Ain't You Grand!

 

Challenge #313 has just gone live at Time Out Challenges and this fortnight we have the theme

Playing Music 

Playing music could be playing a musical instrument or playing music on a turntable or cassette deck or walkman, or a pair of headphones or a CD - whatever playing music means to you!

Challenge #313 is generously being sponsored by Gina K and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams $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 Cindy Chui, one of our honourable mentions from Challenge #308!   You can check out how Cindy and my talented team mates have interpreted our Playing Music theme over on the Time Out Blog!

I had quite a few NBUS dies that I could have used for this theme but I decided on this Grand Piano die from Gummiapan and made a card for my choir director's birthday!

I snipped and stacked several die-cuts of the piano to give it dimension.  I winked it as well but it's not obvious from the photo. 

I had this lovely frame (Gummiapan) already cut and used it to showcase the grand piano.  I cut some quavers and semi-quavers to indicate music being played and coated them with Glossy Accents.

The sentiment (Spellbinders GLP-380 Must Have Sentiments) was foiled using black foil and mounted with foam tape.

The bouquet of yellow roses (Spellbinders Flower Cart) helped break up all that black and white - my choir director also loves flowers and her favourite colour is yellow!  I mounted the bouquet on double foam tape so it sat neatly on top of the piano - there's quite a lot of dimension to the piano!

Here's a closeup though it still doesn't show up the sparkle of the winking on the piano.

TWOFER :

Since I had the Flower Cart set out, I made up another card using the other bouquet from the Flower Cart set.  I added centres to these flowers with White Enamel Accents.

I hope you can take some Time Out and join us this fortnight for our Playing Music Theme - you have until the May 27th to link up your entries ... can't wait to see your creations in the gallery!

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

NBUS Challenge #86 - NBUS dies - Gummiapan Piano;

Inkspirational Challenge #367 - Inspired by the purple bouquet on the palette;

Triple B May Challenge - Just Blooms today;

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Use craft dies;

A Cut Above May Challenge - Anything Goes using 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

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

Hey Now, You're a Rockstar

 Get your game on, go play!

I have the honor to be guest designing for the Dream Factory/Traumfabrik challenge this month. Each month we are given a movie title as a prompt to inspire us to create something - and the movie this month is Stardust. 

I haven't seen this movie but it looks interesting and it has a "stellar" cast so it should be good (Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Henry Cavill, David Walliams and Ricky Gervais to name a few).  Here is the Official Trailer  on YouTube.  Of course you don't have to watch the movie or even the trailer!  You might be inspired by the movie title, the movie poster or any of these key words - Witches, fairies, wizards, fantasy, stars and a Halloween theme is also welcome!

My project is based on the key word "Star".  A good friend of mine had his birthday recently and I wanted to make him a guitar based card - he's a brilliant blues guitarist!  I used this unbranded die to create an electric guitar which resembled his guitar as closely as possible.  Using WordArt in MS Word, I printed his name on kraft card so that it resembled the Fender trademark.  A little distressing to darken the neck and a few highlights with a white Posco pen et voila!

I stamped these half-tone stars  (Waltzing Mouse Stamps Kaboom) in various distress colours to create a backdrop for the guitar!  I knew I wanted to use this "rockstar" sentiment from a very old Inkadinkadoo set, because he is!  As well as being a brilliant guitarist, he also sets up our mikes, handles the sound check and puts everything away afterwards!   He also set up the sound system and played at my son's 18th birthday party!  I double stamped the Rockstar (using the stamping platform) in versafine to make sure it was bold and clear!

I hope you are inspired by this month's movie and hope to see your "Stardust" inspired creations in the Gallery soon!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you and perhaps we can get better acquainted!  

Kate

Flowers in Her Hair

We are very blessed to have had several Ukrainian women join our choir over the last few months.  We are particularly blessed to have been joined by one of their finest sopranos and yesterday it was her birthday!  She is so far from home right now and I wanted to make her a special card!  She sang a solo at a concert in March and cut such a brave figure wearing a traditional Ukrainian dress.  Looking for inspiration, I googled 'national dress of Ukraine' and found this inspiration photo.  

I knew I wanted to use this large treble clef die (my go-to die lately for anything musically related), but the headdress in the above photo inspired me to create a "headdress" of flowers for it.   

The headdress was easier than I anticipated thanks to a new die set I found a few weeks ago which included a base die (I cut four in green) and another die for the flowers to lay on top (I cut one each from snippets of red, yellow, cornflower and orange). I also cut loads of coloured crotchets, quavers and semi-quavers using an old Memorybox Musical Motif set.   

I printed "Happy Birthday" in Ukrainian (thank you Google translate) on an A4 sheet of paper, folded it and cut it with a stitched square die, laying the edge of the die just beyond the folded edge so I'd have a double insert and enough space for all the choir to sign!

Challenges

NBUS Challenge #40

Snippets Playground Challenge #431

Papercraft Challenges #83 For the Girls

Use Your Stuff Challenge #451 Plants / Flowers

Allsorts Week 683 Flora and/or Fauna

I'm thrilled you stopped by and hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you and perhaps we can get better acquainted!  

Kate

Birdshop Quartet

Firstly, apologies for being MIA for a few weeks - I had a charity card workshop last Saturday and had kits and guides to prepare.  This month is shaping up to be another busy one - and today in particular so I'll keep it short - well shorter than usual!

I wanted to make this up for my choir director but ran out of time and ended up making a much simpler card.  Fitting this large treble clef and making a musical stave were problems that required more than the day's notice I had - let alone how I was going to work out how to fit enough birds (and their legs) to play out at least some of the "Happy Birthday" song!  I ended up putting double sided tape on the back of a some black card stock and cutting strips for the stave and I used the birds legs to sound out just the last line of the tune (in the key of G) which worked out well because there's just about enough room underneath for dear/to and the recipient's name which will balance the design a bit better!

Seize the birthday #237 has the optional topping of Butterflies or Hummingbirds.  While these birds are not Hummingbirds, they are "Humming Birds"!

These birds and the black card stock used for the stave and clef are all snippets left over from previous projects so this card is heading over to the Snippet's Playground Challenge #427 where sadly I haven't had enough time to play for weeks!

There is also a Birds/Bird Nests/Bird Cages challenge at Double D Challenges!

I'm also entering the Crafty Animals Challenge #61 - which always has an "any animals go" theme (my first pet was a bird so they're always special to me)!

I'd also like to enter the Make My Monday Challenge #174 which has the theme Springtime!

I'd also like to join the Daring Cardmakers May Elemental Challenge which has the following elemental inspiration.  I have chosen the swirls on the frame, the striped ribbon and the sheet music as my 3 elements! 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I’ll be thrilled!  I’ll also know you were here and check out what you’ve been up to so we can get better acquainted!

Kate

Enjoy the Ride, Make some Noise!

A friend of mine asked if I could make a card for her son's 30th birthday.  Her son plays the guitar and is an amateur bike rider, so I used my silhouette to cut out a guitar shape from this bike patterned paper. I then used the negative as the basis for a shaker card.

I bought some new die sets at the recent Luxembourg Expo Creative, so I used them here to spell out his name and age from red card stock, and added glossy accents for impact. The dies are from a Dutch company called Craft Emotions, and I bought the Uppercase Alpha, Lowercase Alpha and Numbers (and lots of others besides).  So many times I have wanted to add names or numbers to bunting and the characters have hung over the edges.  

The computer generated sentiment on the inside reads and I used this Frantic Stamper Bicycle to reinforce it.

I'll be  entering in Darnell's  NBUS Challenge 10, though I haven't used any option with this card

Challenge #53 at the Male Room has the Challenge numbers so I'll be entering there

This is the Cue card for CASology Week 234 so I'll be entering there.  I wish I was still 30 !!! 

My favourite challenge this week though, has to be Challenge #CFC166 at CAS-ual Fridays.  Not only does my card feature a guitar, it's a percussion instrument as well thanks to all those little beads inside!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you were inspired.  Thanks especially if you take the time to leave a comment, not only do they make my day, but they allow me to return the favour!!!

Kate

Stained Glass

One of the members of my church choir is leaving Luxembourg soon and this card is to thank him and wish him well.

I coloured an acetate panel (upcycled packaging) with alcohol inks to give a stained glass effect behind the Gothic arched window.  The musical script stamped background is still clearly visible.

I can't say it's the best card I've ever made - my mojo seems to be having the weekend off.  I don't think the piano border really works with the gothic arch, but as Ciaran has helped out when our pianist has been away I wanted to include a piano in the design. 

Simons Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge has an Anything Goes challenge this week, so I'm entering my card over there.

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  I really appreciate your feedback, and I'd love to return the compliment,
Kate



Stamps : De Stempelwinkel Musical Background
Dies : Memory Box Piano Border, Memory Box Musical Motifs, Spellbinders D-Lites Windows Three, Frantic Stamper Village Sky (the little stars), WMS Stitched Rectangles

Tweet Farewell

Simon finished  music solfège classes yesterday and I made this card for his teacher who has had him for 4 years now.  She has always been so patient with him, understanding the difficulties that he faces  and also recognising the love and gift for music that he has.

The MFT Homespun Bird House elements were cut from scraps of card which had been stamped with WMS Cabin Plaid backgrounder, WMS Gingham and Co., WMS My Island, Green Room Design Heirloom Patterns (also from Waltzing Mouse) and de Stempelwinkel musical score.

The sign was computer generated and I stamped a little frame around it and fussy cut it out.

The current sketch at  Fusion Card Challenge (I've rotated it 180°) gave me the idea to use the bird house with its A-line roof as an "Ecole de Musique" with Simon's "teacher" sitting on the roof seeing him off.

I am also entering this in the current Waltzing Mouse Fanatics Challenge

Thanks for stopping by,
Kate

Feathery Note

I fell in love with this funky feathers set from WMS when I first saw it but as I already owned a set of feathers I hesitated a bit.  However when I saw all the possibilities in the first WMS Pyjama Party I realised I did need it after all.  Yes I had feathers but I didn't have all the beautifully scripted sentiments, plus it helped bump up the order to get free postage (LOL). 

I've used one of the more traditional feathers on this card, because this is for my MIL (the calligrapher) and I wanted a feather which resembled a plume.  The feather panel was first stamped with the WMS Mini Crackle background to give it that aged marble look - antique linen DI and the feather and sentiment were stamped with Versafine Smokey Gray (more of a brown than a grey really).  I couldn't resist the pun on note by including some musical score background as well - Stempel Winkel's Musical Score Background also stamped in Versafine Smokey Gray.  I bought the background paper from La Blanche at Wiesbaden some years ago, it's from the Calambour Postcards Collection.  These were loose 6 x6 sheets for 10c each so I bought quite a few in as many different motifs as possible - they're from Milan Italy.  The Wiesbaden craft fair is coming up soon so hopefully there will be other little gems like this there.

When I had finished I thought it needed a little gold so I sprayed some gold glimmer mist over the finished card - unfortunately this hasn't really showed up very well in the photo because it's not that sunny outside.  Oh well at least it stopped raining long enough to get an outside pic.

Inspiration for this card is Mojo Monday sketch 315 by the very talented Julee Tilman.

Merci for the Music

A quick card for Simon's solfege (ie. Musical theory) teacher, which explains all the musical imagery.  

Because time was limited, I CASEd a previous card of mine which was based on
Waltzing Mouse Sketch Challenge WMSC110.  

Stamps : WMS Fancy Phrases, Victorian Frippery, Cabin Plaid

Stempel Winkel Musical Score

Heindesign Judikins F-00601170 (Musical notes), StampWorld Saxophone C174

Inks : Lemonade Adirondack, Smokey Gray Versafine

Dies : Spellbinders Fancy Tags, Spellbinders Classic Squares

Others : White card stock, Pastry Doily, White Satin Ribbon

Thanks to my Sicilian Saxophone Teacher

My Sicilian Saxophone Teacher  retires shortly and tomorrow is my last lesson.  Just so we're clear - that's a teacher of saxophone who is Sicilian, not a teacher of the Sicilian Saxophone (as far as I know there's no such instrument).
I made this card to thank him for everything he's done for me these past two years and also to wish him all the best in the future.
Since I liked the sketch from this weeks Sketch'n'Stash challenge so much, I thought I'd use it again.

Starting with some 6x6 DP paper which is actually a map of Southern Italy (how perfect was that), I inked up some glossy cardstock with yellows, browns and gold alcohol inks to tone in with it and cut 2 ATC cards using the Tim Holtz ATC die.  One I overstamped with a Cities of the World montage stamp from Katzelkraft, and the other with this music score stamp from Stempel Winkel.  On another scrap I stamped this saxophone, and fussy cut it out.  I then mounted this on the musical score with dimensional tape.  This saxophone stamp is really old.  I think I bought it for Gavin's 4th birthday invitations and he has just turned 20 - I'd say that qualifies for digging deep into the stash.

I also used Craft Individuals stamp set CI-239 to create the small elements on the left.  All edges were distressed with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The sentiment was computer generated and cut with the Spellbinders Nested Pennants set.

Enjoy what's left of the week and the week end.  I hear the weather is supposed to improve here, hope it's good where you are :)

Another card, this time for my husband's nephew Tom. He is a brilliant musician so I wanted a musical theme. He was also at one time (not sure if he still is) a stamp collector, so I thought this collage stamp from Crafty Individuals was perfect for him - with both postal and musical elements. Both stamps were actually freebies. I have added some other postal images (mostly CI but with one Non-Sequitur image) on 3d foam for a bit of variety.

The collage image and other elements were stamped using black archival ink on a background created using gold, salmon, willow and sandal alcohol inks. The photo doesn't do it justice - it has the most wonderful shine and depth because of the gold alcohol ink.

The clarinet charm was from Karen Foster.