IT'S BEEN A WHILE BUT I'M BACK!

Yes I took a break from card making over Christmas so it's been a while since I posted anything new but I'm back now .......... and so are our monthly challenges. This year rather than have a theme each month we decided to choose 3 techniques (one each), the idea being we would use one technique for each parcel. We only have to use 1 item for a parcel and can add our own bits for the rest if we want ........ we also decided that greetings and embellishments did not count for the technique part.
I actually managed to use mainly bits from my parcels .......... not sure if that was good work on my part, or clever choices of bits by Liz & Pat!
Our choice of techniques for January were Punches, Rubber Stamping and Brayering.
So here are my cards, 2 from each parcel ......

For my parcel from Liz I chose to use Rubber Stamping. Liz had already stamped this image and put in my parcel so along with the 2 backing papers I only had to add a greeting. I did wipe some ink over the image to make it look more sky like.

Most of this came from my parcel again, the 2 backing papers, tag & butterfly. I stamped Happy Birthday all over the brown paper and added the dotty bit of ribbon and little gems in the corners.

For Pat's parcel I choose punches. Again most bits came from the parcel. I added the punched border and the greeting. I also used a punch to round corners.

My second card from Pat's parcel was quite similar to the first. I added the punched border and greeting and the rest came from the parcel. Again I used a punch to round corners as well.

After we had made our cards Liz and I sat chatting about them and ended up challenging each other to make a card using all 3 techniques!! Here is what I came up ..........I used my brayer to add some blue ink to a piece of paper from Pat's parcel, and was pleased with how that came out. I then rubber stamped the images on and was again pleased as I am not good at stamping! Then I took a left over little piece of green card from Liz's parcel, shape the corners with a corner punch and added a greeting.

I like this one ................. well I like them all which is a surprise.

Looking forward to February now.

NOVEMBER'S CHALLENGE!!

Well for November Pat very nicely chose the theme "Earth, Fire, Wind & Water" ........ doesn't sound too difficult does it? HaHa, I don't think any of us found it as easy as we expected! Both my parcels contained lots of lovely bits and pieces as always but, unlike some months where pieces almost shout at me to put them together, this month nothing was even whispering!! Just a ghostly silence as I perused what I'd been given ............ and I needed to make at least 4 cards from each parcel. For the first time I felt failure creeping in, but I don't give up easily and slowly 1 card emerged, then another, then (with the aid of a few images from my stash) I had my cards, 4 from Pat's parcel & 5 from Liz's.
So here they are, Pat's first .........

This one is obviously "wind", the cloudy background and the hot-air balloons made me think of the wind pushing them around the sky.

I did think this was cheating a little but as Pat had included the words it just had to be "Earth"

"Fire" .... my own image on this one, a lovely log fire

And finally "Water",

So I was pleased with those 4, ......... now onto the cards from Liz's parcel ..........

Firstly we have "Wind" .......... you need a nice windy day to fly a kite

Secondly we have "Fire" ............. slight artistic licence maybe but candles have flames and flames equal fire!

The another "Fire" one

Onto "Earth" ........ I loved this picture Liz included and it didn't need much to turn it into a lovely (IMO) card

And lastly "Water" ........ you can't sail your boat without it

So that's November done and another year of monthly challenges completed, I've complained at times, despaired frequently ......... and thoroughly enjoyed every one of those challenges and now look forward to next years.

But .......... first there is something I look forward to maybe a little more, Decembers advent parcels! My inner child comes out when I wake on the 1st and realise it's time to start opening those little parcels .......... I love it!!!!!

I MADE IT ......... JUST!!!!!!

Phew!! I was almost late with my October cards but I made it by the skin of my teeth. This month the theme was "Spots" ............ by the time I finished I was seeing spots before my eyes! My parcels contained soooooo many beautiful spotty papers I didn't know where to start. Eventually I made 3 cards from each parcel ......... so let's start with the results of my parcel from Pat, .........

I really wasn't sure where I was going with this one, I wanted to use at least 1 of the lovely spotty circles Pat included ........ I realised it would fit the centre of a small doily and went from there. I puzzled over the topper for a while though but eventually I found this flower one that fitted the circle nice and went with the colours.

I like this one ......... and not just because it's red!!! It's bright and cheerful

Very similar to the one above but I think I used all the inspiration I had on the first one, LOL

So onto my parcel from Liz ...........

All fairly straightforward here, this one didn't scan well for some reason. I put the topper and layered card to the side just for a bit of difference. The topper was from my own stash as it was all I could find that matched!

I like this one, very simple and quick to make. I used my own flowers on it again.

 

Another very quick & easy one, but probably my favourite of the lot.

So that's the October cards ................ bring on Novembers!!!

SEPTEMBER CARDS

Another month almost gone ............ how do they go so fast? This months theme for the parcels was "Strippety Stripes", and what a lovely lot of stripey papers I got in my parcels! The choice was almost too much but eventually I picked my bits and made 2 cards from Liz's parcel & 3 from Pat's ............... and I have so much stuff left to use at another time too!
So here we go, first the cards from Liz's parcel ...............

A fairly simple card, as usual I'm not really happy with my colouring of the picture but I quite like the card

Another quite simple card but the rather busy paper didn't seem to need anything else

.... and another simple card!!! Pat had included this rather large "celebrate" which, once placed on a darker backing, fitted exactly across the card. The stripey paper matched the colour too and seemed to be all that was needed

This one I did have a little fun with. The backing paper was a sheet with just diagonal stripes but as Pat had included 2 sheets I was able to use half of each one and turning one round make an arrow shape of the stripes. A little tag on a nestie shape and that was that

Again fairly simple ....... but I like it!!

So another months cards done, I was pleased with them all and now looking forward to next month!

AUGUST PARCELS

The theme this month was "Swap the Swaps" where we send a selection of bits we haven't been able to use from the previous months parcels ................ surprising sometimes how different things look second time around.
I only managed 2 cards from each parcel, not because of what I was sent but because of time ....... I know I can get more from the bits I have left in the future.
So here is what I did do ............

First one from Liz's parcel, a nice Christmas card to add to my stash

Second from Liz's parcel another Christmas card, it wasn't a conscious choice to make 2 Christmas cards just the way it turned out. This one gave me a lot of problems as I couldn't decide on white or coloured background! Eventually I found a piece of paper in my stash that seemed to fit and used that

Now 2 from Pat's parcel .......... first a cute little cat, a very simple card as Pat had included the lovely embossed backing paper, so I didn't have to do much

and secondly a pretty flower card, again very simple

So that is my efforts for August, I'm quite happy with them .......... now to look forward to September

JULY CARDS

Look at this .......... it's not the last day of the month yet here I am with my cards made & ready to blog, think the sunshine has gone to my head, LOL.
This months theme was sport and I've made 2 cards from Liz's parcel & 3 from Pat's. I could have made more with all the lovely bits I was given by both Liz and Pat but I don't need them at the moment so I'm saving the bits for now. All the cards are fairly simple because I'm still searching for some inspiration!


So these first 2 are from Liz's parcel  ............ this is my least favourite of the lot! I like the picture but it just didn't turn out how I wanted it to really.

The 2nd one from Liz's parcel, I like this a lot more now it's done than when I was making it, I wasn't too sure about it then.

These 3 are from Pat's parcel ............... I liked my colouring on this one, I only used coloured pencils as I didn't want it too bright at all. I love the picture so I'm glad I managed not to spoil it!

The 2nd from Pat's parcel and again I was fairly happy with my colouring. I liked the blue background paper as it looks a bit like water and went well with the fishing pic.

And my last from Pat's parcel ......... a very simple card, a lovely background paper that made me think of grass and a cute little bicycle topper and a greeting ........ even I couldn't go wrong, LOL

So there we are, Julys cards all done, although I may yet make some more, I don't know.

JUNE CARDS .......... FINALLY!!

Well I've just managed to get my June cards here before the end of the month. I have really struggled for some reason. The theme was "Animals" and when I first looked at my parcels I thought "yes, I can work with these", BUT when I came to put things together it was a different story!
Both parcels contained (as usual) some lovely bits and a nice variety of things but all inspiration had left me and, despite liking the bits and pieces, somehow they suddenly seemed to have a mind of their own and, and with no inspiration, nothing seemed quite right!!!
Eventually I managed to make 2 cards from each parcel, all fairly plain & simple. Hopefully by next month I'll have found some inspiration from somewhere and will be able to do my parcels justice .......... I don't think I did this month, sorry Liz & Pat.

These first 2 came from the parcel from Liz. I don't much like the brown backing on this now even though it seemed ok when I made it!!

I do quite like this one, I added some peel off edging and gems to give it a bit more but a very simple card.

The next 2 are from Pat's parcel.
I had no idea where this one was going! I was fairly happy with my colouring although as always it could have been better!

I loved this Hippo pic, it's so cute and I wanted to use it but it really didn't need much added to it, so I cut it into a circle that was slightly bigger than the card, then trimmed the edges, just to give a little bit different shape, and added some gems and a greeting.

So there we are, my cards for June, ............... I did my best, LOL