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

Charming Paris

 

I was thrilled to be asked to guest design for Traumfabrik (The Dream Factory) this month.  Each month Traumfabrik selects a movie as a prompt to inspire us to create something - and the movie this month is Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain.

I haven't seen the movie but according to Wikipedia, it is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, received widespread critical acclaim with major praise for Tautou's performance, the cinematography, production design, and writing and it was nominated for five Academy Awards. According to BBC Culture, the movie is perhaps the most stylish ever made and describes Amélie Poulain as "a waitress with a big imagination". 

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 poster or anything Parisienne ... or anything French for that matter!  Perhaps a French sentiment or something typically French!

Nothing quite says French and in particular Paris like The Eiffel Tower and I may have one or two Eiffel Tower images in my stash (in fact I think I have 6 but I may have missed one or two)!  For my project today, I've included an Eiffel Tower charm from a NBUS set (Elizabeth Craft Dies Hanging Charm Pull Tab).  After stacking the charm for sturdiness, I double embossed it with Woven Tapestry Embossing Powder to give it a metallc appearance.  Then I cut small and medium tags (WMS Stitched Tags) and stamped them with French sentiments from a Katzelkraft set (French Quotes).  I then hid a magnet on the back of the larger tag so that it could be attached and detached from the card and used as a bookmark.  Here it is with the tags detached - there's another magnet under that globe.

This card will be going to my great nephew in Australia born last month.  It may be a few years before he will be needing a book mark, but I hope it encourages a sense of adventure!  Coincidentally, when this post goes live it will be exactly 33 years since my first trip to Paris and the Eiffel Tower in particular where I was finally able to call home to Australia from the Eiffel Tower Visitor Centre and learnt of the safe arrival of his mother - aah the good old days before mobile phones or even internet!  

I'd like to enter the following challenges

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge prompt is Lots of Layers

NBUS Challenge #51 - as mentioned, the charm die set was unused;

As You See It Challenge #300 which has an Adventure/Travel theme;

I was also inspired by the muted tones, machinery and metallics in the following photo inspiration from The Card Concept Challenge Challenge #197a

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