Mothers Day Card Challenge

Jo has kindly offered to help us out by running a cardmakers challenge for us!

We'd love for you to join in! Please make Jo feel welcome here on our little blog - all comments are enjoyed and appreciated! 

Welcome everyone to the first of many card makers challenges that I'll be running on here.  The idea behind these challenges is to stretch your creative muscles and try something new.  Every few weeks or so I’ll be giving you a challenge and it’s up to you how you interpret the challenge to create a card!

The challenge will vary; it might be an inspiration photo, a colour scheme, a sketch, a technique, supplies, etc.  Feel free to interpret the challenge your own way and substitute where necessary.  The idea is to have fun with it so there are no hard and fast rules.  With each challenge, I’ll show you the card that I came up with using the challenge inspiration as a jumping off point.  Please link your creations here so we can all see.  We can’t wait to see everyone’s creativity and individuality shining through!

To kick off our very first challenge, I thought I’d give you an inspiration photo and ask you to make a Mother’s Day card.  Take a look at the photo and see what inspires you and how that dictates what direction you’ll take.  Maybe it’s the colours, shapes, texture or even the feel of the photo, etc.  There truly is no right or wrong!  If you have your Mother’s Day card already sorted, perhaps make a card for someone who is like a mother to you, or even your best friend!  Who doesn’t like getting some happy mail for no reason?

Back to the photo - I was inspired by the colours and the beautiful mason jars.  Mason jars are a big trend in the scrapbooking/cardmaking world at the moment.  The beautiful patterned papers in the Dear Lizzy Neopolitan range from American Crafts fit the bill perfectly for me.  

Here’s my card for the inspiration challenge!  I hope I’ve given you a nudge to have a go and share your creation with all of us.

The closing date for this challenge will be the  20th of May - that'll give you enough time to make a card for Mum (or Grandma!) snap a photo of it, give the card and then upload it so you don't ruin the surprise!
To "Link" to this blog post, upload a photo to facebook, flickr, photobucket, picasa or any photo sharing website and then copy and paste a link into the comments section.  
I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! 

My Very Own Butch

This layout is from our Mt Isa based Design Team Member, Veronica!

Please make her feel welcome on our little blog! 

(click on images for a bigger view!)

I’ve used Bo Bunny papers for this layout – Double Dot - Dark Denim Vintage and Weekend Market- Stripe. I’ve also used Weekend Market Noteworthy die cuts – there’s quite a range of different sizes and shapes in this pack. The Weekend Market range also has a page of cut outs some of which I used on this layout.

I started by fussy cutting the floral composition on the reverse of the Stripe paper. I then trimmed strips of approximately 3 cm to lay right across the two pages. Each of these I edged with a couple of different border punches before layering them on the pages. I placed the first 4 photos and the photo sized die cut on pages before adding the last layer. The fussy cut floral composition was positioned over the top of my photos.

 I used a pack of Dusty Attic mini cogs. These I inked with Distress Stains – a mixture of aged mahogany, spiced marmalade and chipped sapphire. They were scattered in among buttons and flowers from my stash throughout the layout. A paper doily was spritzed with a mixture of blue, rust and golden. I tore it and added it to the layout under the title die cut piece and the flowers.

The title is made from another die cut and Idea-ology alpha cards. I’m so impressed with these little guys! They are just like little playing cards on the back, but domino format on the front with same letter/number on top and bottom of the domino format. I gave them a light sand then added a little ink to soften the whiteness of the card.

The feature photo and title are attached with foam mounting tape to further highlight them from the rest of the page.

The bunting I made using good old multi purpose kitchen twine and Idea-ology tissue tape (Commute). I saw this idea in a scrapbooking magazine. You simply wrap the tape around the twine making sure the edges meet neatly then trim into a triangular shape if you wish. 

 

So quick and easy, although I had to make mine twice – tissue tape bunting on twine makes an enticing cat toy! By the time my cat had finished playing the bunting was beyond distressed! 

Thanks Veronica, and extra special thanks to Sidewinder for the extra input! :)

Tropical Travelogue Filmstrip Frame

Our very talented Design team member AnnMarie did this fantastic project featuring the Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue collection. 

Well firstly I have to show the goodies I received in the mail to complete my first design team project.

I had an idea of what I was going to do as soon as I saw it.

I have a fair bit of paper left over so I am going to do a couple of layouts with it.

So the first job was to cover the frame and trim and smooth up the edges and then I painted all the edges black.

Next I embossed the chippie. The one I have used here is from Dusty Attic from out of my stash. I also embossed a Kaisercraft wood flourish vine the same way. The embossing powder I used is called Moon Glow. It’s a 2 toned powder but I used 2 different colours ( Midnight Pewter/Obsidian & Reindeer Moss/Green) to get the effect that I wanted.

This is a close up to show the effect.

The finished project.

 Thanks AnnMarie! And if you'd like to see more of Annmarie's work, pop on over to her blog - http://therustyhorseshoe.blogspot.com.au/

We've got a gorgeous layout today from one of our very talented Design team members, Ondine!

I always start my projects with a sketch, I just need a plan and to be organised!! I always find great layout sketches on pagemaps.com. I trimmed my photos and matted them onto white card. Using the sketch as a guide, I positioned the photos onto the reverse side of Doodlebug's "kite strings", and then trimmed it down to 17cm x 30.5cm. This entire piece, I then matted onto hot pink card, leaving a 0.5cm border on each long side. I then filled in the spaces between the photos with a mixture of "kite strings" and "fancy florals" papers, matted onto hot pink card. This whole piece was then matted onto a sheet of purple dot cardstock. It is slightly off-centre to add interest.

Next step was positioning the rubon title "Beauty". I used Kaisercraft mini alphas from my personal stash to complete the title wording. I used Glossy Accents on the word Beauty to add some shine and dimension... I think it really makes it POP!!! Again, I filled the space between the title and bottom of the page with a piece of "fancy florals" matted onto hot pink card.

I found a sheet of Doodlebug "Strawberry Parfait" stickers in my stash, and the colours and style worked with my layout. I used the flower stickers, positioning them around the title, and spilling them over onto the base card to add visual interest and make them stand out. I used mounting foam for some of the larger flowers to make them pop off the page. Some of the flowers blended into the papers, so I punched a couple of circles, penned fake stitching and attached the flowers to that to make them stand out! I used a clear Glaze pen over the fake stitching to add a little dimension.

I used the circle journal piece from the Doodlebug Clorwheel cutout page. I added a few more flower stickers and Kindy Glitzed away. My final touch was to go crazy with various coloured Kaisercraft rhinestones as the flower centres!

And that's it! A quick, simple, effective, colourful page layout complete!!!