HIMCR #359 freestyle theme challenge

Happy Birthday, America! 1776-2018

...242 years of freedom!

card one (card two will be featured at the end of the blog)

HIMCR or Hiding In My Craft Room hosts a challenge blog with a weekly theme. #359 is for the 5th Saturday of the month, so this gets to be a 'freestyle' theme. In paper-crafting freestyle could showcase die cuts or stamping or stenciling or digital images or crafter's own mixed media  or paper folding techniques like iris folds. You can have any format in paper-crafting: bookmark, tag, ATC, journal page, scrapbook layout, greeting card, etc. And the occasion can be whatever you choose. Some of us on the design team chose a 4th of July set provided by this #359's prize sponsor, The Cutting Café. Use this link to direct you to the HIMCR blog post and to links for the sponsor:
http://www.hidinginmycraftroom.com/2018/06/himcr-359-freestyle.html

This is the ID badge for this week's prize sponsor and DT images provider: The Cutting Café  http://cuttingcafe.typepad.com

Also it would be wonderful if you could comment on the post and also go to each DT member's post and give them feedback about how their creations have inspired you.

Sentiment "The LAND of the FREE" and "God Bless America" are provided by and available from The Cutting Café. I chose to outline them in blue and red and then used blue and red colored pencils to create a plaid type fill-in. God Bless America's outline was created by taking a small heart stencil and then partially tracing each one to form an enlarged tri-heart design. Love it!

Three different colors of baker's twine/cording were wrapped in 3 different bundles onto a large red paper clip to alter it a bit and by placing it at the top, I hope it mimics fireworks streaming in the sky. Calendar photo for the month of July was cropped and used as a picture focal. Other embellishments include a white heart shape doily, black photo corners, and a small heart cut from The Paper Studio dotted paper (Mint Berry paper pack).

Close-up view shows the red and blue plaid effect to bring more of those 2 colors to the front-fold easel card. This card is bursting with USA patriotism.

Card two featuring more elements from The Cutting Café 4th of July stamp set:

I had an old Tupperware kids stencil set that included a fireworks rocket shape so I've used it around the Independence Day sentiment and on blue denim paper to make 2 rockets. I've shaded red around the Fireworks sentiment and then outlined around the circle 'fireworks' image plus did the red and blue plaid type striping to fill in the center (3 items from The Cutting Café).

The gold arrow paper clip mimics the rocket shape and 3 light blue star shape brads add some more cute patriotic touches.  I heart this card creation too! And can you believe there are still more images that haven't been used?!?! I've got ideas for at least 2 more, but the DT deadline is close now, so any others I make will be featured only on my blog...Update: got 1 more card created =

Card three featuring 3 more elements from The Cutting Café 4th of July stamp set:

The two arrow images and flag come from The Cutting Café. The cake stamp and Happy Birthday stamp are from Stampin' Up. And the little star brads are from the Ki  Memories line.

Still crafting in the USA heartland, Becca S

HIMCR 344 tic tac toe challenge and PCC blog card sketch 284

Hoppy Easter

technically version 2 for the HIMCR challenge 344 using animals, flowers, glitter, and stripes (used a postage stamp corner like for bingo and the glitter is not only in the flower stick-ons but also used as glitter crayons for the 2 digital images from The Cutting Café, sponsor at HIMCR)

getting started, but by the time I finished I didn't use the mesh-style gems or the purple flower center...editing works most of the time!

another case of editing/moving things around; from when I photographed this and as I decided how to use the images, I needed to move the flower stack to the other side of the card

 HIMCR's badge and link for post: http://www.hidinginmycraftroom.com/2018/03/himcr-344-tic-tac-toe.html

HIMCR's sponsor for #344 challenge is The Cutting Café, I've used the egg and bunny pair with the Easter Wishes sentiment for the front panel and I will use the stacked "Hoppy Easter" for the inside.

I was also inspired for this spring and Easter 2018 card creation with using Paper Craft Crew's 284 card sketch:
(link for their post: http://papercraftcrew.com/pcc284-sketch-challenge/ )

I've reversed placement for the flowers and the tag/bookmarks and changed the ratios for the background papers. I also used cording instead of leafy branches for this card version.

And if you have been reading the fine print, the card shown at the top of the post was the 2nd one made for the HIMCR #344 challenge. For the first one, I needed to edit a lot, I think, after I made it. It has a lot going on. I tried to use the above sketch and combine it with another one that was posted this week for a Facebook group called 100 Pattern Papers (shown below). And I also was using the color palette from CTD #484 (Color Throw Down) of green, violet, and white:

In version 1 from the HIMCR tic-tac-toe challenge (use the link to see the grid choices and get more details and rules for participating), I used ribbon, glitter, and blending (washable markers used on edge of butterflies). In my mind's eye, the card is okay, it's just very busy with proportions being off and too many elements.

When I snapped the photo of the base and backgrounds for the version 1, I was so excited about the potential:

(link for CTD 484: http://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2018/03/color-throwdown-484.html )

Note on technique: I cut a slit in the fold about midway on the left fold to hold the ribbons.

Maybe between today/Saturday and Monday I will try again with this color combo and one of the sketches. I still have some butterfly designer paper left (The Paper Studio by Hobby Lobby).

I've got more photos that I've sent from my cell phone but having a data usage problem I think since it is a cheap pay-as-you-go type and only had 3 pics come through and others waiting in queue...ugh. So I will either add those in a day or two or create a 2nd/part two post on a future day. Until then, Becca