First class Male

Wow, I am so excited today as a brand new challenge blog gets under way, and I'm on the design team!! It called The Male Room and is for masculine cards only. When Jacqueline, the creator of this new blog, asked me to join I was thrilled, mostly because male cards are something which I find very difficult and I wanted to be pushed out of my comfort zone. A keen and talented DT has been put together and we've had a few chats about possible themes for the blog and they're really great, I can't wait.  My life is always fairly hectic, so the fact that the challenges run fortnightly was also a big plus for me.
Enough of the chatter, you want to see my first card, don't you?

I must admit, until I get more confident I've gone with my old favourite for men's cards, Zoo Review. I really like these zebras, there's something about their monochrome, geometric look which makes me smile. I've used the last of the homemade washi tape in the zebra print design :(  -I really will have to try to locate that Inkadinkadoo stamp and add it to my stash. The sentiment is from Best Dad Ever. I've used black cs for the card base, so I've stamped inside...

  Do have a go at making a card for this challenge, anything goes for our first one, and remember you have two weeks. I can't wait to visit your blog and leave you some love from The Male Room!

Christmas in the Heart

Last challenge for July and it's a great one! Faux (or real) stitching on a Christmas card.  I love the stitching effect, I don't use it very often, but whenever I see a card with stitching, especially the real variety, it really catches my eye.

 Problem is, I don't own a sewing machine.  I can use one, I have even been known to make the occasional pair of curtains, but I've never sewn on a card.  This one, for 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown is no exception and so I've use faux stitches on my card.  The inspiration came from the quilts my Mum lovingly made, over the years, for my children and various other family members.  She doesn't do it any more, but we all have one somewhere.

 The papers are from Papermania, and I've gone with a very non-traditional colour scheme.  I could use up all the scraps to make the quilting squares, and I cut a large heart, freehand, and added white gel pen stitching.  The perfectly apt sentiment is from SU's Open Sleigh set.  I matted the squares onto black card stock and carefully added the stitches, this time in black.
Do have a look at all the DT girls' projects this week, I am sure you'll find something you like!

Raspberry Ripple Daisies

My final week as hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches, I've loved choosing the sketches and colour combos and writing the posts, but it will be nice to hand it back too! This time of course it's a sketch, this one...

Nice and simple, I had thought that I would use a ribbon for the shape on the right, but you know how it is, things change when you get started and I ended up using some (homemade) washi tape.What I am really pleased with is the colour duo of Raspberry Ripple and Summer Starfruit, that's all I used.

The stamp is from Best Of Flowers and the butterfly is from Butterfly Potpourri.  The sentiment is actually from Best Ever Dad, though I don't think I would give this card to my Dad! I've stamped the flowers on an aquapainted background and then stamped off to get the shadow effect. The washi tape (actually masking tape) was also coloured with these two shades and stamped with the daisies using a Raspberry Ripple Stampwrite marker. If you try this then you need to let the ink dry for quite a while, I actually used my heat gun to speed up the drying process, The little butterfly has two small starfruit coloured gems

3 2 1 Recipe challenge

Yeah, the summer holidays have started and for me that means 6 weeks without work!  My first holiday starts tomorrow, when we are off to Morroco for a week or so, looking forward to taking lots of photographs - my other hobby. This week at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown we have a recipe challenge.  These are such fun! Just follow the 'recipe' and see what happens ( if you're like me, it might be a triumph or it might be interesting, you'll not be able to predict the exact outcome when you start.)
Here's your recipe

I've been very strict with myself, and my card is simply 1 ribbon, 2 papers and 3 gems, nothing else- no stamping, nothing. Well, apart from a card base! This is it

The Happy Christmas paper was a freebie from a magazine, the birds paper was already glittered.  I cut out a frame for the central panel and a mat in Cherry Cobbler The ribbon is a Christmas wrapping ribbon that I bought in The New England Store. Where to put the three gems was the next problem, I decided in the middle of the frame. My neutral base is from Naturals White cardstock. Really getting into my papers for this month's challenges - look out for next week!

Silver Swallowtail

Using my Swallowtail stamp for the card in my previous post gave me an idea for a card for the one layer challenge at Less Is More but I didn't think I would make the deadline.  Lucky me, I got out of work early today and came home to craft with this card already to go in my head (That's the tricky part, a great idea in your head).  As well as one layer the card must be shaped, anything except square or rectangular.  So, butterfly shaped then?

The most difficult part was deciding on a colour scheme. Of course there isn't a die cut for this stamp so my card is cut freehand.  I must admit I've had a few goes to get it just right, never sure how much to cut around fiddly bits like antennae, but this one looked the best to me. It is heat embossed in silver - you can see it better in the second pic below

I thought this might make an unusual wedding card.
First challenge I've been able to enter for ages, holidays now so I hope to do some more.

Starfruit and Swallowtail

Chocolate Chip, Summer Starfruit and Crumb cake - they all sound good enough to eat, and together they make up this week's colour challenge at CAS-Colours and Sketches. I hope you like it!

If you don't have Stampin' Up colours just use the closest shades you have, dark brown, kraft and mustard yellow, I guess.

I am making Thank You cards for my colleagues at work.  We finish tomorrow, so just squeezed this one in in time. The stamp is the amazing Swallowtail, I love stamping this one over the edge (to be honest it's difficult not to!)and the punched shapes and mat are from Summer Starfruit cs. The sentiment comes from the set Perfectly Preserved.

Holly Berry Bouquet colours

Over at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown it's always Christmas time and this week is no exception, with a traditional/vintage colour scheme chosen for us by our lovely hostess for July, Patricia.

As soon as \I saw these colours I had one thing in mind, a DP from Stampin' Up's Holly Berry Bouquet range.  I know, I've used this loads but I love it! Having a DP and a colour combo is fine but where do you find the rest of the inspiration?  Oh...yes... at Craft Club! I went over to our craft club on Tuesday at fellow DT member Jacqueline's and we made tunnel cards.  Here's mine using the 52 CCT colours

Not only did I learn how to make a tunnel card, but also a trick with your nestabilities to make tighter fitting frames, by drawing around the edge of your die and cutting it out to make a mat.  Why tunnel card? Take a look inside

 I also borrowed the pine cone stamp. The little robins are a stamp I used at another craft club ages ago, when we were making toppers.Goodness, I hardly feel that this card is mine, now I've told you all this! Even the little fabric roses were supplied at the club! I'd not realised these came on a ribbon, apparently they were in a previous SU catalogue and are now retired - what a shame- I've only just discovered them!

Wild and Free

Today I have a card based on a sketch which I posted on the CAS _Colours and Sketches challenge blog. It is very CAS I think, and I didn't have any particular idea in mind when I made the sketch.  But then, at our local craft club we spent an evening making our own washi tape, using a variety of masking tapes, some Promarkers and stamps, and the basis of my card was born.  Take a look at the sketch first

I thought rounded edges would be fun, and then almost forgot to do it! They are optional on the challenge.

My card has two homemade washi tapes, the wide zebra stripe and the narrower leopard skin. They were stamped using some Inkadoo stamps.  The lion, from Zoo Review, is stamped in Chocolate Chip. I've put the sentiment inside as you can see-not very original but it does fit the whole design. I've deliberately kept  colour out, using the Naturals Ivory card on a kraft base to give an African 'feel' to this masculine card. Speaking of cards for men, keep your eyes open for some very exciting news here very soon ;).

Silent Night

First challenge of July at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and so it's a sketch challenge -a nice and simple one for you.

Sometimes I find when a sketch is simple it actually becomes harder to do! I ended up rotating the sketch, have a look..

I could then get more of the lovely DP on show, which I had layered onto silver mirriboard. The image is a Michael Powell stamp, but I have trimmed it to the portrait size, I thought the tall steeple lent itself to this. I have used my Promarkers to colour in the image and added some glitter highlights.  No sentiment as I think it's quite obvious it's a Christmas card, but 5 little gems to add balance

Summery shades for Bright Blossoms

Have you visited CAS Colours and Sketches yet?  This month I am temporarily taking on the role of Hostess and my first challenge is a colour challenge featuring these summery shades

They are three of my favourite colours and I was inspired by the lovely weather we've been having lately- the barbecue has been out at least twice over the weekend! I started by stamping a background paper, whilst I loved it I couldn't work out how to make it CAS, so I've put it inside my card! You can see it on the second picture.  I've used Bright Blossoms stamp set, some DP, a sticky 'brad', some paper twine, Lucky Limeade and Pool Party cs and a sentiment from Whacky Wishes.

It might be a little overcrowded to be truly CAS, but I do love the fresh feel of the colours.  I also played around with the positioning of my three blooms and decided I liked them off centered, as you can see.

Do go and have a look at the cards from the rest of the DT and then have a go, can't wait to see what you will come up with for these colours! Happy Crafting!

Blurred Image

Today is the first Tuesday in July and we have a brand new challenge for you over at Technique Time Tuesday. It's called the Blurred Image and it's really simple, there's even a tutorial showing you how to do it. Basically, all you need is an aquapainter and a stamped image. You can check it out by visiting the blog
Here's my card

You will see that I used the technique on my background. I stamped the flower image from Paisley Petals and then used the aquapainter to blur the image slightly. The central panel is made with two layers of cs, an image cut out of some Paisley Petals DP and more blurred image flowers,have a closer look

A few coordinating gems and a heat embossed sentiment from Friendly Phrases and my card is ready. The other DT members have created some awesome and very inspirational projects, so do go and take a look.