Hurray for Stamp-a-ma-jigs!

Just playing today, and I found one or two challenges to help me. I wanted to try out my new Stamp-a-ma-jig thingy and so stamping was my main focus.  I have used the lovely colour palette from Colour Throwdown , perfect for the masculine card I wanted to make for Less Is More-haven't played over there in a while. Have to say that my Old Olive ink pad is so dried up that I had to use a substitute - I chose River Rock-hope that's OK

I also wanted to use Gorgeous Grunge, I am so mad about this stamp set, love, love , love it! Must admit, I don't often do one layer cards but I am always impressed by them.  looking at the gallery of winners from last week's LIM challenge gave me the idea.  Enough chat, here's my card

As you can see I've used the tie image from Best Dad Ever (the sentiment is from that set too), although I masked off two of the ties, 5 was way too many, and Off The Grid as a background.  One tiny rhinestone tie pin keeps it LIM.  For me technically, I am very pleased with the positioning and masking -it's good to develop new skills.

Moose on the Loose

I did have a lovely birthday yesterday, and enjoyed a special meal out with my extended family but life in blogland goes on and so I had to have my post ready this morning for The Male Room, where we have a brand new challenge for you

Nature

This challenge blog is all about cards for men/boys and I joined the DT team because these were the cards I found most difficult to make. I think nature is a fairly easy theme for masculine cards, so I'm expecting to visit lots of blogs to leave a comment! Here's my card

I've used some woodgrain DP and embossed a panel of Chocolate Chip cs. The wooden button comes from the recycled button box. I stenciled the aspen trees and added some shading with my aquapainter, before stamping on the moose image.  I got this stamp in Yellowstone NP Visitor centre - isn't he great? I've also coloured him in with the aquapainter.  The sentiment is from  Pennant Parade and it would be a big wish granted if I'd seen one of these magnificent creatures in the wild when I was in the US but it wasn't to be.

Green For Go

Green is not my favourite colour, well, it depends on the green I suppose- I do love lime green and teal (if that is green) but your average green is not on my list.  Strange, then, that I got the urge this morning when I sat down to craft for the Seize The Birthday challenge to make something with green. This week it is a masculine birthday card  using the same sketch as last week.

Green is one of my husband's favourite colours so perhaps I was thinking of him.  I'm not sure a VW camper would be his top choice but that's what I stamped.  It a Papermania stamp I think, I've had it a while,

I used some chevron DP to give the effect of the panels, I think chevrons are in at the moment, they seem to be very popular. I used Gumball Green and Pear Pizazz for the colour scheme.  You won't see many coloured images here, as I'm not very confident with my markers, I am in awe of anyone who can colour images ( as you will see from many of the comments I leave on other crafters' blogs). This is my best effort!

The circles are soft circle stickers - they look a bit like brads.
Back to the crafting table to make one or two more cards this morning, I think I'll make the most of my day off!

Cycling in The Hills

Just had an hour free this morning and found a corner on the dining table (husband and son both working there) to make this card for this week's masculine birthday card challenge at Seize The Birthday.  Here's the sketch

and this is the card I made with it

I first made the banner, with Lucky Limeade and Indigo Island.  The clouds are made with a scalloped circle - aren't they lovely and 'fluffy-looking'? Then I stamped the bicycle from Pedal Presents, gently adding some colour and matting onto green CS.  I only have the one size oval punch, so I had to cut out by hand (don't look too closely!) I made the horizontal panel with two thin strips of black CS, stamped the greeting directly onto the card and punched out a scalloped edge using my edgelits die. 

Out of Africa for Dad

My safari with Zoo Review continued today as I made a card for the new challenge at Addicted to CAS. The cue word is Masculine. These are the hardest cards to make for me, simply because I don't usually see the potential in either the stamps or the paper but with Zoo Review it's pretty obvious.

I started with Naturals Ivory cardstock, which is quite yellow in colour I think- it was the right neutral for the very 'African' themed card I wanted to make. I cut a piece of mountboard ( to give dimension to my card) and covered it in animal print decopage paper  I stamped three images from Zoo Review and placed these on top, after layering them onto kraft card.  Some score lines stop this panel from floating in space on the card.  The 'Dad' is simply inked up die cut letters, made from grunge paper to add depth. The inks I have used are all naturals too.
My Dad never went on safari, and at nearly 80 years of age I don't think he's up for it but I know he would have loved to- may be my card will make up for that.