Challenge 14 - Christmas Cards x

Hey, thanks for popping in :-) I’ve got loads of news for you this month but before that I would like to say thank you to everyone who entered our challenge last month. I think that was one of my all time favourites and loved seeing what people got from the inspirational pic. - such pretty and clever designs :-)

Before I get to the winner I’ve got some bits and bobs to tell you. The 1^st is that we’re very lucky to have another talented lady joining our DT – her name is Laura and you can see more of her beautiful work HERE She’s come up with some really gorgeous designs and I’m over the moon to have her on the team.

On other DT news I was excited to see that 2 of our lovely ladies had applied, and been successful, for the new challenge that our dear friends over at Polkadoodles are running. It’s called Digi Choosday and can be found HERE – if you haven’t seen it already it’s seriously worth visiting as the DT are doing amazing work. I'm lucky enough to have my range of digi's at the Polkadoodles store but they've got sooo many other gorgeous designs and often have wonderful promotions so if you're a digi lover like us it's definitely worth joining :-) xx

I’ve got quite a bit of inspiration from the Digi Choosday site and I think the way they’re running things is really nice so I’ve had a chat with our DT here and decided to make a couple of changes that will hopefully make it easier for you guys to join in on our challenges.

As always Taylor can be found wearing her bossy boots on the rules tab above to guide you through everything but the updates are as follows:

As before, 1 winner will be chosen at random each month – they will have their choice of 4 free Flat Friends digi’s

You don’t need to use a Flat Friends digi to enter our challenges any more – all entries will have an equal chance of winning

If, however, the winning card does feature a Flat Friends digi the creator of that card will also receive 50% off in my Etsy store for 1 month (a discount voucher like the example below will be emailed along with the 4 free digi’s)

Right that’s enough chatter from me (well until my card in a bit lol) x Sorry – so much news this month :-) We’ve run the numbers through the Random Number Generator and the winner for last month’s challenge is:

Gail

Congratulations hun – I’ll get your card added to the winners wall and if you email me with at flatfriendsboutique@gmail.com with your choice of 4 digi’s I’ll get those over to you xx

Right, onto the next challenge – we’re doing Christmas cards this month (my absolute fav.) & our girls have made some seriously cute cards – I’ve been swooning over these this week :-D 

A winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator and announced on the 1^st of next month (when we launch the December challenge).

Digi hugs and xx's

Hello, Angela here!  As I was working on my card, I realized that Christmas is far closer than I realized...I had better get busy!  I had a hard time choosing an image...because there were so many I wanted to work with, but I decided to go with one of Em's new ones, Mistletoe Kisses.  I hope you will gain some inspiration from our cards today and join us in our challenge.

Audrey here and I am presenting the wonderful "Deer Girl" for the new Christmas releases.  I have colored this beauty with Copics and Sakura pen.  Image and backing cut with Lifestyle Crafts dies.  I used Bazzill CS, embossed right side with Sizzix folder.  Paper is from free booklet I received with one of my crafting magazines.  Lace and pearls from Prima and poinsettia sticker from my stash.  Sentiment is from A. Jillian Vance Designs and cut with die from there as well.  Sure hope you like it!

Hi everyone, Kathy here. I love making Christmas cards, in fact, I try to make them all year long, so I don't have to rush in December. I couldn't resist this new digi called Christmas Pudding. She looks so cute in her icicle dress and glittery boots. Hope you will take some time to join the challenge this month.

Laura: Hi fellow crafters! I am super excited to be posting my first card as a member of the Flat Friends Design Team.  I am a huge fan of Emma's images and can't wait to work with them.  For my Christmas card I went with the image "Deer Friends".  You can find this image and other lovely Christmas images at the Polkadoodles shop Here. For more info on this card, I've blogged about it here CraftyLawyerCreates.blogspot.com.

For my second Christmas card (see I told you I loved these digis~!) I was going for a kind of 1970's vibe with the wallpaper. This digi image is called "Not Just for Christmas".   I've also blogged more info on this card here at CraftyLawyerCreates.blogspot.com and would love to have you visit me.

Hi there, Sally here, for this weeks challenge, I have chosen an Angel.  Christmas is all about loving and giving and Hope.  So I chose this lovely image and coloured her in contemporary colours added a little angel dust and picked some lovely lilac backing papers which I die cut and placed the image on to it.  I gave her a dotty background using my Promarkers. I then added a sentiment.

Hello there!  Sarah speaking - so for this challenge it's Christmas! Now, unlike my Teamies, I don't make Christmas cards early - nope, not me!  But who can refuse someone as nice as Em when she asks for Christmas cards, so here's mine ;-)

I used Santa's Little Helper, coloured with my ever faithful ProMarkers, cut her out, popped her on some 3d foam and set her in front of a pile of presents! I also dotted around some Viva Pearls for some interest. Simple but effective, I hope!

Hiya guys, Em here x I’m absolutely loving getting in the Christmas spirit – it’s dark cold nights here already so I’ve been enjoying cozy nights in by the fire this week drawing Christmas digi’s, and making Christmas cards – heaven :-) For my card I went with my ‘All Lit Up’ digi, the Christmas tree is from the Bo Bunny ‘Elf Magic 12x12 Chipboard’, and the window die I used is the ‘Grand Madison Window’ by Memory Box. I layered everything up with foam pads. Hope you’ll join us this month – can’t wait to see everyone’s Crimbo cards xx

Challenge 13 - Photo Inspiration x

Hiya, thanks for visiting :-) Hope you're all well and happy x I know I always say this but where did that last month go? Seriously? It feels like yesterday that I was writing last month's post - the days are flying by at the moment!

I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful entries last month - everyone's take on the sketch was wonderful and I think we'll definitely have to do a few more sketch challenges in the future as it's so fun seeing how people's cards turn out.

I was going to run the numbers through the Random Generator as normal when I realised that it's been a year since we started our challenges - our first one was posted on the 1st of October 2012! It's been an amazing year and I've so enjoyed seeing the digi's come to life on everyone's cards (and having a go at card making myself). We've got some very lovely and talented followers and we always look forward to seeing your creations x

So, I thought to celebrate passing the 1 year mark everyone could be a winner this time round so if the ladies who entered last month want to email me at flatfriendsboutique@gmail.com with their choice of 4 digi's I'll get them emailed ASAP. 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our gorgeous DT gals also - I'm sure you'll agree how wonderful they are and they've been a huge support to me over the last year. I literally had no idea what I was doing when I started out and they've made it a truly enjoyable experience x I've also got some exciting news as we welcome a lovely new lady into our little group this month - her name is Angela and you can check out her gorgeous blog HERE - I'm very excited to have her on the team and I know you're going to love her cards too as they're gorgeous :-) x x

Okay, onto the next challenge - as you can see from the title above we're having a go at a photo inspiration theme this month - I've seen these on various sites and it seems like such a fun idea so I'm really excited about this one :-D 

Millie's holding the inspiration photo below for us - the idea is that the photo inspires your card in some way (colours/patterns/or wherever it takes you) x 

A winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator and announced on the 1^st of next month (when we launch the November challenge). They will have their choice of 4 free Flat Friends digi’s and their card will feature on our Wall of Fame for the month.

A Flat Friends digi must be used for your creation but there are some freebies that can be used if you don't already own one of my designs which can be accessed from the freebies tab above x

We've got some seriously cute cards from our DT this month - I'm loving where this one's going already (thank you girls) x x Right, that's probably enough chat from me lol - I'll leave you to it - hope you all have an amazing month, Em x x

Digi hugs and xx's

Angela---Hi there!  This is my first post as a Flat Friends DT member...I was tickled when Em asked me...I quickly said "yes" and have been looking forward to the my first challenge!

What a great inspiration photo...her style is so chic! As I was deciding which image to use, I couldn't resist this cute little guy peering over his cup of tea. The image is colored with pencils and the cup is paper pieced; his head and part of the tea bag are popped up.  The layout is pretty simple...clean lines, some banners and a handmade felt rose and stick pins for embellishing. 

Hey everyone, Kathy here. I just love the inspiration photo Em picked. Black, white and red are such a classic color combination. I picked Puppy Love to use today for my card. Figured it would make a good any occasion card for all my dog loving friends. She is colored with copics and has some stickles on her hem of her dress for a bit of sparkle. I've paired her with a kind of mod type stripe paper from MME. 

Hope you will have a chance to play along with our challenge this month!

Sally - Hi there folks.  For this month's challenge it is a photo's inspiration for colour and patterns.  I love black and white and when red is added it pops!  So I coloured one of Emma's images in with Promarkers and Graph'its. To add a little something to her outfit, I put some flock on the white trim. I matted and layered the black stripe card on black cardstock and a red scalloped trim at the top, put a piece of ribbon around it then added a ribbon detail, bow and sentiment.

Sarah - Hello again!  Well I've been absent for a long time haven't I and bearing that in mind I thought this image of Emma's would be very appropriate!  I'm sorry for being absent!  So apologies over, onto work.

Loved, loved, loved the photo inspiration this month, what a fab picture to inspire.  I coloured in my image with Promarkers and chalked the background a bit.  Did some paper piercing around the image and popped it onto a black mat.  Added die cut hearts, sticky back pearls, paper and ribbon and hey presto the card you see here.  Oh and a little bit of glitter as well!

Em – Hiya, I really enjoyed this theme – my card has a very basic design (as mine so often do) but I am happy with it and it’s a super cheap one to make :-D I simply printed the digi onto white card, folded is using my scoring board, and cut the front back on the right hand side to highlight Paige's pom pom and give a peek at the stripes below. The striped paper is from the gorgeous ‘Blush’ paper pad by My Mind’s Eye and the digi is ‘Cheerleader’ (obviously wasn’t having a very imaginative day when I named that one lol) x x 

Challenge 12 - Sketch x

Hey guys, thanks for stopping by - hope you're all well and have been enjoying another beautiful sunny month x I won't blabber on long today as I've got friends staying over - we're enjoying a local music festival this weekend (close enough to catch taxi's back to ours each night which means no camping - happy days) :-)

I want to say a massive thank you to all the wonderful ladies who entered our challenge last month - it was a bit of a busier one for us which was great to see and the entries were stunning as always x

I've run the numbers though the Random Number Generator again and the winner for last month's challenge is:

Crafty Lawyer

Congratulations hun – I’ll get your card added to the winners wall and If you email me at flatfriendsboutique@gmail.com with your choice of 4 digis I’ll get them over to you. You can grab your winners badge from the sidebar too – any probs let me know x

We're having another go at a sketch challenge this month - I really enjoyed the last one we did so thought it would be fun to have another go. As you can see from Summer's picture it's a pretty simple design so hopefully it should be an easy challenge to play along with x

As always, a winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator and announced on the 1^st of next month (when we launch the October challenge). They will have their choice of 4 free Flat Friends digi’s and their card will feature on our Wall of Fame for the month.

A Flat Friends digi must be used for your creation but there are some freebies that can be used if you don't already own one of my designs which can be accessed from the freebies tab above x

We've got a couple of gorgeous cards from our lovely DT gals as inspiration to get us going - a huge thanks from me to them as always x Hope you'll join us this month - we really look forward to seeing your lovely work x x 

Digi hugs and xx's

Hey everyone, Kathy here. I love sketch challenges, they making laying out a card a breeze. I almost always use one. This sketch from Em is great, it's simple and leaves plenty of room to add embellishments. I've used the sweet Three Scoops image for my card today. A triple scoop of ice cream is perfect for an end of summer treat! Hope you will take some time and play along with our challenge this month. 

Sally - Hi there everyone, another Flatfriends challenge.  This time I have picked this cute image from Emma Canning's  digi images which are available at www.polkadoodles.co.uk.  I thought I would make this one from my Step Granddaughter who is going to College this September.  I coloured her with my Graph'it markers and adhered her to some dotty paper and then onto a kraft coloured card. Added some paper flowers and a sentiment. It was such a quick and easy card to make.  Just follow the sketch, it makes things so much easier.

Hey guys, Em here x I really enjoyed this challenge as the sketch is pretty basic so the card came together very quickly. For my card I used the Paige ‘I Love You’ digi, and the papers are both from My Mind’s Eye collections (the top ‘love’ paper from the ‘Love Me’ 6x6 paper pad and the bottom pink paper from the ‘Dwell’ 6x6 paper pad). I cut the heart using my Tonic Studio’s heart punch and mounted the digi and love paper with foam pads to give a bit of a 3D effect. That’s about it – lots of love & nice and easy :-D x 

Challenge 11 - Colour Combo x

Hey guys, thanks for stopping by - hope you're well x I can't believe it's time for another challenge already - this month has flown by so quickly! I've just been getting back into the 9-5 following my hols last month and we're very busy in the office at the moment so weeks seem to be going by even quicker than usual. The hubby and I have had a few lovely weekends with friends and family this month which has been great - I do love summer meet ups - managed to work our way through quite a few BBQ's (and alcoholic beverages) :-D 

I want to say a big thank you to the lovely ladies who entered our challenge last month - I loved the entries - there's something very cute about button cards x

I've run the numbers though the Random Number Generator again and the winner for the Sketch challenge is:

Suze

Congratulations sweetie – I’ll add your card to the winners wall today x If you email me at flatfriendsboutique@gmail.com with your choice of 4 digis I’ll get them over to you. You can grab your winners badge from the sidebar too – any probs let me know x

As you can see from the title above this month’s challenge is Colour Combo - I've never done one of these before myself and I really enjoyed this one - hopefully it'll be a fun one for you guys too x x

As always, a winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator and announced on the 1^st of next month (when we launch the September challenge). They will have their choice of 4 free Flat Friends digi’s and their card will feature on our Wall of Fame for the month.

A Flat Friends digi must be used for your creation but there are some freebies that can be used if you don't already own one of my designs which can be accessed from the freebies tab above x

We've got a couple of gorgeous cards from our lovely DT gals as inspiration to get us going - a huge thanks from me to them as always x Hope you'll join us this month - we really look forward to seeing your lovely work x x

Digi hugs and xx's   

Hi everyone, Kathy here. I love the color palette Em picked for us this time. It's so pretty and sophisticated. For my card I used Taylor Camping Day. She was so much fun to color in with my copics and I glazed her little glasses so they look real! Hope you will find the time to join our challenge and play along for a chance to win some gorgeous digis!

Sally - Hi everyone.  This month's challenge is Colour Combinations - Pink Grey and Black.  What a lovely combo. I printed out one of Emma's Summer Digis and coloured her with my Graph'it markers in grey and pink. I then die cut the image with a scallop oval and used my pan pastels to soften the edges, matted her on grey and then black.  Added a bow and paper flowers and pearls. Very sophisticated I think.

Hiya, Em here x x I've never done a colour combo card before so really enjoyed making this one :-) I went with the 'Graduation Celebration' digi, decorated my pink card using the Martha Stewart Doily Lace edge punch, and placed some black card on top of that. I cut the 'congrats' (which was supposed to be congratulations but I ran out of space lol) with the Tim Holtz Decorative Strip Alphabet die and finished the card off by mounting the digi using some foam pads to give it a bit of a 3D feel. The papers I used were the fushia & black colour base pastel cards from Hobbycraft and a grey sheet from the 'Darling Dear' My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad.

Challenge 10 - Cute as a Button x

Hey guys, nice to see you again :-D It's been an absolutely amazing month for me as I've spent the majority of it on my hols in the south of Italy :-) You can find out all about it and see our holiday pics on my personal blog if you want to pop by x x

Once again a big thank you to everyone who entered our challenge last month - I really enjoyed  seeing the sketch come to life on your beautiful cards - we'll definitely have to do more sketch ones in the future :-) x

I've run the numbers though the Random Number Generator again and the winner for the Sketch challenge is:

Zoe

Congratulations hun – I’ll add your card to the winners wall today x If you email me at flatfriendsboutique@gmail.com with your choice of 4 digis I’ll get them over to you. You can grab your winners badge from the sidebar too – any probs let me know x

As you can see from the title above this month’s challenge is Cute as a Button which we're hoping will be an easy one to play along with (as long as you have a button or two in your stash that you can pop on your card) be careful if you're super gluing mind - I think there's a bit of finger left on my creation lol :-) x 

As always, a winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator and announced on the 1^st of next month (when we launch the August challenge). They will have their choice of 4 free Flat Friends digi’s and their card will feature on our Wall of Fame for the month.

A Flat Friends digi must be used for your creation but there are some freebies that can be used if you don't already own one of my designs which can be accessed from the freebies tab above x

As always our amazing DT gals have given us some beautiful inspiration to get us going so I'll leave you to have a look at their cards (thank you lovely ladies) x We look forward to seeing your gorgeous creations too x x   

Digi Hugs and xx's

Audrey:

Hi everyone, it's Kathy. I love the theme of buttons, I have a huge jar filled with buttons and love to work them into some projects. I'm getting ready for a beach vacation, so I picked Beach Day to use this month. I hope you will dig out some buttons and play along with us. 

Hi everyone, it's Patty. I like buttons very much, I have a huge collection of all colors of buttons i like to work them into my projects. I picked Summer Stroll to use this month. All of the papers are from my Scrap Stash and use some yellow griham ribbon for the loop. Come and play along with us. 

Sally - Hi there ladies & gentlemen, here is my July challenge "Button" design team entry. I used one of Emma Canning's Summer digi images, I coloured her with my Graph it markers in ice cream colours, used three little buttons for the ice cream cone. I then cut her out adhered her to some stripey paper  and birthday wishes paper and finally on the lovely button paper from the new Bon Belle CD Rom from Polkadoodles - Marshmallow collection. Printed off some of the buttons and added a sentiment. x

Hiya guys, Em here – I didn’t mean for my card to be quite so simple this month it just sort of happened lol – it’s definitely a good design if you’re on a budget and I do like clean and simple cards so thought I’d stick with it once it was done :-D I thought I’d have a go with the ‘Millie Bedtime’ digi for this challenge as I’ve had a week of struggling to peel myself out of bed after my hols and it seemed fitting :-) I cut a tag shape in the white card I’d printed my digi on and stuck it on top of the blue paper which is from the My Mind’s Eye ‘Away we Go’ paper pad. I had some cute little pink buttons in my craft cupboard that matched well with Millie’s nightie so I stuck those down with a bit of super glue in the tag to match the pink/blue colour combo of her outfit and finished the card off by mounting the top piece with foam pads to give the card a bit of depth x 

Challenge 9 - Sketch x

Hey guys, thanks for popping by x x So we're half way through the year and I'm a very happy bunny today as it's almost time for my annual holiday :-D The hubster and I are off to Italy for a couple of weeks and I can't wait to get some gorgeous sunshine on my fading skin :-)

We're setting off on the 10th to the South of Italy (by the heel) and spending the first week on our own in a townhouse right in the centre of a lovely walled city - lots of eating and drinking out no doubt :-D Then, in the second week, we're meeting up with my gorgeous family in a nearby village to spend a relaxing week in a lovely villa (and there will probably lots of eating and drinking out then too lol). Doesn't get much better than that hey - I'm feeling like a very lucky lady! I'll tell you all about it next month - hopefully I won't be too sad to be back home :-) x 

Okay that's enough gushing from me :-D I want to say a huge thanks for all of the gorgeous entries we received on our last challenge - I really loved seeing everyone's punches in action and am even more in love with them now than I was before! Looks like I'll be spending all my pocket money on craft supplies again this month :-)

I've run the numbers though the Random Number Generator again and the winner for the Punches challenge is:

Karen

Congratulations sweetie – I’ll add your card to the winners wall today x If you email me at flatfriendsboutique@gmail.com with your choice of 4 digis I’ll get them over to you. You can grab your winners badge from the sidebar too – any probs let me know x

As you can see from the title above this month’s challenge is to follow a sketch so I've had my first attempt at drawing a very simple one for us to have a go at (as demonstrated by our little assistant Paige below) :-) Our talented DT ladies have come up with some really beautiful takes on the design and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all come up with x x 

As always, a winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator and announced on the 1^st of next month (when we launch the July challenge). They will have their choice of 4 free Flat Friends digi’s and their card will feature on our Wall of Fame for the month.

A Flat Friends digi must be used for your creation but there are some freebies that can be used if you don't already own one of my designs which can be accessed from the freebies tab above x

I’ll leave you to have a look though the really beautiful inspiration we have from our design team this month - thank you ladies - you're amazing x x 

Digi Hugs and xx's

Audrey - I have colored this sweet image with Copics and added Atyou Spica glitter pens for the hearts of her dress.  I cut it out with Nestie.  I have used papers from Bazzill.  Sentiment is from Digital Delights and goes perfectly with the image in my opinion:)  I have cut the sentiment with Nestie as well.  Prima bling added.  DP is from Heidi Grace designs. Hugs! Audrey

Hey everyone it's Kathy here. I love sketch challenges, and almost always use a sketch to layout my cards, so I was thrilled when up drew up this wonderful sketch for us to use. It's a nice clean and simple one, but you can really dress it up, too, if you like. I kept mine very simple this week, since it's a masculine card, didn't wan't any bows or flowers here. I used a new image called BBQ. Isn't he super? Love how sauve he looks grilling up some dinner. Going to let one of the kiddos give this to dad for Father's Day. I hope you will jump in and join us for this fun sketch challenge!

Sally - Hi there folks.  Well for this month's challenge it is all about a "Sketch". So I thought I would liven it up a bit!  I saw some Zentangle Art on one of the facebook pages that I am a member of and decided to give it a go! I looked it up on Youtube first!  It is funny you know as when I was doing my final years of school for my Art Class/Exams I was always drawing and painting "Optical Art" which is Zentangle Art.  So I have made two items this month, one a card with one of Emma's lovely images and a paper gift bag using another image of Emma's on her new CD Rom. I ZENTANGLED them both and backed them on black card stock and some black and white design papers which I had in my crafty stash and then added a sentiment. I do hope you like them xx

Hello everyone, this is Sarah speaking!  So a new month already, my goodness where did the last month go to - it seems to have flown by. The good thing is this means it's time for a new challenge and what a lovely challenge it is too.  I'm another one who likes to follow a sketch, and I also think this is a fab dress up or down sketch.

I've used a new image and gone for bright colours - hoping to encourage the weather in the UK to change. I've used a piece of very old patterned paper then used the negative of a die-cut as a frame and popped my fabby FlatFriends image on the front of the die.  I've embossed the frame and used a metal flower for a  embellishment. Job done! Looking forward to all your wonderful entries!

Hey guys, Em here x This challenge was one of a couple of firsts for me – my 1st time drawing a sketch to use, and my 1st time making a card from a sketch. I thought this card would be easy as there was already a structure in place but I actually found it harder :-D I tend to have a picture in my mind of how I want my card to look when I start out and then things go wrong and the card gets smaller and smaller or changes shape completely – things never quite go to plan. I had to be much more disciplined than normal with this card which was a little challenge in itself :-) That said though, I’m actually happy with how the card turned out in the end (thanks to the ever so wonderful My Minds Eye papers and Paper Smooches stamps) and it was actually nice ending up with something that looked exactly as it had done in my head :-D x x