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