Design Teams & Challenges

It's been a busy few days, yesterday I finally got round to cleaning out the greenhouse removing all the dead plants that hadn't made it through the winter. Mainly because my menopause brain completely forgot to keep them watered! It wasn't all dead though, I was amazed at just what had survived and still had green shoots or buds, fingers crossed now they've been cleared of debris, watered and shown some TLC they will make a full recovery!

I've also been busy on the card making front, I was lucky to be chosen for the Readers Design Team for issue 154 of 'Quick Cards Made Easy' magazine, using the designer papers they offer in each issue, I think the issue my card was done for is July issue which will be on sale in June. I've done the QC design team before, last year, I think it was in June?! My owl card wasn't selected for the magazine, but did get posted on the QC Facebook page. I've made my card with the latest papers, and posted it off, I've kept it simple and will post photos after publication, but for now I'm not allowed to share the card or the papers. I doubt my card will be picked to go in the magazine, there are always so many wonderful cards created, but I was thrilled to be selected to take part, if I am lucky though you'll hear me whoop with joy from here.

I signed up to take part in a variety of challenges over on the Docrafts forum and one of them was the floral challenge, the lady setting the challenge asked for "1 or 2 colours + card colour  any type of 3D flower in any form as long as its the main focus". As I'd just finished making the tattered flowers with my Tim Holtz die (see the Making Tattered Florals post) I thought that the pink rose would be perfect for the challenge. I'm not sure if my card is good for the challenge though as technically there are 5 colours plus the back ground - pale pink paper for flower, edged with Spun Sugar Distress Ink, green leaves and the adhesive gem is a deeper shade of pinky purple and finally the black stamped sentiment, whoops.

I like the design whether or not it fits, hopefully it will though, it is very simple design but looks like more time went in to making it. Okay painting the leaves with Starlights and making the paper rose took time but the die cut and assembly took no time at all.

I got the Presscut Stepper die a couple of weeks ago and have made several cards with it which I'll add to the blog soon, I used the die for this card, cutting it out of an A4 sheet of white card from a pad of white and cream linen effect 220gsm card from The Range. The white floral background topper was cut using the largest die in the Floral Frames set from Sweet Dixie, I also used the tag die from this set to add extra interest and to stamp the sentiment on.

I discovered the Sweet Dixie dies around October last year when I picked up some of their Xmas dies and was very impressed with them, they cut really well. The leaves on this card were die cut from the Crafters Companion Leafy Flourish set and were painted with Menthol Starlights paint.

The sentiment stamp I stamped using Onyx Black Versafine ink using a stamp from the Wild Rose Circle Greetings set. The flower centre is a gem from the Dovecraft Back to Basics Berry Blush gems, I attached it to the card with a couple of 3D foam pads, the leaves were glued to the card base tucked under the flower with some Tonic Studios 'Craft Tacky Glue'.

This afternoon I'm finishing work on my Outer Space challenge card for the Enchanted/Fantasy challenge I'm hosting, then I have an Afternoon Tea Party card and a card with Butterflies and Bees on to create, I'm trying to tie the challenge cards in with cards I have to make for upcoming birthdays for friends and family and so far its going well. Although I keep getting distracted because I want to play with other things lol!