International Art and Soul Challenge 11

This fortnight, our theme at International Art and Soul is Flowers.  So, any flowery creations are welcome to join the fun.

The card I made wasn't  made with fun in mind. A friend has just lost her father, and I needed a sympathy card.

I combined die cuts made using dies from several companies - Sizzix, Sue Wilson, and Crafter's Companion among others. It's a simple design - I needed the card in a hurry, and the beauty of die cutting is that it can give you something good very quickly.

I hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 10

Our challenge at International Art and Soul for this fortnight is to make something for a man. It could be something for Father's Day or for some other occasion - it's up to you!

I made a card for my eldest's birthday. He's a Mathematician by background, and so I thought he'd like the effect in this card.

I fiest discovered that sort of pattern as a child - drawing lines on squared paper, and I remember how pleased I was when my dad made me a board so I could wrap thread arounds nails to get the same effect. I was very pleased when I saw there were some stacking dies from Tonic Studios that would do the same thing - both circles and squares, and I've used both varieties here to make this card.

I've completed the card with a die cut sentiment, and that's it!

I hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 8

Our challenge this fortnight at International Art and Soul is to use hot colours - other than that, you can make anything, for any occasion.

My immediate thought when I started this was to head for one of the collections of Kate Knight papers I've got. Many of her designs are extremely vibrant! Having found one that met the bill, I designed a card around it.

See what I mean about vibrant? I wouldn't normally have the confidence to mix magenta and orange, but with her papers, combinations like that just seem to work.

I used a Spellbinder's die to cut the background for the flower, and I think the dies used for the flower are from Crafter's Companion. I used some Pan Pastel to give some shading to the petals, leaves and stem, and that's about it! The colours are so bright, I really didn't want to add anything else.

I hope you can join us this fortnight.

International Art and Soul First Ever Challenge!

That's right, it's a brand new challenge blog, and this is our first challenge. Our theme is Love is in the Air, so very appropriate for this time of year!

And for this, I made a card for my husband for our anniversary which is next month.

A little bit of a cheat. I made the background for this card ages ago using stamps from Inky Doodles and Distress Ink. I do like the way their background stamps can be combined like this to give a (fairly) regular background pattern.

The hearts and sentiment are all cut using Sizzix dies, and the sentiment is computer generated. To complete the card, I've added some embellishments from my stash.

I do hope you can join us for our first challenge!