A Most Challenging Challenge!

Hello crafty peeps and welcome to my crafty nook! I hope you all had a brilliant weekend - it's gone far to quickly for my liking. I should have added this blog post yesterday but both Michele and I had trouble making a card for the challenge. Luckily we both came up with something even if it is a day late. I'll share Michele's card first.

I really like this card especially the colour scheme which really pops. It must have taken Michele ages to fussy cut out all those sunflowers but it was well worth all the hard work. It's like a little box of sunshine 😎 Michele has made it as a birthday card but wouldn't it be great as a Get Well Soon card for someone in hospital especially as you can't take real flowers in anymore - this would be sure to cheer anyone up.

I was inspired by a card Michele made for her friend's birthday so decided to make a twist and pop card. I've been struggling with this card type for a while but finally cracked it after following a card school tutorial in Quick Cards Made Easy magazine - this is the second one I've made as my initial card is waiting to be embellished (I made it up and added mats and layers to it but haven't finished it completely, it's currently in my scraps folder).

The top folding card is 10.5cm x 14cm

The slide off belly band holds the card shut for posting

The twist 'n' pop mechanism unfolds as you open the card

When full opened, the four panels 'pop' out as shown

Matching envelope art coloured with Spectrum Noir Shimmer brush markers

I hope you like our latest challenge cards, I'm sorry there are so many of mine compared to Michele's that's just because I can take as many photos of my card as I want and Michele sends me photos of her via email so mine tend to outnumber hers.

Our next challenge starts today and will conclude on the 31st of this month and is a double challenge! The first part is to make a card using a fancy fold that we've either never tried before or have only made a few times- this is a good challenge if you've been struggling to 'nail' a certain fancy fold. For example I have a real problem making stepper panel cards (Michele very kindly sent me some ready made card blanks but I really need to get my head around making my own) so I might decide to make that sort of card (might not though I shall be looking on Youtube to check out new fancy folds). The second part of the challenge is to then decorate/embellish the card using things from your scraps - this basically means if you've already opened an item and used some of them then you can use more but I'm hoping that Michele and I (plus anyone who wants to join in just for fun) will make our own embellishments using what we have in our scrap folders - we can use basic supplies (inks, card, colouring mediums etc) plus any dies, punches or embossing folders we have in our stash and to add a sentiment we can use stamps or peel offs as long as we've used them for other projects - this can include diecut sentiments from kits or ones we've done and not used, I'm sure I'm not the only person to make a topper etc then 'take against it' and put it in my scrap pile rather than throwing it away! If you follow this challenge and want to take part please take a photo of your scraps before you begin the challenge so we can all see what you've worked from. Please leave a comment below with your email address or use the contact form in the sidebar to let me know if you'd like to join in. I'm afraid it's just for fun but if you email photos I will add them to the blog post on the 1st August. Plus how satisfying will it be to have that 'nailed it!' feeling and use up some of your scraps!

I hope you've enjoyed our challenging challenge, the Sunflower Dreams free gift is lovely but both Michele and I found it hard to come up with ideas to make with it so I'm not sure how often we'll use it in the future. As always if you have any questions or comments then please leave them in the usual places and until next time - keep crafting!

Love and crafty hugs,

Sarah xxxx