Runway Inspired Baby-Girl Card (Including Process Photos)

Today I’m sharing a baby-girl card which I’m entering into the Runway Inspired Challenge #79 (open until Friday 13th March). I’ve a few process photos too show you too!

Here’s the card I finished with…

If you’ve not heard of it before, the Runway Inspired Challenge Blog is about finding inspiration for crafty projects by looking at the fashion world – using designer dresses from the runway / catwalk to kick off ideas. I think you can enter any crafty project but it’s usually just cards in the inspiration and entries.

Their current challenge is a little different to normal – usually there’s just one dress for inspiration but this time it was based on the Oscars and there was a few different dresses to choose from. I ended up using this photo of Keira Knightley to gather my supplies and ideas:

Photo Credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

Though originally I did print out a few of the photos, and gathered a couple of papers for each of them:

After choosing a couple of papers for each (I made myself stick to 2 pieces of 6×6 paper per photo so I didn’t have too much to overwhelm me), then I pulled out a few embellishments for each. I wasn’t restricting myself to only using these, but they were a starting off point so I could imagine the style and colours of the card:

It was at this point that I realised the items I’d found for the Keira Knightley dress could make a great baby-girl card, quite fitting seeing as Keira is pregnant in the photo! So I decided to concentrate on that pile of items, though I have put the others into cello bags as card-kits for next time I need a quick idea.

I started with a square kraft card blank, and tried out my papers and embellies, I knew I wanted to layer up some trims to represent the floaty layers on Keira’s dress, so I placed these across the card and tried out the chevron paper at the bottom of the card:

And at the top:

I decided it was more interesting at the top of the card, and it meant you could see the netting material better against the more solid paper at the bottom.

I cut a piece of the netting so it was twice the width of the card, and 2″ deep:

And then stitched a running-stitch across the top. I had to tie the knot at the end of the netting so that it was tied onto the net itself, because any other kind of knot would slip through those holes:

When I reached the end of the net I gathered it up, so the net was now the same width of the card (though it will want to curl like below), and tied off the end of the thread:

I sewed a layer of scalloped muslin (a bit like the scallops on Keira’s dress), and a layer of border-lace, on top of the netting. I inked the edges of my paper with a gold ink pad and stuck the fabric layers on top using foam tape:

Next I tried out the embellies again, including a wood-veneer silhouette of a girl:

And while I thought the wood-veneer was cool, it wasn’t right for this card because she’s a little-girl, not a baby. So I rummaged through my stash until I found a baby on an old cut-apart card from Crate Paper:

Then all I had to do was add a few stickers and gems to finish it off:

P.S. How perfect is that pink flower (behind the ‘blessed’ flair)? I was so excited when I found it because it has script words across it like Keira’s dress!

This is the first time I’ve entered at the Runway Inspired Challenge Blog and I really enjoyed using this as a way to kick off my crafting. Have you tried getting inspiration from a dress before? What would Keira Knightley’s dress inspire you to create?

Have a great day,

Jennifer x

A Transparent Birthday Card (using some recycled items!)

My hubby’s birthday is coming up on Monday, and I found a couple of challenges to help me with inspiration for his card!

The first challenge I’m linking up to is the Make The Day Special Stamp Store January challenge to Recycle. You have to use at least one item that they have in the store, and use something you would be throwing away / recycling as part of your project (or as part of the technique when making it).

The second challenge is the Mixed Media Card Challenge #7 to use the word ‘New’ either as a word on your card or by using a new technique, etc, with the optional extra to use tissue.

Here’s how to make this card…

Step 1: Find some plastic / a transparency for the clear parts of the card. I found the plastic front off a box headed for the recycling. It was packaging from a doll my daughter received at Christmas:

I cut a clear rectangle out of it, but then I realised I wanted the back of the card to be transparent too, so I found another box, this time from a car seat cover:

You should end up with two pieces of transparent plastic, each measuring 5 x 5.5″:

Step 2: Take a 6×6″ kraft card blank and use a pencil to mark a large rectangle on the inside of each side, measuring 4⅝ x 3⅝”- you are leaving enough space around the edges to stick the plastic to:

Step 3: Cut these two large rectangles out with a craft knife, and erase the pencil marks inside your card:

Step 4: Use StazOn Black Ink to stamp your sentiment onto the top right corner of one of the clear plastic pieces. I used a sentiment from the Avery Elle Cake & Candles set:

Stick this inside your card, on the rectangle which will be the front of your card, using double-sided sticky tape. Stick the other plain piece of plastic to the back rectangle of the card.

Step 5: Find some stubby bits of candle that are too short to use on a cake. Mine are just under 1″ tall:

Step 6: Stick these to the front of your card, using hot glue underneath the candles, and some double-sided sticky tape over the front of the candles. Also find a piece of silver card, mine’s from a packet of Christmas-crackers:

Step 7: Cut the silver piece down to a rectangle measuring 2⅛ x 1⅜”, round the top corners, and stick some glitter tape across the middle. Stick a piece of patterned paper (measuring 1⅛ x 6″) at the bottom of the front of your card. Adhere the silver rectangle on top of the candles on the front of your card, using the double-sided tape that’s already on the candles, plus some 3D foam pop-dots at the bottom of the cake – you’ll need to layer up the pop-dots a few deep depending on how thick your candles are:

Step 8: The back of the candles might look a little messy from the hot glue:

Step 9: So you could use some glossy accents and glitter on the other side of the plastic to cover it up:

Step 10: Use washi tape to hide the double-sided tape at the edges of the transparencies:

Step 11: Stick a plain piece of card at the bottom of the inner-back of your card, so you have a place to write on. You could also stamp a few swirls at the top of the plastic, and some little stars on the piece of plain card (my stars are from the Joy To The World Stamp Set):

Step 12: Find a piece of yellow tissue paper, or colour a white piece of tissue paper with yellow ink:

Step 13: Scrunch up little bits of the tissue paper as flames, and use a tiny dab of hot glue at the top of each candle wick to stick them on:

Step 14: Finish off the card with a few more stamped stars on the front corners, and add a few star stickers and gems:

Give it to someone to make their birthday special! This card is pretty thick because of the candles, so it’s best for hand deliveries or cards going into a parcel!

How I met the Make The Day Special Stamp Store ‘Recycling’ Challenge: Using plastic packaging, silver card packaging, stubby candles, and a scrap of tissue paper.

How I met the Mixed Media Card ‘New’ Challenge: I’ve never made a transparent card before, and I’ve never used candles on a card! I also used the optional extra – tissue.

Make sure you check out the challenges to see more inspiration!

Have you ever made a transparent card before? Do you ever use recycled items on your projects?

Bye for now, Jennifer x

The Frosty Festivities 2014 Welcome and Linky Party!

Hello everyone! It’s time to start the fun… welcome to my free Christmas & Winter themed blog event!

In case you missed previous news about the event, here’s how it’s going to work…

There will be posts going live here at Jennifer Grace Creates every hour, on the hour, from 4pm – 8pm today (Friday 7th Nov) and 10am – 8pm Saturday and Sunday (8th & 9th Nov). There will be lots of inspiration all weekend, with projects including Cards, Gifts, Scrapbooking, Home Decor, and more – from me and a few posts from some fantastic guest designers! For every post (except this one) there’s a ‘Be Inspired’ section at the end, to give you pointers to new ideas.

You can create your own projects inspired by the event and enter them to win a challenge prize (the linky tool is at the end of this post) and there will be some fabulous giveaways spread throughout the weekend which you just have to comment on to try and win! The giveaways will close on Monday the 10th of November at 8pm {ALL NOW CLOSED}, so you need to hurry to enter those. But the challenge linky below will stay open until Monday the 17th of November at 8pm {STILL OPEN}, so you have over a week to get making!

I hope you’re excited about this as I am!

Here’s the big challenge prize. This will go to one randomly drawn project linked up to the linky tool below!

This big challenge prize includes:

6 sheets of 12×12 paper from the Webster’s Pages Gingerbread House collection (‘Village Wishes’, ‘Winterscape’, ‘Golden Glow’, ‘The Village’, ‘Cuddle Up’, and ‘Storyteller Cardsheet 1’)

1 sheet of 12×12 paper from the Teresa Collins Tinsel & Company Collection (‘Stripes’)

1 6×6 paper pad, and a pack of Ephemera, from Fancy Pants Oh Deer

1 sheet of word stickers (Gingerbread House), 1 sheet of label stickers (Oh Deer), and 4 sheets of Christmas sentiment stickers (Simple Stories DIY Christmas)

Mixed embellishments including red paper flowers, wood veneer santas and wreath toppers, glitter wood veneer bells, glitter star toppers, large picture domes, a roll of wide red ribbon, and a roll of blue glitter ribbon.

There’s also a second small challenge prize. This will go to someone I choose. I might pick the person who enters the most, or I might pick an project that has blown me away. I just wanted to be able to say thanks to someone who impresses me!

This small challenge prize includes:

From the Pink Paislee Merry & Bright collection – a 6×6 paper pad, kraft tags, and a sticker sheet

Plus some white resin doves, and a roll of black glitter ribbon.

To enter the challenge:

You can link up anything inspired by this event – you don’t have to use the ‘Be Inspired’ sections if it’s something else that catches your eye, though you can use them if you wish – take ideas where you choose! Post your project on your blog / online gallery, mentioning the Frosty Festivities event in your description, and then come back here to add it! You can enter AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH! You are welcome to combine with other online challenges too.

I will be pinning all the entries to the Frosty Festivities 2014 Pinterest Board, and I will also come and leave a comment on any entries which I can (I can’t sign up to every online gallery, so I may not be able to comment on all. I have accounts with Flickr, Scrapbook.com, UKS, and Studio Calico, so if your projects are on their I will be able to comment).

The challenge linky closes at 8pm on Monday the 17th of November. It is open internationally. If you have any questions about this or anything else, you can email me at jennifergrace@hotmail.co.uk.

If you enjoy the posts during the weekend it would be great if you leave a comment or share the post on Pinterest or other social media. But I wanted to make the main prize be the challenge prize so that you can spend less time commenting and more time making stuff!!!

And because I can’t leave you without at least a little bit of inspiration to get you started, here’s a quick tag using the Fancy Pants Oh Deer collection:

With a dotty border and some nice wide gold ribbon to attach it to a gift!

That’s it for now, I’ll see you at 5pm for the first full inspiration post!

Jennifer x

http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=245592

Scrap 365 September Sketch – Ride Time Layout & Process Video

Hello all. Sorry I haven’t been by much, our internet is still not fixed (nb: don’t use Talk Talk if you can help it), we’re switching to another company so it will be fixed, but not for another 3 weeks! This is driving me crazy!

In the meantime, today’s the reveal for the Scrap 365 September Sketch Challenge:

This month the prize has been donated by American Crafts, so make sure you enter to try and win a bundle of goodies!

Here’s my layout for some inspiration…

Ride Time:

Fun and colourful, right?! I pulled lots of American Crafts items from my stash to use (from collections including Plus One, Cut & Paste, and Mayberry) since they were sponsoring the challenge and all. But I used other items too, including the background paper which is from the Simple Stories Good Day Sunshine collection. It took me a while to choose that as my background paper though… I explain my choice for this and other details on this Page Process video:

Here’s a better look at the close up details…

 I loved how I could lift the edges of the letters on the ‘OXOX’ tag from the Plus One collection up to slide them over the photo and patterned paper.

In the above photo you can see a bit how much the gold embossing powder shines in the light and makes the whole page extra special!

What do you think? If you like my YouTube video please give it a ‘Thumbs Up’ and Subscribe to My Channel.

Don’t forget to check out the Scrap 365 Blog for more inspiration from the DT – some today and some tomorrow!

I’ll see you again, hopefully not too long in the future…

Jennifer x

The Challenge Winners from Refresh Your Craft & Soul!

It’s time to announce the winners of the Challenges!

All the winners were drawn at Random.Org.

Here are they are:

A Challenge to Be Inspired: winner is K with these Cards

A Challenge to use Teal, Orange, and White: winner is Rinda with these Cards

A Challenge to use a Resist Technique: winner is Mandsea for this Page

A Challenge to keep it Clean and Simple: winner is Jacky for this Card

A Challenge to Use A Sketch: winner is Becky with This Page

Congratulations winners! Please email me at jennifergrace(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk with Challenge Winner in the subject line, telling me your mailing address. K I’ve got yours, I’ll email both your prizes at once, you jammy thing!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered. I’m really sorry I can’t offer you all a prize, as I was so excited by all the entries. I really enjoyed seeing how everyone interpreted the theme and the prompts! All the projects which I could pin (I can’t pin from certain galleries or facebook) are on the Refresh Your Craft and Soul Pinterest Board. Please check them out!

I’ll be back with Frosty Festivities on the 7th – 9th November 2014, mark your calendars!

Bye for now,

Jennifer x

P.S. The number of challenge entries, plus screenshots of the Random.Org draws, are available as a word document if requested.

NSD at The Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog – Prize to Win!

Hello, happy (Inter)National Scrapbook Day!

Today I have the honour of guest posting at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, where they are having an amazing array of challenges all weekend, on the theme of ‘Wonderful World of Color’:

Make sure you keep checking as there will be a ton of chances to win prizes and gather ideas, with posts every 2 hours.

I am hosting Challenge #1… Color Your Mood!

I have a detailed post over HERE at the CKCB, about how colour can change your mood, or how your emotions can make you drawn to certain colours – and how to use this knowledge when you are scrapbooking.

Here’s the page I ended up with after trying out all kinds of colours and seeing how they made me feel…

Pony Tales:

Make sure you visit the challenge post to see all the details, and find out why I ended up with these colors!

If you join in and take my challenge to Color Your Mood then you could be in with a chance to win this prize:

Which includes some Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mist and some Color Magic Memory Files, Two Pots of Time Holtz Distress Powder, Some Thickers, Glitter, Chipboard Stickers, Feathers and Sequins!

You have until May the 16th to enter the challenges, so make sure you check them all out!

What will you be scrapping today? Have fun!

Jennifer x