrusted look!

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

NBUS Challenge #75 - NBUS Ahoy Die;

Snippets Challenge #508 - How lucky was I to have this perfectly sized snippet (with double sided tape on the back) left over from cutting an oval frame (I even managed to get another piece of coral cut from the middle of the brown after this photo was taken), the same for this snippet of white (could have even cut some more shells if I'd had time);

Everybody-Art-Challenge #581 - Maritime;

Papercraft Challenge #119 - Summer Vibes (collecting shells on the beach is my best memory of summer as a child - can still remember the smell of the sea when I think of sea shells);

As You Like It Challenge - To add a sentiment or not - I definitely like to add a sentiment because I don't think a card is complete without it, even if it's just a simple "hugs" or "hello";

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

Parisienne Delights

 

Time Out Challenge #290 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 to pick at least 2!

The Word Prompts for this challenge are

Recycle, Weather, Ribbon, Bold, Repeat and Place

We don't have a sponsor this challenge but I have a brand new die set (ordered twice oops) which I will send anywhere in the world to our Top Pick as chosen by the design team members!  Here's a photo of  this 23 pce die set from Sizzix - Garden Shed by Sophie Guilar!

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 Jaydee our winner of Challenge #285!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Jaydee and my talented team mates were inspired by these 6 words!

I do hope you enjoy our challenge and I do hope you can take Time Out and join us for some fun!  And please, if it isn't obvious let us know how these words inspired your creation!  And please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!

This card is a very belated birthday card for my daughter-in-law!  My son took her to Paris to celebrate her first birthday as his wife so I knew I wanted a Parisienne theme!  I found this very old but still NBUS stamp set while looking for all things Parisienne in my stash (Just Rite Greetings from Paris)!  I don't know why I never used it before because it stamped beautifully and makes a very simple add-on element when paired with the matching Spellbinders Label 25 die!  So Paris became the PLACE!  And of course no trip to Paris would be complete without the Eiffel Tower - cut from brown card stock and Winked (though the sparkle is as always difficult to capture)!

The first thing I noticed on this stamp was Le Chocolat and as I got some new sweetie dies with the Gummiapan Easter Advent Calendar, I thought I'd add a few of those cut from this piece of RECYCLED (from an old Christmas cracker) gold card stock!  

 Then as I was assembling the card I smudged the background panel - uggh what could I use to hide that 🤔!

   

Inspired by the WEATHER prompt, I thought clouds may very well be obscuring the top of the Eiffel Tower!  At this point the design was decidedly unbalanced so I added some ferns (Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms) REPEATED of course, to the base of the card!

So 4 Word Prompts achieved on my card - PLACE, RECYCLE, REPEAT and WEATHER!  But as I said it's only necessary to Pick 2!

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

NBUS Challenge #75 - NBUS Stamp Set, Gummiapan Sweeties;

Neglected Stuff Challenge June 2025 - Neglected Eiffel Tower (from Spellbinders French Frills die set) bought in 2013 last used 2018 and Just Rite French Frill stamp set bought 2015 and NBUS;

Snippets Playground - Snippets above;

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #549 - You are So Sweet!

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

Merry Forest

 

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 172 has just gone live and Melanie has chosen Include the word Merry as our theme for the month of June!

I don't think I'll ever get to the bottom of my NBUS (mainly because I keep adding to it) but it's fun to try!  I was playing with this 3D embossing folder (Sizzix Trees by Kathrin Breen) last month!  The first time I cracked the card stock so I remembered the trick of dampening the card stock slightly before embossing and that worked!  

Since the prompt for Sparkles was to use the word Merry, I thought I'd use this rather elegant Merry Christmas die I ordered from Gummiapan late last year.  However because it's so wide the orientation really needs to be landscape and as I wanted to use it with this embossed panel, I thought about leaving the "Christmas" off after fiddling a bit I tried the sentiment diagonally and this is what I came up with!    

I added a tree (Yvonne Creations Family Christmas Window) to the lower right corner because it was a little too plain! And then went over everything with the Wink of Stella Pen to make it sparkle! 

I know it seems strange to make Christmas cards in June but this year is flying by and it will be December in no time!  So I hope to see your "Merry" Creations in the gallery over at the Sparkles Christmas Challenge!

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

NBUS Challenge #75 - NBUS embossing folder, Merry Christmas Text die;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #62 - Anything Christmas Goes;

As You Like It Challenge - My Favourite Type of Embossing is definitely dry embossing!

A Cut Above June 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

Petit Oiseau and Buzzing Bee

Challenge #289 at Time Out Challenges has just gone live and this fortnight we want to see projects Inspired By Your Favourite Winged Thing!  

This challenge is generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to the 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 Kathy Asper of My Asperations our winner from Challenge #284!  Be sure to check out how Kathy was inspired by her favourite winged thing as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!

When thinking about Winged Things, my brain immediately went to birds - I had a budgerigar many years ago (I may have mentioned my Billy Boy once or twice already on my blog LOL). He was a great pet - chattering away all day telling anybody who would listen "what a good little boy" he was.  He also loved to dance and he would come when called!  His cage door was mostly left open which was a problem on weekends because he rarely let me sleep in!   Billy Boy was blue and yellow so I made up a little bird (Poppy Stamps Nordic Bird Bunch) in blue and yellow and put him aside!  At this point my Mojo decided to go AWOL!

Eventually I remembered I had an old rubber stamp (from de Stempelwinkel) that I had bought at a craft market in 2018 but never got around to using - well I can't make out a lot of the text but I know enough French to recognise the word "Oiseaux"!   I had an idea was to create a circular aperture, have the text behind the aperture, surround the aperture with flowers and have the bird in the centre of the aperture nestled among the flowers!   After stamping the text, I realised it was too harsh (should have stamped off first) but managed to save it by softening it with a piece of vellum.  I cut some Nordic flowers (Poppy Stamps Nordic Flourishes and Nordic Flower Heads) from white and coloured them with various (pastel) alcohol markers.   Then I pulled down the bird I'd made and realised the colours were far too bright for my bird!  So I made up another bird this time cut from white and coloured with alcohol markers - fortunately, like most of Poppy Stamps' Nordic Collection, these birds are a doddle to make up!

I finished off the card with a simple "hugs" sentiment (Spellbinders Vivid Script Sentiments) and mounted it on a brown card base!  

***

Now a bird may be my favourite winged thing but this bee die which came with the Spellbinders Advent Calendar last year is a lot of fun to play with!  And since I have already have quite a few bee related resources I guess bees are probably my second favourite winged thing - at least when made from paper ... in real life I've been stung way too many times!  

I made up a few bees and played with other bee related stash and this Happy "Bee" Day card with a black frame (two rectangle dies), a pierced honeycomb panel and the addition of 3 flowers was my favourite (the little flower die came with the set)!  The wings were cut from yellow vellum and when assembled, I mounted him on one of those little action wobbler springs so he wiggles (even buzzes) a little!

I'm looking forward to reading about your favourite winged thing and seeing your creations in the Time Out Gallery!  Please remember we only allow links to 5 challenges combined - Time Out plus 4 others!   

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

Card 1 Only

The Paper Players Challenge PP738 - Things that Fly (CAS);

Triple B May 2025 Challenge - Birds and Blooms;

Card 2 Only

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Simon Says Bright and Cheerful (The Bee Card);

Both Cards

NBUS Challenge #74 - NBUS Bird, NBUS Nordic Flowers, NBUS Oiseaux Text Stamp, NBUS Bee;

Cut it Up Challenge #330 - Send Me Flowers;

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

Spaced Out

 

May the 4th has been declared Star Wars Day for several years now so for Time Out Challenge #288, we challenge you to get your space jam on and create something inspired by the night sky!

Our challenge is sponsored by Top Flight Stamps 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.  Speaking of guest designers, we are joined this challenge by Jaydee our winner of Challenge 283!  Please do drop by and see what she has made especially for our challenge and if you didn't come from the Challenge Blog, drop by there as well and see how the rest of the team were inspired!

I'd like to enter in the following fabulous challenges

Snippets Playground Challenge #505 - various snippets of silver (including the liner from a margarine pack);

NBUS Challenge #74 - NBUS Infunly Astronaut set;

Allsorts Challenge #822 - Inspired by a song - Fly me to the Moon;

Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday - Anything Goes;

A Cut Above May Challenge - Anything Goes with Die Cuts;

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

Spotted Stocking

Sparkles Christmas Challenge 171 has just gone live and Caz has chosen Christmas Stocking as the theme for the month of May!

Finally, a chance to break out this this Woodware stamp set (Big Bubble Stocking) I ordered a while ago!  I cut bubbles (Woodware Big Bubbles and Woodware Bubbles) from a piece of patterned paper as well as snippets of red and green.  I think there must be another die that I should have bought because there were a lot of smaller bubbles needed to complete the stocking and I needed to pull out many other sets to try and find the right sized bubbles - time consuming and fiddly (ugh)!

Anyway not being a quitter, I finally finished the card and added this small "joy" sentiment (Reverse Confetti).  Glossy Accents helped complete the "bubble" look I was after.  The holly leaves were paper-pieced from a co-ordinating piece of patterned paper.

I'd like join the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #74 - NBUS Woodware Big Bubble Stocking, Woodware Bubbles, Woodware Big Bubbles;

Darnell's IDEAS Week 4 Anything Goes;

Inkspirational Challenge #340 - Seasonal;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #61 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Festive Friday Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #183 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes;

Thanks for visiting, I hope you go away a little inspired!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and will try to find you!

Kate

Carnivale Celebration

Challenge #287 at Time Out has just gone live and this fortnight we have a

Photo Inspiration Challenge

Here's a closer look!

Challenge 287 is being sponsored by Uniko and they are very kindly offering our top pick as chosen by the design team a £25.00 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 Heather Heroldt of Heather's Pages - our winner from Challenge #282!  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!

This photo was taken at the KuKi (Kulturfestival zu Kielen) festival in May 2022.  The bi-annual festival attracts many of Luxembourg's artists and artisans as well as many from further afield but it's actually held in my village so I try to "pull out all the stops" as they say - the cards in the photo were all mine!   This particular year we had street artists wandering about in Venetian Carnivale Costumes and it really did feel like a time to be celebrating (you may remember a little thing called Covid) and I was lucky enough to have my friend Sonya snap this photo as this handsome gentleman and his partner were admiring all my hard work!  

Luckier still to have the perfect stash when Stephanie chose this photo as inspiration for the Time Out Challenge having bought this Masquerade set from Verve before Julee Tilman closed the company many years ago now!   I don't know how many others have this set in their stash, but there is a lot of other inspiration in the photo - the flowers, the colours, the embroidery, the cards!

I stamped in Versafine Clair Rain Forest on pink card stock and cut with the matching dies.  I went around all the edges of the die cut image including around the eyes (from the rear) with a fine foam brush to hide any pink edges.   Once I had stacked up the image, I added Glossy Accents, sprinkled a little holographic glitter and added more Glossy Accents.  I did something similar with the "60" and the mask grips.  The masks were mounted on foam tape so they sat above the grip.

Given how the flower trail on my tent matched the embroidery on the gentleman's coat, I just had to incorporate a flower spray into my design and remembered this set (Yvonne Creations Swing Set) that I had bought in 2017 and was still NBUS!  I cut three from pink and coloured the stems and leaves with alcohol markers (and a Wink of Stella not that I was able to catch that in any photos of course)!

Since I didn't have a celebrate sentiment die, I spelt out "a time 2 celebrate" using a Gummiapan alphabet die set!  This card is for my sister so I don't mind putting in a bit more effort but if I ever revisit this design, I'll be printing out a sentiment - the cutting and lining up was a bit of a nightmare and I had moved it several times before I took the above photos and I still wasn't happy with it.

I tried one more time to realign the sentiment (praying that any holes left from adhesive could be covered up) and I am a little happier now (though I may still replace the "2" with "to" now I have the space 😉)

I can't wait to see how this Time Out's Photo Inspiration captures your imagination!

I'd like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #73 - Flower Trail (Yvonne Creations Swing Set) and background art deco cover plate;

Neglected Stuff Challenge 4/25 - The Masquerade Set hasn't been used since 2015;

Cut it Up Challenge #328 - Something starting with C (Carnviale and Celebrate);

Traumfabrik Challenge #138 - The movie is Magnolia but any flowers will do;

April 2025 Word Power - Hopefully all the work in this sentiment will catch the eye;

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

Easter Blessings

 

I'm here with a reminder for Challenge #286  at Time Out Challenges where you still have another week to Pick (at least) 2 of the following word prompts to spark your creativity and come play cards with us!

Stencil, Floral, Spots, Arch, Water and Pastel

Some words may have a double meaning; for example 'Water' may inspire you to pull out your water colours you may be inspired to have a nautical theme (i.e. on or around the water)!  Please mention which words you have chosen and how they inspired you - especially if it isn't obvious!  And please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!

This challenge is generously being sponsored by Gina K. and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design team members a $25 credit to the store!  The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!

This pretty die was Day 1 of the Gummiapan Easter Advent Calendar.  This is the first year Gummiapan has released an Easter Advent Calendar and as I am so sick of losing weight only to put it on again at Easter and Christmas that I told my husband I did NOT want any chocolate this Easter and wanted him to preorder this set instead!  

Unfortunately, I've been laid low for a week now with yet another bug, but was determined to make an Easter card for my choir director.   I just hope my shaky voice will last the next few days for the musical marathon that is Easter in our English-speaking parish (5 services in 4 days)!

I cut the whole floral oval twice and then just the blooms along the bottom once.  Once I trimmed off the blooms and foliage, I coloured them using pastel alcohol markers and overlaid them back on the stacked oval frame.

So I've included Pastel and Floral on my design and I guess since the oval frame is closed at the bottom it's an Arch of sorts as well!

I was able to cut the frame from snippets of white card left over from previous projects (a failed pillow box in this case) and the Easter sentiment (The Greetery) was cut once from a snippet of gold cardstock and then again from a snippet of a more reflective gold paper.  The flower centres, "blessings" and the carefully nestled Easter eggs (Poppy Stamps Whittle Chickens and Eggs) - were also cut from from the same snippet.

I'd like to enter the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #73 - the floral frame is NBUS; 

Darnell's Weekly IDEAS - D for Dies this week; 

Krafty Chicks Challenge #704 - CAS week;

Word Power April 2025 Challenge - Sentiment as focus;

Snippets Playground Challenge #504 - Snippets of gold as follows;

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

Spots and Flowers

Time Out Challenge #286 has just gone live and it's one of our new challenges for 2025 - a Pick 2 Challenge!  

This is our 2nd Pick 2 Challenge and the concept is simple - we give you 6 words to choose from and you use at least 2 of them to inspire your creation!  TBC, you can pick more than 2 if you like - all 6 if you really want to challenge yourself but just make sure to pick at least 2!

The Words for this challenge are

Stencil, Floral, Spots, Arch, Water and Pastel

Some words may have a double meaning; for example 'Water' may inspire you to pull out your water colours you may be inspired to have a nautical theme (i.e. on or around the water)!  Please mention which words you have chosen and how they inspired you - especially if it isn't obvious!

This challenge is generously being sponsored by Gina K. and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design team members a $25 credit to the 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 Fran of Fran Made in Oregon our winner of Challenge #281!  Be sure to check out the Time Out Blog to see how how Fran and my talented team mates were inspired by these 6 words!

I do hope you enjoy our challenge and I do hope you can take Time Out and join us for some fun!  And please, if it isn't obvious let us know how these words inspired your creation!  And please remember we only allow a total of 5 challenges - ours plus 4 others!

I started by Stencilling some Spots (Spellbinders Advent Calendar 2024) in Pastel colours onto an Arched  Panel (Spellbinders Essential Arches), then added a Floral arrangement (Spellbinders Advent Calendar 2024) and some Water droplets and finished my card off with a simple "Hugs" sentiment (Spellbinders Vivid Script).

So I managed all 6 and was pretty chuffed because everything was NBUS - the stencil, the set of arches, the flowers and the "hugs" sentiment - but as I said it's only necessary to Pick 2!  I hope you'll Pick 2 and join take some Time Out of your busy schedules and join us!

I'd like to enter the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #73;

Die Cut Divas April Challenge - Spring; 

Moving Along with the Times Challenge #177 - Spring Flowers;

Fab 'n Funky Challenge #614 - Think Spring;

Triple B April Challenge - Blooms;

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

Winter Wreath of Joy

I just had to have this die set (Sizzix Festive Wreath) when I saw it - there were so many useful elements I thought it was great value!  However as is often the case, when it arrived it was a little bit bigger than I had anticipated and so it fell into that black hole that is my NBUS pile and I soon forgot about it! 

  Thankfully, Dawn has chosen Christmas Foliage as the theme for the month of April at  Sparkles Christmas Challenge 171, so I was inspired to dig a little deeper in my NBUS pile and found it!

Once I had constructed the layered elements and arranged them satisfactorily on my wreath I added a single word sentiment (from an old Reverse Confetti set I think) in red to pick up the red berries (both glossily accented) and added them to a red card base!

I'd like join the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #73 - NBUS Wreath die set;

The 12 Months of Christmas Challenge #121 - Anything Goes Christmas Optional Twist Vintage;

ABC Christmas Challenge - F is for Focal Sentiment;

Merry Little Christmas Challenge #61 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Festive Friday Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - Anything Christmas Goes;

Girls Creative Christmas Challenge #118 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Peace on Earth Challenge #84 - Anything Christmas Goes;

Ellibelle's Corner April 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

Leap of Faith

Challenge #285 at Time Out Challenges has just gone live and this fortnight we want to see projects Inspired By Your Favourite Movie!  

This challenge is generously being sponsored by Claire Brennan Design and Illustrations and Claire is offering this incredible Stamp set 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 Ginger of Andora's Stamping Studio!  Be sure to check out how Ginger was inspired by her favourite movie as well as my talented team mates over on the Time Out Blog!

Many of you will remember Claire Brennan from her Waltzing Mouse Stamps days!  As soon as I heard Claire was back I went shopping and this stamp set was first in my basket!  I love the mid 20th century city skyline which could be any city but I'm thinking New York ... and therefore the perfect backdrop for a card inspired by my favourite movie West Side Story.  With a little imagination, this NBUS dancer (Spellbinders Just Dance) could very well be Maria as she dances and sings I Feel Pretty!

I'd like to enter the following fabulous challenges

NBUS Challenge #72 - NBUS dancer;

Cut It Up Challenge #326 - The Colours of Spring (I'm thinking of the blossoms on my ornamental plum tree which are about to bloom);

Cards4Galz #246 - Spring time (who doesn't leap for joy when it finally arrives);

A Cut Above March Challenge - Anything Goes;

Word Power March 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 should be able to find you!

Kate