First Challenge

POSTED ON 16TH JANUARY 2023 BY JANESHAW

A while ago I found a site called Outlawz, they run regular challenges making cards to a theme. There is a challenge for every day of the week and they change either fortnightly or monthly and a couple of other challenges too.
Monday Greetings
Tuesday Colour
Wednesday Sketch
Twisted Thursday
Festive Fridays
Saturday Paper Ala Mode
Sunday Song & Rhyme
Progressive Challenge
No Stamp Challenge

I love making things to a theme and have become a designer for the Sunday Song & Rhyme Challenge as this is the one that appeals to me the most, I received the instructions over Christmas and am still trying to work exactly what I have to do to fulfil the role. The first challenge I had to design for started on Jan 8th and the Rhyme is

Each of the design team takes it in turn to choose the rhyme and host the challenge, my first one is at the end of April and I have already chosen the rhyme.

Some of the challenges have sponsors as this one has and we are provided with an image to work with or a choice of images. This challenge is sponsored by Sherry West and we had 3 images to choose from. Two of the images were of little girls and I didn’t think my colouring would do them justice. I choose an image of butterflies and flowers. We then have to make a card using our chosen image and taking some inspiration from the rhyme too. At first I thought this was pretty difficult as I didn’t feel the images reflected the rhyme, but I guess they aren’t meant to. I decided to use a small palette of colours choosing red, black and green. I also wanted the card to be suitable for a friend who has her birthday in January and who loves flowers. I have not done a lot of colouring of these type of images and I know I still need a lot of practice to get the best effects. I wanted to get a two tone red effect but it hasn’t really shown up and I forgot to use the watercolour paper to print the image on which would have made for a better end product and do the image more justice than I have. I choose to use the line “To you we wish the best of things All the blessings a new year brings” as a greeting for my friend who is very ill and has a lot going on in her life. Another reason I choose the image was because my Grandma’s birthday was in January and she loved flowers and butterflies, I am sure she would have liked this design and I miss making cards for her.

So I guess now it’s time for the reveal

The colours do not show up well on my laptop screen, so I hope that you can see them better. They show us so bright on my phone. The greetings are drawn using a Cricut Joy and the card is Hunkydory Adorable Scorable Gingham. The flower middles and spots of butterflies are highlighted with Glossy Accents (“Use to accent, brighten, dimensionalise and magnify distinct areas on any scrapbook page, album cover, rubber stamped image, paper craft or home decor project”). The highlights don’t show up too well in the photo.  I have just bought a new photo lighting box, which is much better than the previous one I had, which wasn’t very robust. This was the first card I used it for.