Tag Archives: Cards

The Flower Challenge #98 Sparkle Reminder

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Welcome back to the mid-way point at The Flower Challenge. There’s still plenty of time to get “your sparkle on” and join in the fun.

Once again, it was a bit tricky to show the extent of sparkle on this card, but believe me, I tried!

I used the Altenew Wallpaper Art Stamp and die to create the florals stamped in black archival ink once onto card and then a second time onto velum die cut with matching dies which were placed on top of the card, I know you can’t see it but it’s there . Some of the leaves were cut from glitter card and others were stamped. I added a touch of glitter to the center of the flower and for extra sparkle I got out my silver stickles to add a little touch of sparkle hither and thither. The blooms were placed inside my Sizzix mason jar with some embossed mirror card and a few sequins.

We do hope you will join us at The Flower Challenge the design team has some amazing cards to delight and inspire and we look forward to seeing your fabulous entries.

In other news, It’s a hectic time of year for me as we own a jewellery store and the Christmas shopping hours mean we work from dawn till dusk every day until the new year except Christmas day so please forgive my tardiness in my slow commenting I can assure you I will get there.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend.

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

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 Color of the Month “Pastels”

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Hello and welcome back to another fun challenge at Colorful Options

This month, we challenge you to use a pastel color. Please remember that you
may incorporate any neutrals or metallics that you need in your design and that your design does not need to be monochromatic. If pastels are not to your liking, join us with a rainbow-inspired craft instead.

For our challenge, I made two cards using some new dies from Poppy Stamps from their Nordic Flowers series I acquired on a recent trip to the UK. The first card features the Nordic Majestic Bloom die-coloured with Distress Oxide inks and placed inside a lovely scalloped oval frame by Catherine Pooler also a new purchase(yes Darnell I will once again be playing along ).

The second card features this pretty Nordic Crown Flower die again coloured with Distress oxides. This time I’ve used this lovely Spellbinders Infinity punch and pierce die plate as a background and not cut it all the way through so it gives an embossed effect.

We do hope you will join us at Colorful Options it’s always great to see your amazing cards and it’s a great source of inspiration to me personally. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Design team’s amazing creations.

I’m also linking up to

NBUS challenge#61 as my dies are all brand spanking new.

Die-cut Divas Who are asking us to make a spring card

CAS on Friday #challenge 280 Who are asking us to use dies only

Wishing you all a wonderful happy, healthy, crafty week.

Take care

Marie

Out of a Hat Creations ” Use some Craft Stash “

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For those of you who celebrated Easter at the weekend I trust you are all back on your diets !! Here in Greece we celebrate at the weekend and am hoping the horrible weather improves. Easter is a time of huge celebration here with families returning to their villages , connecting with old friends and the traditional roasting of  lamb on the spit its my favourite time of year  ( if the weather is nice ) .

There is another new challenge blog on the block Out of a Hat Creations was formed by four blogging friends after a challenge that they participated in every week closed. I was also a regular contributor to the site although in the last few months I had been a bit lackadaisical ! The idea behind their blog is that the four team members, Chrissie, Florence, Sandra and Janet each put ideas for themes in ” the hat ” and each week one is chosen by random. This weeks theme is to use up some of your craft stash.

Now before you see my card I just want to point out that although it looks incredibly simple it has taken me four whole days to complete !! Yes four !!!

The heart is made from fused plastic beads, the beads are tiny and are placed onto a small plastic base with little tiny pegs that protrude. You place the beads on top in the desired shape and the using a heat-resistant paper iron the top and the plastic fuses together. Ok so far so good !  Not if you are me , the slightest movement of the base dislodges the beads and you have to start all over again or in my case, again and again and ……………….After many many attempts I finally got to the ironing stage but alas the wire from the iron touched the base and they went flying all over the place ! Bailey and Rosy thought this was a great game trying to eat the plastic perishers , I am very sure they are not approved by the canine association ! So out came the Hoover and I started all over again. Near to tears I eventually yesterday evening after twelve hours of work at my shop  shakily added the last bead….. and success !!! which is why the card base is so simple I just didn’t have the will to do anything else except for a bit of embossing !!

This is a picture of the offending jar of beads which is from  a well-known Swedish super store and is supposedly for children !! Now I know why it has been sitting on the top of the wardrobe for over a year and its gone right back up there !!

Do pop over to Out of a Hat Creations and support these lovely and talented ladies .

Would also like to link this to Use It Tuesdays who are also asking for us to use something from our stash think this fits the bill !!

One more thing, a few of you have been unable to leave comments not being able to find where to leave them. With Blogger we are used to seeing the comment form at the bottom of the page but of course the blog theme I chose with WP doesn’t have that facility., trust me ! If you take a peep at the top of the post on the right hand side you will see a little bubble,  click on that,  or the post title and the form will come up.

Wishing you all a wonderful week

Take care

Marie