The Flower Challenge “Sparkle”

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I’m so excited because I can finally share some fantastic news: As of today, I’m officially a Design team member of The Flower Challenge ! Yipeeeeee!!!!

I’ve been following their challenges for some time now and have been in awe of the super-talented ladies so it goes without saying that I’m as pleased as punch to join them.

So what do we have in store for you for the next month…

I’m sure we all have a little bit of sparkly goodness tucked away in our stashes although I did have to have a bit of a root around mine to track it down. I’m not really a sparkly gal but once I started playing there was no stopping me as my little Chi Molly will testify. She was one sparkly chihuahua herself for a few days, that stuff gets everywhere but so much fun.

Making the card was easy compared to trying to capture all of that sparkliness in a photo. I must have taken 100 shots practically hanging from the ceiling at one point but no pain no gain as they say.

I thought I would steer away from Christmas and go with this fantastic Painted Blooms die set by Spellbinders. I used glitter card for the bristles, distress oxides for the flowers and greenery with lashings of rock crystal embossing powder ( believe me it’s there !), and a few dabs of red stickles which have been in hiding for years at the back of a cupboard, I was pleasantly surprised they actually came out of their little bottle so easily. Fine Tec silver paint was added behind the brush for Xtra sparkle along with silver mirror card on the brush itself.

We do hope you will join us at The Flower Challenge my teammates have some amazing cards to delight and inspire and we would love to see your sparkly creations.

I’m also linking up to

Cut it Up #318 who are asking us to add ” Sparkle and Shine” to our cards which must include a die cut

A Cut Above Anything goes with Die Cuts

Wishing you all a fabulous week

Marie

Colorful Options Red,Green and Gold.

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Welcome back to another fun challenge at Colorful Options. First, a big thank you to all of the fabulous entries we had for our Red challenge. You really do make it difficult to choose winners.

Let’s embrace the festive cheer this December with a splash of red, green, and/or gold! We invite you to tap into your creativity and bring these classic holiday colors to life. Choose one, two, or all three—whatever inspires you most! Let your imagination run wild and see where these colors take you. Whether you’re drawn to the season’s rich, traditional hues or the stamps’ joyful energy, we can’t wait to see how this inspiration board sparks your designs. 

If these colors aren’t quite your style, don’t worry! You’re also welcome to join us with a rainbow-inspired craft. Have fun, and let yourself enjoy!

I made a couple of cards for this challenge utilising some of my new goodies.

I used a combination of dies, the Emerald Cut Labels dies from spellbinders for the frames with the coordinating shaker dome, and the snow person and snowflake are courtesy of Tim Holtz for Sizzix using The Vault Winter Wishes set. A smattering of snow and sequins inside the dome and a touch of embossing popped up on Kraft card.

For this card, I used Spellbinders Fresh Picked Labels dies and a coordinating shaker dome filled with sparkly snow, the candles and greenery are also from Mr Holtz’s Winter Vault series which are the perfect size to fit inside the domes.

We hope you will join us at Colorful Options as the Design Team has once again outdone themselves.

In other news, I’m posting a little late as we had a major storm here in Greece over the weekend which cut our power and flooded our home an absolute nightmare but hopefully, the worst is over.

I’m also linking up to the following challenges.

AAA Colorful Challenges Colorboard #10

Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge #482

NBUS #69 sharing with Darnell and the gang as everything on both cards are brand spanking new.

Well, that’s all for me, wishing you all a fabulous week our heating has just come back on so am off to have a lovely hot shower!

Take care

Marie

Fuschia Fun !

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After the old mojo wandered off for a week or so it decided to put in a brief appearance just long enough for me to make a card and a HUGE mess and then vacated the premises tout sweet! At least I’m happy with my latest offering I hope you are too

I used one of my favourite dies by Memory box the Dainty Fuschia Stem which was coloured with Distress Oxides in Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry, and Mowed Lawn popped up with tons of double-sided foam and attached to a lovely Dotted Stardust debossing plate by Altenew. The sentiment is by A Pocket Full of Happiness, coloured with Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry and then embossed with clear embossing powder for a touch of shine. In the photo, it looks more like a shadow than two separate colours but hey ho you can’t win em all.

I’m playing along with The Flower Challenge I’m really enjoying using up my floral dies and stamps I didn’t realise I had so many of them

Tic Tac Toe TTTC260 .The lovely and talented Vicky is the featured designer this time round, how could I not play along! I’ve chosen Ink Blending,CAS and Die Cut, I do hope it’s Cas enough!

A Cut Above where it’s anything goes using die cuts and option to “Warm it Up” I’m just using dies.

Well that’s all from me the craft room needs a good seeing too and little Miss Molly my chihuahua is asking for cuddles and who am I to deny her.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

Take care

Marie

Colorful Options “Red”

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 Welcome back to another fun challenge at Colorful Options. For November, we are asking you to use the color red.

Let’s celebrate the festive energy of red! We invite you to unleash your creativity with this bright hue or any saturation that inspires you. Let your imagination soar—where anything red goes! Whether it’s the rich tones of the holidays or the playful spirit of a circus, we want to see what “red” means to you.

If red isn’t quite your style, don’t worry! You’re also welcome to join us with a rainbow-inspired craft. Have fun, and let yourself enjoy!

I had a little trouble coming up with a card for this month, Mr. Mojo wasn’t playing ball and I hated every card I made, even Mr. P my biggest fan wasn’t impressed, but as the true crafter I am I soldiered on until that waste bin was overflowing!

For this one, I used the Poinsettia Bloom die set by Yanna Smakula for Spellbinders coloured with Distress Oxides, gold card, and velum and a few tears were added for good measure.

I was so disappointed with this card I made another, you lucky people 🙂

I was quite happy with this one until I showed the men in my life who all proceeded to say that the paint job of the beetle wasn’t very good !!!! Which was exactly what I was going for as it was supposed to be an old jalopy, they weren’t convinced and all raised eyebrows at my explanation. Needless to say, I won’t be asking their opinions in the near future.

The two die sets on this card are Poppy Stamps Whittle Racing Giraffe Kit the beetle is courtesy of Studio Lite. Distress Oxides, clear embossing powder, Kraft, and silver card on this “masterpiece”

The only thing that made up for this debacle was getting top four my birdie card at AAA Colourful Challenges for the card I cased from Michele at Icard everyone, thanks, Michele.

Please join us at Colorful Options my fellow teammates have once again come up with amazing cards to inspire and delight.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

Marie

Blooms and Birdies

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Just popping in with a card for a few challenges that caught my eye two of which I’ve never played along with before, so here goes.

I used a fantastic set by Pinkfresh Studios consisting of a glimmer plate, stencil, and die-cut called Folk Art Birds. It really is a beautiful set and so easy to use. The only tricky part is choosing what colours to use. I started by using my Spellbinders glimmer machine to foil the image which looked lovely as it was but I decided on doing a bit of ink blending using the stencils and my tiny weeny Pinkfresh Studio blending brushes to get into all the nooks and crannies with a variety of Distress Oxides. I then used the die-cut plate to cut out all of the pieces and used what was left as a template to re-insert them after I had adhered a million tiny pieces of double-sided foam to the back to give dimension. I find it helps to keep the paper in the dies while adding foam as I’m a messy crafter and tend to lose at least one major piece.

The hardest part is trying to align all of the pieces so using the outline of the dies really helps especially for someone like me who suffers from bloggers blindness and has been known to make a couple of wonky cards.

I’m linking up to the following challenges.

A Cut Above

PinkFresh Studio

The Flower Challenge

Wishing you all a fabulous week filled with good health and plenty of creative fun.

Take care

Marie

Colorfrul Options “Orange”

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Welcome back to another fun challenge at Colorful Options. Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who entered last month’s challenge. We had so many wonderful entries it was hard to pick our winners.

This October, let’s celebrate the vibrant energy of orange! We invite you to unleash your creativity with this warm hue or any combination that inspires you. Let your imagination soar—where anything orange goes! Whether it’s the rich tones of fall or the playful spirit of citrus, we want to see what “orange” means to you.

If orange isn’t quite your style, don’t worry! You’re also welcome to join us with a rainbow-inspired craft. The sky’s the limit, so let your creativity shine!

So what did I create for this challenge…..

Well, erm, I have to confess that I cased my card (is that another word for copied?) from the very talented, creative, and downright funny Michele Ferguson from I Card Everyone. After seeing her wonderful card, I went out and bought the two sets of dies she used to make it, and that isn’t the first time that has happened. Michele has “enabled” me on many occasions to splash the cash on crafting supplies. So let’s have a look….

I used the beautiful Bird of the Mountain and Orange Blossom die sets by Altenew which were coloured using a variety of Distress oxides. I’m not sure about the cover plate I think it may also be Altenew. I think both die sets work beautifully together so thank you once again Michele.

September was such a rollercoaster month for my family and I due to one thing or another and the creative juices really dried up until I found out that I had won a couple of challenges one at The Flower Challenge and the other at Inspiration Station so that bucked me up no end and helped me move forward.

We hope you will join us at Colorful Options this month the Design team have created a bevy of beautiful cards to delight and inspire and we also welcome the very talented Trina from Phamtastic as Guest Designer.

I’m linking up with

AAA colourful Themed Challenge

NBUS as both die sets have never been used before.

Wishing you all a fabulous week and look forward to catching up with you all.

Marie

Colorful Options Be Bold

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Welcome back to another fun challenge at Colorful Options where our theme for the next month is to “Be Bold”

BE BOLD

This September, embrace the vibrancy of bold colors! We invite you to unleash your creativity with any daring hue or vibrant combination that speaks to you. Let your imagination run wild where anything vibrant goes. If bold isn’t your style, you can join us with a softer, rainbow-inspired craft. 

At first, I thought my card looked like it belonged in the “Be Bold” category as in real life the colors looked so much more vibrant but it could also fit into the “Rainbow ” category What do you think.

I used another couple of fabulous die sets from A Pocket Full of Happiness this gorgeous Tucan and a fantastic modern alpha set. I won’t bore you with the details of how I made it as it looks perfectly obvious,lots of die cutting tons of paper piecing a huge mess on my desk,floor and the dog !


Please note that our contest is open to all art forms, not just paper crafts. Whether you’re painting, inkwork, decorating, drawing, or any other artistic endeavor, we welcome your submission! 

On another note my lovely,crazy sister is arriviing tomorrow from the Uk to spend the last of the summer with us here in Greece,high jinks and lots of crafty capers are guaranteed (she also is an avid crafter)if we can drag ourtselves away from the sea.

I’m entereing my card into a couple of challenges

Ther Crafters Cafe Challenge Blog (try saying that after a few cocktails) #311 – Anything Goes – option Rainbows/Lots of Colours

NBUS Challenge #66 as my tucan and alpha set are both fresh out of their packets.

Wishing you all a fabulous week

Take care

Marie

Pears!

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Just popping in with a pair of pear cards(pun intended)for a few challenges using a fantastic die set that I purchased recently from the fabulous Zsoka from A Pocket Full of Happiness.

This beautiful set is so easy to use I first cut an aperture from cardstock using the front of the pear and popped it up using foam tape after I lightly coloured around the opening with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink. I then placed the pear back into the opening I added foam tape to the second pear and placed it slightly overlapping the other pear. `(lots of the “P” words in the last sentence 🙂 The sentiment is also from A Pocket Full of Happiness layered up and coloured with Distress Oxides.

A little close-up for those of you like myself who suffer from “bloggers blindness”

I had so much fun making this card that I decided to make another.

This time I popped up the front of the pear with foam, cut an aperture with the second part of the you know what, and placed it inside the cavity. This sentiment is also from A Pocket Full of Happiness. All of the pears were coloured with Distress Oxides and splashed with a touch of water.

I’m entering them into the following challenges

Colourful Options Yellow-Green

Inspiration Station I was inspired by all of the luscious fruits and zingy colours

Pinspirational (2nd entry) they are asking us to use die cuts

The Paper Players

NBUS #65 My pears are fresh out of the packet

Addicted to CAS #265

There’s still time to join us at Colorful Options for our Yellow-Green challenge and the gallery is filled to the brim with lots of amazing entries.

Wishing you all a fabulous week.

Take care

Marie

Flowers Galore!

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It’s been an age since I posted two cards in such quick succession but there are some amazing challenges around at the moment a few of them I’ve been waiting for just the right moment to enter and that moment has arrived!

I bought this amazing flower girl die from the very talented Zsoka from A Pocket Full of Happiness. The skies the limit with this set you can be as subtle or not, as you can see I’m in the not category. The set comes complete with lots of lovely blooms although I did use in addition some flowers from another die set belonging to her May release.

Did you notice the little birdie cheekily peeking out? it’s from an old Spellbinders set the packaging has long since disappeared but I just loved its little face and it looks quite at home me thinks.

I used a variety of patterned papers, distress oxides,Nuovo Drops, and enamel dots from Altnew. I have to say this took forever to make not so much the die cutting but the actual placement which I’m rubbish at Zsoka makes it look easy which was why I was emboldened and I’m glad I did .

I’m entering the following challenges

The Flower Challenge #94

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge – Anything Florals Goes with Optional Mood Board #19

{PIN}spirational Challenge #316 AUGUST Diecuts

Triple B August Challenge

Wishing you all a fabulous week

Take care

Marie

Colorful Options August Challenge Yellow-Green

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Welcome back to a new challenge at Colorful Options but firstly thank you so much for so many wonderful entries for our Flags challenge for July you really do make it difficult to choose our winners.

This month, we challenge you to use the color yellow-green.  This palette incorporates yellow, green, and yellow-green. If this palette is not to your liking, join us with a rainbow-inspired craft instead. 

I knew immediately what I wanted to make for this challenge and even though this isn’t a color combination I would usually go for I really like the result.

I used one of my favourite flower dies from Honeybee stamps lovely layers roses which I coloured with Distress Oxides in twisted citron and squeezed lemon. The mason jar is courtesy of Sizzix and is filled with a few sequins from my stash. Unfortunately due to the glare from the plastic I had to sacrifice the clarity of the Tim Holtz sticker sentiment.

Here’s a second card I threw together just for fun made using my Cameo the banana is cut and popped up with foam for dimension and coloured with Distress Oxides and a splash of water. Not one of my best but I made it so I’m posting it hahaha. Once again the sentiment isn’t very clear and I can’t even complain about the glare from the plastic this time just bad photography on my part.

We do hope you will join us at Colorful Options the DT has some amazing cards to delight and inspire and we look forward to seeing your amazing projects in our gallery. Don’t forget you can enter with any crafty medium from crochet to woodwork and anything in between.

Take care

Marie