I Saved a Few and I Keep them in a Jar

 

We have a fun challenge for you this fortnight at Time Out Challenges - we would like to see you inspired by Your Favourite Song!

Challenge #293 is generously being sponsored by Lawn Fawn and they are offering our Top Pick as chosen by the design teams a $25 credit to their store!  

 The Top Pick will also be invited to join Time Out as a guest designer in a future challenge!   Be sure to check out how my talented team mates were inspired by their favourite songs over on the Time Out Blog!

I have literally hundreds of favourite songs so picking just one of them for this challenge was the hardest part - a bit like asking which is my favourite child 😉!

Have you guessed yet, which song I eventually chose as my favourite?  It's Fireflies by Owl City, particularly a line from the the last verse - 'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar!  I do love this song, it always makes me feel happy when I hear it and as you can guess I've been singing it the whole time I've been planning and making this card!

This song also gave me an opportunity to use this NBUS Fireflies set (Greetery) that I bought almost 2 years ago!  Also this NBUS jar die (Sizzix Thinlits Die Set Jar Of Flowers #665079) which I bought around the same time (possibly I was inspired by the song even back then)!

I wanted a glass jar and I keep any acetate from packaging for just this purpose but this acetate's almost impossible to cut even though it's not very thick so I thought I'd cut the jar from the front panel and lay the acetate underneath the aperture (which also avoided the problem of hiding the foam tape)! Then it was just a matter of raising the panel with foam tape to allow enough space under it for the fireflies and adding the screw-top pieces.

I cut all the fireflies from a snippet of textured card stock - here's a photo I took during the process (though in the end I needed more fireflies) along with the snippet of acetate (packaging from double sided tape) which was perfect for sitting behind the aperture!

I always feel the need to add a sentiment, even if it's only a single word but just what to say eluded me for a while until I remembered I had this "Shine" sentiment (from Creative Craft Sparkle and Shine set).  Well these little lightning bugs certainly do shine and this sentiment works for encouragement, graduation, farewell, anything really!

I think fireflies actually have black wings but I coloured my fireflies' wings using a very light grey and then winked them all.   Here's a closeup of some of the fireflies though they actually sparkle a lot more in real life!

I'm looking forward to reading all about your Favourite Song and how it inspired your creation so I hope you can take some Time Out and come join us!

I am grateful for and would like to enter the following challenges

NBUS Challenge #76 - NBUS Fireflies and Jar dies;

Snippets Challenge #510 - see above for snippets used;

Crafty Animals Challenge #96 - Anything Goes with an Animal (insects count);

Word Power July Challenge;

Ellibelle's Crafty Wednesday June/July 2025 Challenge - Anything Goes;

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you go away a little inspired!  Your visits and comments are always a joy and always appreciated!  And if you leave a comment, I’ll know you were here and how to find you!

Kate

Caps Off

My eldest son graduates from the University of Aberdeen with first class honours next Monday.  I thought the occasion merited a special graduation card.

There seems to be a lot of talk in the news recently about mortarboard throwing being banned.  Not sure what Aberdeen University's policy on this is but I thought it would be fun to make a card on which Gavin can toss a mortarboard cap as much as he likes!  

Alcohol inks was the challenge for "Just Us Girls" this week which inspired me to make the background from various alcohol inks - Pool, Sandal, Willow, Lemonade and a touch of Silver.  I do love making these backgrounds, they look like polished marble to me.  Stamping on them is very tricky however.   I thought I'd use my Tim Holtz stamping platform in case I had to repeat the stamping (which I did).  Unfortunately the glossy paper still slipped, and I ended up with a slight double image.

Here's a close up of the stamped image and the background.  I stacked the Mini Mortarboard up 4 times to get a nice substantial thickness.  I glued a mini magnet to a circular piece of acetate and another magnet to the back of the mortar board (making sure the polarities were correct).   The spin channel was cut with two Spellbinders Petite Ovals using the partial cut method.

Supplies :

Impression Obsession Mini Mortarboard; Katzelkraft Mini Capitals

Thanks for stopping by, especially if you take the time to leave a comment.  

Kate

Graduation

This was a super easy graduation card I made for my god-daughter.  The background was stamped with the Sizzix/Hero Arts Postage Stamp and Frame set which comes with a matching Textured Impressions embossing Folder.  The girl is from the Sizzix/Hero Arts Stamp & Die-cut set Style is Eternal.  She was stamped in Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder.  I also die cut her from black card and laid this flat on the background and then laid the stamped pink one slightly off to the right using mounting squares.
The Congratulations was from the WMS Celtic Heritage set.  The corners were cut from black glitter card using the Tim Holtz die ATC and Corners (I think it kind of resembles a passport or maybe a battered and well-travelled suitcase with those corners).  For the envelope I chose Katzelkraft mini 09 - a montage of cities of the world.
Thanks for stopping by,
Kate