Spots and Stripes - The Best of British!

Hello everyone, it's Paula here.

I'd just like to start by thanking you for joining me on Funky Hand's challenge blog today and also to wish all our Funky Hand readers a very Happy Easter Monday.

Well, it's my turn to share with you what i've been up to with this months challenge that our Debs kicked off on the Funky Fifteenth of April with her beautiful card. Go here if you want to check it out again.

This months challenge of 'Spots and Stripes' has been one of my favourite to date, especially as Debs quite rightly pointed out that Anice has created a fabulous paper collection of rainbow polka dots recently (oh, and remember that until 10pm on Easter Monday, there is 25% to take off the price of this very collection).

The polka dots collection perfectly matches with the feebie

that Anice has kindly provided for you to use - and which our Ruth used when she made her gorgeous set of matching cards which can be seen in the last post.

I decided to go for something that two of the colours in the new polka dot collection particularly conjoured up for me when i saw them together - and particularly as feels a bit topical this week, with rumour of a special event happening towards the end of it!

I made my card into a Birthday card instead - but all things patriotic and the fabulous polka dot selection definitely inspired me.

I have attached the sentiment (on stripes) to acetate which I made slightly larger than A5 so that I could fasten it around the back of the card. This is because I didn't want to attach it to the actual card because it would have detracted from the corner of the flag - and I thought attaching it to the acetate made it look like it was floating.

Here's a pic of the inside of the card

The white square blank bit is where you would write your message.

Here is the back of the card:

I added a strip of the red stripe (from another card i'd done) to hide where i'd attached the acetate just to finish it off at the back.

I thought making a Union Jack would be much easier than it was - but then realised that making a rectangular shaped flag go onto a 6x6 square card was never gonna happen!!! Therefore, my card is actually now A5 in size. I had to mock on up by doing a template in Microsoft Publisher - so that I could cut each component of it up in order to make individual templates for all the dotty bits of paper.

While I was working on this project, my son's friend said "are you copying the picture on your kitchen mat Paula?"...(erm, no) - then the penny dropped... that's where i'd seen it before! I have a glass kitchen cutting mat that has a retro Union Jack on - the cross is a polka dot pattern - and believe it or not, I hadn't realised until Andy had said (doh)! I only 'see' it every day! Amazing what you look at without actually 'seeing' it or noticing it huh?

Anyway - with the Royal Wedding taking end at the end of this week, and having just had St. George's day - I'm feeling suitably patriotic.

If you feel inspired by this or any other card that your fabulous DT has brought to you this month - upload an image of your card by clicking on the blue frog at the end of this post.

Good luck if you do, but remember to make sure your creation has at LEAST ONE FUNKY HAND PRODUCT in it to qualify - if you ever think you have uploaded by mistake - just let the team know. Also - as a help to the design team when coming to view your blog, please could you mention which Funky Hand product you've included in your creation - and which CD or downloadable it was from - or just mention that you used the freebie.

Watch this space for more fabulous DT creations which will be posted right up until the new challenge is brought to you on the Funky Fifteenth - of May!!!!

Paula x x x