Card challenge - the gauntlet has been thrown down !!

As my friends & family know, I like to make cards. I'm not very artistic & my efforts are usually just that - efforts :o) I'm a very plain & simple girl - in every way :o) - & my crafts reflect that, be it knitting, card making, scrapbooking or baking. I'd love to be more artistic, have more imagination & inspiration, be able to create something beautiful every time, but I fear it'll never happen. So, with all that in mind, when my friend, Liz, suggested a card swap challenge between me, her & our friend Terri, I thought - why not ? They both have great ideas, they both turn out some lovely cards. Maybe some of their magic & inspiration will rub off on me :o) 

 

How wrong I was . . .

 

Our January swap theme is co-ordinating colours. I had some lovely creams, yellows & browns from Liz, with a bright in-yer-face orange thrown in to knock me off balance & it did just that.

 

Terri gave me browns & greens, which was fine, until I saw that she had included Chinese figure stickers & a picture of sheep. Now,where on earth did she think I was going to find a Welsh Chinaman to give a card to ?? Maybe in a Chinese takeaway in Llanelli  or Bridgend ? But, it was a challenge & so I knuckled down & had a go.

 

The following cards are my efforts. I have to say, they aren't my best efforts, one of them I hate with a passion, a few of them are OK, but I really have GOT to try better.

 

The first 5 are made from Liz's swap parcel, the last 3 are from Terri's.

This card I like :o)  I think it's quite elegant :o)

 

 

 This one I hate with a passion. It's too orange, it looks like it's been tangoed. I love the stamped image, I hate the colour. The image is on watercolour paper & so I used watercolour pencils to colour it.  It didn't turn out well at all :o(

 

 

 This card is quite plain & boring. It was a lovely image of a post office, so I just cut it with a circle die, water coloured it & stuck it on a card. I'm sure I could have come up with something better, but I just couldn't think of anything.

 

 

I quite like this one - yellow is one of my favourite colours, I find it so cheerful.

 

Another one I quite like.

 



 I don't like anything Oriental, Indian or Egyptian. I don't know why, they just leave me cold. Always have. So, when I saw the Chinese stickers, my heart just sunk. What on earth was I going to make with them ? However, I think I managed  OK because I no longer have this card - it was snaffled from under my eyes this very morning - right, Val ??!! ;o)

 

 Now, THIS card - I like !! Not for the picture, which I only used part of,  but because of what I managed to do with it :o) Plain, simple but with a bit of humour

 

 

And lastly - a decoupage frangipani card.

 

I still have a bit of Terri's swap parcel & I'm using that for a Christmas challenge that Liz threw at me - a card to enter into a blog competiton. So, I'd better get my skates on & get it made :o)