Project 34: More blog challenges

Today I thought I’d enter a Mojo challenge – I haven’t entered in a long time and I liked this week’s sketch. 

 
I tried 3 variants of it, but I think I like the one above the best. Yes, this is the simplest of all of them but I really thought the colours and textures worked. I liked the knot instead of a bow on the right. And I realize that I didn’t have to use the corrugated card just because that was the sketch example but I love how it punches for the scallop effect at the bottom.

The next one used two Martha Stewart papers and an illustrated piece of vinyl I found somewhere. I kept the embellishment simple with a flower decal that matched the greeting. I kept the oval very small because I wanted to keep the plaid paper the focus. For some reason the edges look sloppy in this picture but it's a lot sharper in real life.

The last one was from my femme fatale set. I used a die-cut for the centre as Claire gave me these as part of the $20 challenge and I hadn’t had a use yet. I like it though I’d probably keep the layout simpler next time as I think it competes a bit.

This week has flown by and there are so many things to mention. Name cards are in production; the bride chose the “Danu” headline image but we’ve made some modifications so I’ve been ordering paper and setting up a template. Last week we made non-sewing bunting but I forgot to take pictures so I couldn’t post about it. Sad. So even though I’m a post down please trust that I’ve been busy crafting! I'm working on some anniversary cards for my card box to sell at work so I'll post those when they're ready.

I'll leave you with the final craft of the week, my friend Beth painted my nails to look like owls and they're fab: 

Project 27: Hypnotic toes

This post is about a project so simple, it took me less than 10 minutes.

I painted my toes today as I truly believe the London rain will eventually turn into a glorious summer. This could happen tomorrow or in 3 months time as we prepare for September. We all need to be honest about our expectations.

I painted a spiral on my big toes because I thought a flower was a bit twee and I don't think coloured or white tips looks that nice on my extraordinarily fat toes. I mean, look at them; they're huge.

Painting my toes is a HUGE deal as I had a ridiculously stupid accident in Paris last year that resulted in my big toenail completely coming off. I literally ran into my husband at speed wearing peeptoe shoes and the force caused it to come off. Dire and painful.

So after 8 and a half months I have something to paint! Bring on the sandals, come rain or shine!

I promise I'll do a real craft this week later to make up for the silliness of this one.

NB: My fingers are not the same shade of blue. Does this make me trampy? 
 

Project 14: Basic Nail Design

This week I took a break from cards and I suspect it will carry on into Saturday. It may be my first card-free week all year since taking on this challenge. I will be back on the case by Sunday, undoubtedly.

My friend Beth (of pink and yellow card fame) gave me some tools that help you do detailed nail designs with a bit more ease. I used to be really into nail art and do complicated patterns that involved not just a rainbow coming out of a cloud but a pot of gold under it. This was circa 1998 but I think the love of it is still in me.

It’s been a crazy busy week and so I thought I’d take it slow and do some basic patterns.

I started with a plain green and bright pink so it’d have a feel of spring.

Following this I tried a few simple designs, stripes, spots and tiny hearts. For some reason I didn’t really think it through and I saved the more complicated designs for my right hand which wasn’t clever. Never mind.

The successes were the spots and stripes; the zebra pattern was the fail. The star, leopard print, butterfly and flowers fall somewhere in the middle.

The successes were the spots and stripes; the zebra pattern was the fail. The star, leopard print, butterfly and flowers fall somewhere in the middle. Patterns are worth exploring further as I have a nail polish problem/addiction/situation that is getting out of hand. Think I could try something like this?

I promise to start a bigger project soon, possibly Sunday. Will keep you posted as I’ve got a couple of good ideas…