An Apple A Day - A very fruity challenge

Well another day and time for another challenge.

I was a bit stumped when I first came across the TREEHOUSE SEPTEMBER FREE DIGITAL IMAGE AND CONTEST challenge.

A digi stamp of an apple seems quite hard for us here in the UK to play along with. Never one to shy away from a challange (well not since I started this challenge blog lark anyway) and with the prospect of a whole month's worth of free digi stamps as a prize I decided to give it a go. Inspiration suddenly hit me (its ok I'm not hurt!)  and I decided to put the newly discovered again shrink plastic and jewellry kit to good use.

When I think about apples I think either a) An apple a day keeps the doctor away or b) An apple for the teacher. Well if you have met our doctor he certainly is not the type I would want to give a card to & definately not a pair of earrings - as he's most definately male!) so I then remembered that its my daughters teacher's birthday coming up soon (both her and I share the same date - 25th September - although I like to rub it in that I was born a few years after her!!)

So the idea of some apple earrings on an apple shape card was born. Here it is - hope you like it:-

I firstly printed two identically sized apple digi stamps onto the shrink plastic (which I had lightly coloured first using Photoshop Elements) and cut each apple out. Next I punched large holes in each using my trusted Crop A Dile (actually I rarely use it but now I am a challenge queen I am sure it will be used almost all of the time from now on!) in the top of each image and used my heat gun (another impulse purchase which I hardly ever use - until now as I am a challenge queen ...... well you get the picture!!!) to shrink them down.

The kids loved watching the apples shrink in size but I was a nervous wreak as the heat gun was obviously hot but everyone (including the apple soon to be earrings escaped unscathed).

I then attached earring hooks to the newly shrunk apples. This was slightly difficult with no tools but I managed and am pleased with the results. Finally I painted the apples with a coat of Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paint in a Sunset Red shade to add some shimmer and sparkle.

I then set about making the shaped Apple card. To do this I resized the apple digi stamp using Photoshop again and added some text onto the apple which reads "Happy Birthday to a wonderful teacher". I printed this image onto red cardstock and cut it out. Next I matted this onto a folded sheet of strong white cardstock and stuck the apple onto the top of the card (making sure that the rounds of the apple were touching the crease line on my card blank). I cut out the shape leaving the leaf and stalk sticking up from the card blank to form my shaped card. I then printed the apple again - this time onto green and brown cardstock to paper piece the leaf and stalk in the correct colours.

Finally I punched two small holes (the crop a dile gets used again - see a worthwhile purchase!) in order to hang the earrings from the card. And voila - a card and gift all rolled into one!.

I'm so pleased with the result considering this is my first jewellery making experience (and I don't usually do shaped cards!).