Anything Goes - part 3

My third and final project for this week's Charisma Cardz 'Anything Goes' blog challenge is an unusual one for me. It is a scrapbook page that I made for an album for some friends celebrating their first anniversary. The page features a little pencil drawing I did of the pair of them in the garden of their wedding venue (cooling Castle Barn near Rochester in Kent). I wasn't at the wedding, so the sketch is from a photograph taken by their niece. I used the actual photo in a layout on the facing page, but kept this page simple so that the drawing was centre stage. I don't know why I did it really, I am not very good at drawing, the whim just took over me and I decided that I would give it a go. I have added a close-up of the sketch, so those of you who are gifted artists can moan to yourselves about the terrible drawing odd perspective.

Anyhow, those of my three diverse projects, from three different crafts to enter into the challenge. I hope you like them! I know I have enjoyed browsing through the fab projects at Charisma Cardz. Pay them a visit. I am sure you will love them too.

Anything Goes

As you will know by now, I am hooked on Blog Challenges. I am still relatively new to them, but love them all the same. Some challenges have prizes, others do not. Sometimes entries are judged on skill, artistic/crafty talent etc. and some blogs use random selection to choose winners. I just love the fun of entering whatever the outcome.

This week's challenge over at Charisma Cardz is 'Anything Goes' and they really do mean anything! Not just papercraft projects, but anything crafty! I love lots of different crafts and always have several projects on the go. This week's challenge gives me an excuse to post piccies of 3 of my finished projects, one knitted, one sewn and, for good measure, a scrap layout including a sketch (that is, a pencil drawing as opposed to the meaning of 'sketch' as a diagram for a design layout). In order to enter them all into the challenge, each project must be posted separately, so I will give each it's own little bit of bloggy space.

The knitted project, as you can see, is a sweet little pair of baby shoes knitted in bamboo yarn from Rowan, modelled by my son at 2 days old! I love making them and have made many, many pairs for all of my children and for friends too. I love this pair, because of their simplicity. I have made far fancier pairs, with cabling and so on, but I actually love the garter stitch side out, with the smooth stocking stitch inwards for the baby's comfort.

What's New Pussycat?

Until I started taking part in papercraft challenges (just 3 weeks ago), I had never made a card using a sketch as the outline idea. I been making cards for 13 years, but have always used my own ideas or used other cards for inspiration, but more in the sense of the overall feel rather than the positioning of the design elements. This is only the third card I have made based on a sketch, but I think I may be hooked!

I am still just finding my feet in entering challenges, so I have only really entered one card in each challenge and used each card for just one challenge so far. With this card, I am going for it - two challenges with one card! I would like to enter this card in Fetch-a-Sketch challenge 6 as well as the Charisma Cardz challenge on the theme of 'inspired by a song'.

The digi stamp of Lil Kitty made me think of the Tom Jones song as soon as I saw it on the Pollycraft site, so when I saw the Charisma Cardz challenge, I knew I had to use it. My daughter loves this image and had to have her own copy to colour too. The stamp is coloured using Promarkers and is mounted on an iridescent scalloped circle, layered onto a ditsy print paper. As with my Alien Adventure card, I have double embossed around the central panel on the white 8x8 card base and infilled with Flexmarker colouring to make the image 'pop'. The scalloped dotty strip is from Polkadoodles 'Double Sprinkle of Kraft' CD. The two scrunched paper flowers are made from scalloped circles cut from the Financial Times, coloured with Promarkers and glazed with silicone glue, which also stiffens them and holds them in shape. The sentiment is stamped onto a chipboard circle and the card is finished off with a circular tab at the top left. Phew! Lots of the detail of this card, such as the double embossing, don't show on the photo, but they make it look 'high quality' close up and hopefully let the recipient know that we care for her very much.

I would like to thank the designers who have set these challenges and, of course, the prize sponsors. You are helping to keep my hands and brain occupied at a very stressful time in my life!