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 16

I am cutting this really close to the line as I make my second to last Olympics card. I was busy watching Tom Daley win his bronze medal.

Today the event was cycling and one that I have been looking forward to doing for a while. I started watching le Tour de France so was also watching it this year and saw Bradley Wiggins be the first Brit to ever win so for me, when I think cycling, I think Wiggins and naturally he had to be the focus of this card. But I also went off at a slight tangent and featured le Tour in the card also.

I realised that there were many ways which this card design could have gone, and I shall be trying some of these in the near future. However, I think I tried to get a bit of everything into this card.

Again, this was mainly a paper pieced project with a bit of silhouette thrown in. I used black paper for the bike and finished it with black pen spokes. For the cycling kit, the maillot jaune, I used yellow paper and again finished it with black pen and the Union Flag for some British pride and as a final final finishing touch, I had to add those now iconic sideburns!

Card-lympics Day 15 and CAS-ual Friday

This week I have decided to cheat and do one post instead the two I would have done: one for the card-lympics and one for CAS-ual Fridays. But it isn't cheating too much as they are more or less the same card. 

So Card-lympics first

Today, the event was football and although I never really watch it, last year I caught the final of the women's World Cup (Japan vs USA) and I was hooked. So I did begin to take an interest in women's football. But anyway.
I chose to make a Digi-stamp for this card, making another character, similar to my Wimbledon girl. I had drawn the sketch for this a little while back but decided it would be perfect for this a got it sketched up, scanned and Photoshopped this morning. Instead of colouring it on the computer, however, I simply did the outline and printed the line drawing off to colour in with pencils. I would have had a go with ProMarkers but my colours are still limited.
I decorated the card with some patterned paper and added some peel-off flowers for that finishing touch.

CAS-ual Fridays

Card number 2.

This one had to be made using a square card blank (I wasn't going to use this as the Card-lympics card due to all my other cards being A6 and it was a bit to late to change the shape and mix it up a bit). So, I chose to use my new Digi stamp, again colouring it with pencils, and decorated the card with papers from the 'My Minds Eye' Collection. The tag was also from the papers and I decorated it with a simple peel-off message. Like my previous card, I kept the colours British but didn't want to copy the kit completely so I played around a bit.

Card-lympics Day 14

Archery was today's event and there wasn't much to go with design wise. I didn't really want to do another silhouette card, which left the target but I felt that having a target in the middle of a plain card blank would be a little bit on the boring side. So after looking at images of the target, and getting an idea of the colours and layout, I decided to have the target filling the whole of the card front. I used coloured paper and my trusty pair of compasses to create the different zones, using pen to distinguish between the colours. I off-centred the bulls-eye and to finish off - as a bit of an after thought - trimmed the top of the card, removing any card that wasn't part of the target. I added the Union Jack to the top inside corner, letting it show through when the card is closed.

Card-lympics Day 13

After our recent success at Greenwich, this card seems fairly apt. I had to rely on the BBC for a photo of the show jumping, although unfortunately it was one from the article about Nick Skelton missing out on a medal today. I guess it would be unfair if we won all of them!

Again, I opted for a silhouette card, but can you blame me? I didn't really want to paper piece a horse and its rider and getting the horse right was hard enough so I went for the shadows. I used dark orange paper to create the fence and added dimension to the card by raising the horse and front post on foam pads while simply gluing the rear post and fence to the card blank.

I felt this design was a more general design, in that this card could go to anyone who likes horses etc. whereas one of my other ones, say, the triathlon, is fairly specific. I could have left it with the figure but I decided to add a birthday peel-off. It's one that I had been looking to get rid off as it's not the style I would use at all but I think it really works well with this card, all the fences, and the whole arena for that matter, are decorated with lots of flowers and it just seemed to fit in.

I was also able to integrate the Union Flag into the design once again. Recently I've just had to stick it in the corner or somewhere neat as it didn't fit in with the image on the card but adding it to the fence post looks alright and seen as all the fencing at Greenwich are English themed, I figured I could get away with it!

Card-lympics Day 12

Basketball was the event of the day and yet again, I was left to use that netting, although now that I know the trick, it was pretty easy to do. This was another paper pieced project although I added a couple of different elements. I used fine liner and ProMarker to add detail to the ball and the net backboard. I felt the card needed something to finish it off, there was a lot of blank space so I added a stamped message. 
I am actually quite pleased with this one, the bold colours make for an eye-catching design.

Card-lympics Day 11

Today's event was badminton. 

I knew what I wanted to do, but again, wasn't entirely sure how. I decided to use paper and netting to create the racket and net. It was really difficult to get the net to stick to the card frame of the racket and I had to used PVA but it stuck eventually. I used card again for the shuttlecock, adding some red card for the tip. I finished it off with pen detail in the way of shadows and the plastic on the tail. This was stuck down with a foam pad to make it look as if it was flying over the net.

Card-lympics Day 10

We are well over half way through the Olympics now. Yesterday, now known as Super Saturday, was absolutely amazing! Three British gold medals in the space of 45 minutes and a couple more today, courtesy of Ben Ainslie and Andy Murray. We are on a roll!


Today's sport was hockey, field hockey to be more specific, and seeing as I hadn't played hockey since I was probably in year 8, my inspiration left much to be desired. My obvious design was the stick and ball and that's what I stuck with. I tried to make it a bit more interesting by adding some patterned paper as a background and finishing it off with a peel-off message but it's certainly not my best card-lympics entry.
The stick and ball were cut out from black card and outlined with gold pen, just to give it a bit extra.
Maybe tomorrow I won't leave it so late and give my creative juices time to flow properly.

Card-lympics Day 9

This is just a quick entry for today's card. Don't worry, I didn't forget. Today's event, and what should have been yesterday's event before my shifting the sports, was diving. This seemed simple enough although I'm not completely convinced with the results. 
Again, I used that blue handmade paper for the pool and used some pale brown sugar paper for the diver. This was a very simple paper pieced project although I added the GB pattern to the trunks with ProMarkers and finally finished it off like all the other cards.
I realise know that I should have put some sort of splash into it but the simple shapes kinda give it a cartoon-ish feel.

Well done to our athletes today, the cyclists, rowers and those in the stadium. Made us all proud! And, on the subject of diving, good luck to Tom Daley in his individual dives which will be coming up soon.

Card-lympics Day 8

Like last Friday, this post will be the first of two, the other being my CAS-ual Fridays entry which is all done and just waiting to be posted.


I have to be honest and admit that I mixed up my cards for today. The event was meant to be diving but after that amazing performance yesterday from Gemma Gibbons in the judo, I had to make my judo card today, so here it is.


I couldn't wait to make this card anyway as judo is my sport and has been for about 5 years now. However, when I was jotting down sketches for my card designs, I did struggle to come up with one that I was 100% happy with. I figured the only design I could really do would be someone throwing their opponent but how I was going to do that I had no idea.
As I started to make it this morning (while watching today's judo, of course) I decided to make it into a découpage. The sketch I had made was quite simple and block-y so I thought it would be fairly straight forward. How wrong could I be!
I now realise that making your own découpage (obviously, depending on the design) is not as easy as I thought it would be. First there was deciding which levels each bit should be, then there was making sure that everything was the right way round. I also had to trim so much of the edges to hide the lower layer and cut the blue parts to fit right. It was so fiddly but totally worth it.
I am all for women's judo so, of course, the judoka on my card are female but I went that little be further and gave tori (the thrower) blonde hair to match Gemma Gibbons.
I used black pen to add definition and the edges and on the gi (or as mum and dad call them, the pyjamas!). I finished the card off with a strip of black ribbon - it crossed my mind to put a knot in it to make it look like a judo belt but decided against it - and my Union flag.


I think this card has got to be my favourite of the Card-lympics so far. Maybe because it's my favourite sport or maybe because of the fact it's my favourite sport that I spend the most effort on it. Or a combination of the two. The découpage really works and shows the movement of the players, although I may struggle to get it into an envelope, there are 5 layers of card in there!

While on the topic of judo, I want to say well done to Gemma Gibbons of team GB for her silver yesterday and good luck to Karina Bryant in her semi final this afternoon. Bring us another medal home!

Card-lympics Day 7

Today's event is sailing and probably one of the only sports that coincides with the actual Olympic event. 
For this card, I used various paper and card to create the boat, adding the Union Jack to finish.
I wanted to add some sort of back ground but didn't want it to look too similar to yesterday's card. I managed to find some patterned vellum which almost looks like clouds so instead of added paper to make the sea, I added paper to make the sky (I'm not sure how well it shows up in the photos). To give a sense of movement, I used the same handmade paper from yesterday to add waves splashing up at the front of the boat. I also wanted to show the sail billowing so I glued the top down but used foam pads at the bottom.

Card-lympics Day 6

Wow! What a day. No wonder it's been named Gold Wednesday: first the rowing and then the cycling. And to top it all off, the opening day of the Online Craft and Gift Fair and I have a sale (but that is another story!)


I hope the weather has been nice where you are, the sun was shining down in London and there was some sun up where I am, although there was also rain. But hopefully, this card will brighten up your day!
The event was Beach Volleyball and I moved away from the bikini's and Horseguard's Parade and headed to the beach. Again, this was a paper pieced card, but I used silver netting for the net. The ball was coloured with ProMarker to match the ball they used in the Olympic (I had to look it up!). Of course, I had to leave a clear blue sky, it is August after all! Hope you like it and are enjoying the summer!

Card-lympics Day 5

My apologies for the lateness of today's card. I hadn't forgotten, I was busy with various things which included AutoCAD and, of course, the Olympics. And what a day it has been! My favourite moment, however, had to be when that South African swimmer got the gold. But bring on tomorrow with the two British lads in the final!!


Anyway, got 10 minutes before I reach tomorrow so I had better get on with it! Today's card-lympics event was weightlifting and, like boxing, I know very little about it. I wasn't as happy with this card as I have been with others but now that I have seen the finished thing I am quite please with it, although I could have improved the weights. 
I used grey card on a blue card 'floor', lifting the weights up with foam pads. The sentiment fitted so well with the card and I copied the font from Word (as per usual!) and again finished it all off with a Union Flag. Black pen was used to add shading to the weights.

And before I go, I want to wish Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome a great race tomorrow and bring home the gold and silver!! Also good luck to our judo players!

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!

Card-lympics Day 1

As I am sure everyone is aware, today is the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games and also the first day of my Card Making Olympics. For the next 17 days (including today) I am going to create one sports themed card a day. I have limited my selection to Summer Olympic sports only but even then there are more than 17 so I have had to cut some out unfortunately. 


Today's event is the Triathlon. To begin with I wasn't sure how I wanted to make this card, except that it was going to have three on it. 

I didn't really want to make it too specific, I mean, how many people say that their sport is the triathlon? But I guess this card could be sent to any person who enjoys lots of sports.
I chose to make little images to represent the three parts of the event. Originally, I was going to make the card landscape but thought it looked good in portrait, and a bit different to how I would usually do it. For the images, I outlined them in black pen and finished them off with ProMarkers. 
Green was the first colour that came to mind for the card blank and I backed my images onto a strip of darker green to provide some contrast. Finally, I added a little ProMarker Union Flag to the top - after all, I am backing Team GB!