Bible Journaling: Serve (BJ-23)

This month’s Bible journaling session used ‘serve’ as its theme, with five new illustration templates made available. It took me ages to find the right inspiration for the images, but it was worth the effort. I have also got hold of some new fonts, courtesy of Creative Fabrica’s daily gifts and freebies, so they snuck into the designs as well. Here are the five illustrations:

Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Along the edge ± rainbow #228

The latest challenge over at the AAA Cards blog is to create a card with elements along one edge with the optional extra of ‘rainbow’. One advantage of working as far ahead as I do (I’m writing this in July) is that you can make sure you don’t clash with other DT members by getting your design in first! I chose to go with one of my favourite rainbow quotes and a basic illustration to complement it.

be someone's rainbow card Continue reading

LIM DT: Draw your own frame

The next challenge at Less is More is to make a one-layer card using a self-drawn frame. I went a bit mad and hand-drew the whole thing. The finished piece looks like it is layered because of shading using an alcohol marker on the bottom edge of the mandala – a very effective way of adding depth without layers. The background is a masked, dense layer of blended distress ink over which I’ve used a black pigment marker and Stabilo pencils for shading.

frame surrounding a hand drawn mandala card Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: 1/9th ± gnomes #225

A tough challenge this week at AAA Cards blog – 1/9th. The idea is that all the elements on the card fit into a rectangle only 1/9th of the card area. Up to now, I’ve met the challenge following the guide image on the blog, which is in a grid pattern. This time, I’ve used a rectangle across the page in a landscape format 1/9th the height of the card. Within it, I have drawn and coloured my gnomes along with trees – all of which together look suspiciously like a Christmas card. Given at the time of making and writing the temperature here in Leicester is a roasting 39ºC, it was the furthest thing from my mind!

gnomes in a row Continue reading

AAA Cards DT: Christmas pets in July (#219)

As previously mentioned, Christmas in July is a thing in the crafting community. This week at AAA Cards challenge blog, the theme is ‘anything CAS goes’ with the optional twist of Christmas (pets) in July. I’m not a fan of the whole Christmas thing, especially starting in July, and am renowned for being a little bah humbug about the whole thing! So this card suitably sums up my state of mind…

bah humbug bulldog card Continue reading

LIM DT: Off-centre, a one layer card

Less is More challenge blog has just published their next clean and simple card challenge – a one layer card with the stipulation of being ‘off-centre’. The one layer bit is the challenge, as it negates the use of die cuts, embellishments and rather obviously, layers. I’ve used masking to ‘layer’ my one layer card…

off-centre card design with music notes and pen nibs Continue reading

LIM DT: Monogram OLC

Oh, this one is a real toughie! I don’t think it’s a secret that the design team were all scratching their heads with the latest challenge over at the clean and simple card challenge site, Less is More. We could think of several ways of making a monogram, but most weren’t only one layer. That ruled out die cuts, cutouts and all sorts of other clever stuff.

Anyhoo, I scratched my head successfully and came up with three designs. The first, the N, technically didn’t fulfil the definition of a monogram, being a single initial. Then the stencilled and embellished A didn’t fulfil the definition either and turned out not to be a favourite. Finally, the graffiti monogram meets the definition, but might not be considered a traditional monogram.

Continue reading

Bible Journaling 13: Chronicles

Flicking through my Bible where I do my journaling, there are some books that don’t seem to have very many illustrations. I guess they are the lesser read books or those which are lists from which little is quoteworthy. I find Chronicles (1&2) to be in these categories, so have spent a little time finding little nuggets and illustrating them. A free downloadable PDF of the illustrations can be found here if you’d like to trace your own versions.

Continue reading

LIM DT: Chocolate!

There’s a birthday celebration over at Less is More Challenge blog. The clean and simple challenge has been running for 10 years! There are lots of prizes to be won if you’d like to enter, with the birthday theme being the colour ‘chocolate’. I decided a tenth birthday cake was in order and came up with this card:

10th birthday chocolate cake

Continue reading