Cupcake Craft Challenge (28)

I've never done a card challenge before and only ever tried one sketch which as you recall Linda did a few months ago. I don't really understand how sketches work-sometimes people change so much it seems unrecognisable to me, so I have no idea if anything can be changed, if you can add additional elements and so forth!





Nonetheless Jeannette's role as guest designer on Cupcake Craft Challenges has motivated me to try this weeks sketch myself. Last week I did try to do an altered piece but wasn't happy with the finish (to say the least!). This week, I am going to be brave (I think) and send the link off to the challenge blog. Not entirely confident about doing this but it's good to try new things. I just hope I've followed the rules properly and my card doesn't get escorted off the premises! The sketch I need to follow is shown above. The blog states that you can't move the elements around though you can change the size of them. I think I'm pretty accurate regarding the sketch, fear and inexperience means I dare not try and do anything else in case it's not allowed. I like the sketch as it is though and enjoyed doing the angled matting and layering bit as I've never tried that before.

I first saw this Ophelia stamp on another blog a couple of years ago. I adored her at first sight and still do. I searched long and hard for her-there's not many stamps I've seen and wanted more than 'Ophelia'.

As far as I am concerned the stamp does all the talking-there's nothing I can do to make the image any better than it already it and I thought a monochrome card would work really well. I'm quite pleased with the result actually-it's not overly vintage, not overly feminine either, but the striking beauty of Ophelia means that this stamp can be so versatile-I must get her out more instead of being afraid of not doing her justice.

I enjoyed making this card and I'm pleased with the result. I see a great many challenges on various blogs and think I should try and tackle a few more and hopefully gain a bit of confidence along the way.

Ingredients:
Ophelia stamp from Stampsmith
Dream stamp by Anna Griffin
Anna Griffin card
Whisper White card from Stampin Up
Stazon ink
HOTP embellishments
Papermania glitter brads
White textured mulberry paper
Black card
Lace

Remember how Jeannette as guest designing on the Cupcake Craft Challenges blog? I said I'd take part and I need to get it done by today officially. It's been a disaster. I've really messed it up, it looks awful but hey, I'll show it to you anyway! This is essentially a post about how NOT to cover a box!

I had the best of intentions, cover a post it note or whatever they're called holder, embellish it and then decorate the blanks pieces of paper to co-ordinate with the outside of the box. The original box is as above.

I decided to use the same paper as I used to make the cat card on my post about The Cinnamon Trust. Too late in the day I realise that covering the box would be a bit tricky due to the lid lifting. This means of course that the paper will bunch up a bit and I was worried this may be a problem.

Anyway, I persevered and in hindsight covered the wrong sides in the wrong order. It's ended up being a real mess but I promised I'd get something done for today so I've kept at it (through the tears! sob!) and this is the result. If you think you can see poor edging-yep you can. The lid needed a much thicker bit of paper to stop the underneath showing through and in handling it, I nearly dropped it and any edges that had been vaguely acceptable were scuffed by my fingers although I didn't realise that of course until I had taken the picture in the rapidly fading light! I'm sure you can all point out many other things wrong with it-finding something right is much harder-nigh impossible! Sigh!

Never mind, you can see my master plan at least! It could have been nice, it just isn't. As usual the whole hindsight thing comes into play and I'm sure the next one would be alot better. The thing is I'm never doing this again-it's been horrible! I know when I'm beaten!




Seriously though, it is awful but I realise what went wrong (all of it) but at least I kept going and finished it. It's really hard continuing with something you feel gutted about but I'm glad I did as I can see my idea was OK, just the logistics went a bit awry. Just realised I haven't even taken a photo of the lid on the outside! It's too dark now though perhaps that would work to my benefit and trick you all into thinking it looks amazing, it's just a bit dark when really it looks as awful as the rest of it! Never mind, it didn't work, hey ho, there's always tomorrow's project to try and get better.

Materials used:

Paper will check out

Stampin Up Very Vanilla and Old Olive card

Old Olive ink and grosgrain ribbon

Alphabet stickers unknown

Fish and cat punches

Paw print stamp by Anitas

Cat stamp by Stampcraft
Tom cat stamp unknown as no mark on wood