Probably the worst card I've ever made....

The cards with freebie papers went down well at my class on Wednesday. I took along some sketches & papers, and some of the ladies had brought their own papers, and they made some great cards. However, Brenda had some papers she couldn't think what to do with, and she challenged me to see what I could make with them. Well, red rag to a bull, and all that. Or, in this case, strawberry red, lime green, orange and acid yellow. In a strange mixture of fruits, butterflies and patterns which didn't really seem to co-ordinate with each other. I almost had to put my sunglasses on to look at them.

Anyway, I thought, I'll have a go. The first one doesn't look too bad, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing. Other than the base card, a peel-off border and a Craftwork Cards greeting, I only used the free papers.



I had just bought a new Dovecraft punch which I was dying to try out, so I put it to use for the second card. I was at first totally uninspired by the paper with spots on, until I had the idea of turning a few of them into a flower to go with the border. I drew around the spots to make them stand out. One of the other patterns was a leaf print, so I cut out a couple of leaves and a stalk. Another had the butterflies all over it, so I cut out a few of those too. A Craftwork Cards button greeting for the flower centre finished it off.

I think this is probably the worst card I have ever made! I can't imagine sending it to anyone.

On the other hand, it's Brenda's birthday in May......... ;-)

Outside the comfort zone

I haven't previously attempted any of the sketch challenges, so I thought I'd try some of those in Stampington's Take Ten magazines to begin with. One would have thought it would be easy to follow a layout, but I often think some of my better work results when I don't start with a clear idea of what I want to make, so sticking to a sketch proved an interesting exercise!

I limited myself further by deciding that the only patterned papers I would use would be those which came free with magazines. Very often they don't appeal much to me. Either they're too garish for my tastes, or the paper quality leaves a lot to be desired. However, I wanted to see whether I could make something with them that I would be happy with. There was, of course, the added bonus of feeling virtuous that in these financially difficult times I'd have produced a card or two that cost very little to make! Finally I decided that each would have to have some stamping somewhere, and since I'm still enthralled by my Nestabilities, they would also have to make an appearance.

Anyway, here are a few of the cards. I even managed to use a free stamp in the third one! The sheep stamp is by Magenta (all one stamp with three squares which I cut out separately and coloured with watercolour pencils) and the dots in all three cards are "Card Candy" from Craftwork Cards, who also sell the greetings diecut circles (as on the sheep card).

So was I happy with them? Well, I do like the sheep card. I particularly liked that layout, and the papers do suit the stamp. The other two I'm not so sure about.....