A pair of Little Owls

A few days ago I went to a workshop, run by my friend Jacqueline, where we learnt how to make patchwork paper. I have lots of lovely scraps of SU paper and thought this was a brilliant idea.  The backing paper on this card was made from bits of Nursery Nest paper.  I matted and layered the paper and then made the little owls, using the owl punch also from SU.  I added some googly eyes to make them stand out and embossed the greeting on a circle of card inked with Lucky Limeade.Simply Stamping

Party Animal

I made this card at the same time as 'Man's Best Friend' and used the Inkadinkado stamp set 'Paisley Pets'.  It's more funky, don't you think?

Man's Best Friend

The theme this week on MMM is 'Animals and Birds' on a male card.  This idea has been rolling around in my head for a while now.  I made the coloured frames using a stencil I cut out of a scrap piece of acetate and the SU In Colours (Pool Party, Indigo Island, Wisteria Wonder and Lucky Limeade).  I stamped the dog image (I think it's a retriever, although I am no dog expert) using natural shades and stamped two of the frames.  To make the mirror images I stamped onto that scrap bit of acetate again and carefully transferred the image to the other two frames. I layered the frames onto matching card, added a greeting and  a few colour matching brads and it's finished.  Thanks for puuting this card in the Top Three at Make My Monday

Man of the Match

Here is my entry for this weeks Make My Monday Challenge. I used some Papermania cardstock to make a concertina fold card and some sporting themed stamps which I've had for ages.  I coloured the images using my promarkers

 Then I made little origami sport shirts to match the 3 featured sports, giving them liquid pearl buttons and a waistcoat for the snooker player and finished off  with the sentiment mounted on some more card

 Close up detail of the shirts - I learned how to make thes from a Japanese student who stayed with us once and I use them quite often, you can make them into pretty blouses with a floral/patterned paper or in club colours if there's a team theme to your card.

Magazine inspirations

Yesterday, with not much else to do (lovely!!) I spent the day browsing through some recent Craft Stamper magazines and was inspired to make these two cards. They are quite different in style, aren't they? The top card is all SU papers, inks and stamp, whilst for the castle card I used a free stamp, coloured with Promarkers and some of my crafting stash.

Scrapbook page 1

On Wednesday I went to a scrapbooking workshop. This is my first ever scrapbook page.  I had the idea of using a photo of my two boys on the beach, taken on holiday several years ago (my eldest son is 16 now!) but couldn't find a layout that worked. Then I was inspired by some glittery shell stickers and the pennant punch from SU.  Add a bit of ribbon and some stamped lettering and here it is! I've called it 'Scrapbook Page 1' in the hope that I will give it another try!

Men and Boys vintage

Vintage is not normally my style, but that's what challenges are all about.  Here is my entry for the Make My Monday challenge this week, which is Cards for Men and Boys -vintage. I was playing with some new stamps from Papermania -'Portobello Road' and some gorgeous SU paper. As you can see it's an easel card with a  little key hole to hold the easel up. A few vintage ephemera and some of Tim Holtz Distress Ink 'scattered straw' to age the papers. Couldn't resist adding a  butterfly or 2 to lift the whole thing, everybody likes butterflies!

Happy Easter!

Better late than never!  Here is a card to wish everyone a Happy Easter. The stamp is a freebie from Craft Stamper magazine, I love those bunnies! The rosettes are a little tricky to make but quite effective and I used my new brushes to get that brayered look for the background (one day I will learn how to use the brayer but I'm really not good at it at all...too impatient and a little heavy handed I think). We had a lovely family day on Easter Sunday, with the annual easter egg hunt and a special dinner, followed by games and films No time for crafting though, will have to make up for it later in the week.

Ruby Wedding

Just looking through some old cards and came across this one, thought I'd post it as I learn to use my blog!