The Hallmark Challenge #3

This challenge kicked off earlier in the year and I have been so busy with everyone's wonderful orders to be able to get regular challenge posts up. Sorry about that! I won't make any huge promises other than I'll continue to try and get these up as often as I can.

Ok, a quick recap for those who don't know what The Hallmark Challenge is. I feature an over priced store bought card, which I have photographed IN the store, because it is far too over priced for me to purchase for the challenge. Then comes the fun part. Using the supplies I have in my stash, I recreate the card and share it here with you. The card will then be available for purchase after the challenge. 

If you'd like to recap on previous challenges you can find them here and here.

Ok and here we go with Challenge #3.....

Our victim this time round is this overpriced (at $6.99, what a joke) wedding card. I have been looking forward to recreating this one. For $7 I thought it was QUITE basic. A card doesn't need to be overly embellished or over the top to be beautiful. It can be simple and still be beautiful and elegant. I'm sure it appeals to many, but not to me! :) Off to work I went. 

First thing, I wasn't interested in the gold touches. I know that gold is very "in" at the moment but I've been doing a lot of work with gold lately and wanted to change it up a little, so pulled out my silver supplies instead. Here is what I came up with.

I kept the simple and elegant feel but jazzed it up a little (of course). We have a doily edge silver foil heart with rhinestone embellishments, and a sparkly silver glimmer heart. 

I used my Dictionary (#130351) background stamp behind the hearts and put vellum over the top to give it a blurred effect. Then I just popped a sweet sentiment at the bottom and I was done! 

I dunno about you, but I like mine HEAPS better! It will be put up for sale over here really soon! If you want to have a go at recreating this Hallmark Card, please go ahead and add your weblink into the linky tool below! 

Till next time...

An InLinkz Link-up

The Hallmark Challenge #2

I am STILL exciting about our new challenge series. We kicked things off last month with our first challenge which you can read about here. We also had another person play along and add their challenge card in the linkup party at the bottom, so be sure to check it out.

So a quick recap if you aren't quite sure what the Hallmark Challenge is:  I feature an over priced store bought card, which I have photographed in store because it is far to over priced for me to purchase it for the challenge! Then comes the fun part. Using what I have in my personal stash, I recreate the card and share it with you. The card will then be available for purchase after each challenge. 

So know that you know what's going on, let's kick off our Hallmark Challenge #2. 

Kind of ridiculous that a card as simple as that is $6 isn't it? I thought so too. Here is my version of the card...

Much better isn't it? I decided to brighten up the design a little by adding the colourful floral design paper across the bottom instead of the bland spotted paper they had on the Hallmark card. I didn't want to over-embellish so went without the dotted trails coming out the bottom of the butterflies and the little daisy images also. I added a couple of rhinestones which weren't featured on the original card, but that's because you can't NOT have rhinestones on a little baby girls 1st birthday card! 

So there you have it. Hallmark's version for just shy of $6, and my card which is now up for sale for just $4 and comes with a free co-ordinating envelope. Card is available for purchase here.

If you'd like to join in on the Hallmark Challenge fun, please go ahead and create your own version of this card, and add it to our Linkup Party below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Introducing: The Hallmark Challenge #1

I am SO EXCITED to be launching this new challenge series. It is something I have had in the works for a couple of months now. I've been collecting ideas, and figuring out just how would go about it, and then the fun part - designing & creating! Here is the run down of how it works: 

Once a month I will feature an over priced store bought card. Oh wait, let me rephrase that. I will feature an over priced card in the store, because it is far to over priced for me to purchase it for the challenge! Yes, I go into the store and take pictures of the card on the shelves! Then comes the fun part. Using what I have in my personal stash, I recreate the card and share it with you. The card will then be available for purchase after each challenge. 

But here is where you come in! I will be extending each of the Hallmark Challenges to you too! I will provide a Linkup Party below for you to add your blog links to once you have made your version of the Challenge card. 

So let me kick off this first challenge and present to you our very first Hallmark Challenge!! 

And here is my version of this card!! 

I had some fun with some beautiful DSP, baker's twine & of course some rhinestones! I decided to drop the "Cake" sentiment because I thought it looked a little unusual. The Hallmark card I felt wasn't co-ordinated very well. There was a mix of patterns and flourishes that didn't work together, so I wanted to make sure my version of the card worked well together in that way. I'm loving how it turned out and think it could so easily be a beautiful wedding card, because that cake looks more like a wedding cake than a birthday cake!

So there you have it. Hallmark's version for just shy of $10, and my card which is now up for sale for just $4 and comes with a free co-ordinating envelope. 

If you'd like to join in on the Hallmark Challenge fun, please go ahead and create your own version of this card, and add it to our Linkup Party below! 

An InLinkz Link-up