Card-lympics Day 17

Here it is, the final day of the Olympics and therefore my Card-lympics. It has really flown by and Britain have done so well! Well exceeding their medal target of 48 (though I am still rooting for that 65th medal to be our 30th gold - it ain't over until the Closing Ceremony!)

It also seems appropriate that this will be my 40th post on my blog! and I reached 1000 views today as well.

I have to admit that when I was planning my card-lympics, I miss calculated. The games are on for 16 days. So I decided to make 16 cards. However, I started on the day of the Opening Ceremony, which wasn't among that 16 so, as you can see, I have made 17 cards. I didn't design this one along with the others and had decide on my sport and what I was going to do only this morning.

I chose to do athletics, although any of the running events could be represented by this card. I chose to do it because of athletics being probably the major event of the games and also because of Team GB's success in the stadium over the last couple of weeks: Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford - and they are just the gold medals! So athletics was to be my final event.

Once again, I opted for a silhouette card with paper pieced detail. I created the silhouette of the runner crossing the finishing line and added a paper Team GB kit, finishing it with the Union Flag, similar to last night's card. I wanted to give an extra sense of the winning by adding a ribbon (although that's a bit more Marathon than stadium but like I said, any running event) across his front. When designing it I had a cross between Mo Farah and a marathon runner in my head so its a bit of a mish-mash but I realised that I hadn't actually made a 'winning' card and felt after the success we have had this year, I needed one to finish.

After I had finished, I got them all together and with help from my dad, some boxes and a white table cloth, got a massive team photo.

And now for the medals . . . . .

My three favourite cards are:

In Bronze: Basketball - The bold design worked so well as did it's fairly minimalist approach.

In Silver: Cycling - It had to be Wiggins! I love the silhouettes in the background and the cycling kit gives me plenty of inspiration for more cards.

In Gold: Judo - I realise how biased it is but I love this card so much, the amount of effort I put into it was ridiculous for what it is but it works so so well and almost has a hint of Japanese in it.

I would love to hear what you think and which ones you would give Gold, Silver and Bronze and I hope any of you who did follow my Card-lympics enjoyed and have been inspired.

Card-lympics Day 4

It's that time again and I would have posted a bit earlier but I stopped to watch the diving (gutted for Team GB). 

Today's theme is gymnastics and, like yesterday's card, I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. I have always loved watching the gymnastics and especially the floor work but the image I had for my card fits into the rhythmic gymnastics, another one which I will be watching. 

Like my fencing card, I created a silhouette figure but added more movement to it by added ribbon, attached at only the ends, and attaching the figure to the card using foam pads. Pink seemed the obvious colour to chose (maybe because rhythmic gymnastics is a women's sport or because of the venue colours, I don't know) but the only ribbon I had was too close a shade to the card for my liking so I added some darker pink handmade paper and finished my card with stars (for all the glitz and glitter of the event) and my Union Flag tag.

I considered added a coloured leotard to the figure but I had difficulty choosing the right colour: Team GB colours would probably clash with the pink and if I chose another colour, it could show support for another team (and we can't have that! =P) and may be a bit too much pink. So I left it black.

On a related topic - Good luck to the Team GB Gymnastics lads tonight!!  

Card-lympics Day 2

Renamed Olympic Saturday, today is the second day of my crafting games. The theme was boxing. I don't really know much about boxing, as I have never really taken an interest in it so my design was pretty simple and obvious as to the theme (which can't be a bad thing).

I used red card to make the gloves, adding outline and shading with a black pen. I wanted to make it 3D and use matching materials (if that is the right word) for each of the parts, so I used ribbon for the laces and hung them over a brown brad. I then attached the gloves to the card using foam pads.

As I will for all of this range of cards, I finished it off with another little Union Flag attached to the ribbon. 

I hope we have more success with the boxing than we had with the cycling and judo today!