Masculine Flowers

This will be my last post for a few weeks as, during the rest of July and the beginning of August I will be on holiday with my family in Australia- yes, all 5 of us on Walkabout! Getting excited now, but I was also excited about the challenge this morning at The male Room.

Wowser! How to do that?
With DP of course! My coordinating papers come from a Rosie's Studio collection called East Meets West and it's perfect for this challenge.
The photo is accurate, the background colour graduating as you move diagonally downwards. There is a name for this, is it ombré? Anyhow, I cut the panel, mounted it onto red CS to accentuate the fine red detail in the flowers.

Next I added a banner, stamped using Thoughtful Banners and punched out with my new banner punch (could be Best Buy ever!) I also added two little red hearts, using the Owl Builder Punch.

Popped the banner up on foam pads. I then carried on decorating the inside of my card with another paper from the East meets West collection. I used the little white mat so that you can write your message

Finally, a third DP was used to decorate the envelope inside.

I am so pleased with how this turned out. The dark colours fit the sentiment well (I did think of going with a sympathy card, but this is better) and the fact that the three papers come from a set mean that they truly coordinate.

Hope you have as much fun with your masculine flower card as I did and see you in a month or so!

Love Is In The Air

I have one more Valentine card to share with you. This is also for CAS Colours & Sketches but this time it is based on a sketch. Look at this, isn't it a super CAS design...

I looked around for a colour challenge to help me and found this luscious combo over at The Colour Q, I think my 'inner beader' was attracted by the photo.

I die cut the 'love in a white card mat and used the matt gold behind the card. Then I searched for a range of hearts, stamps and punches- as you can see my range was not very extensive!

I stamped oome heart in Pink Pirouette (it is so pale!) onto the card and then stamped other hearts onto scrap pieces, which I then fussy cut out. I chose the ones I like the best

I punched out a heart from the palest pink card stock but couldn't match the Melon Mambo ink, so I ran the ink pad over a small piece of white card and punched the tiny heart out of that.

I like CAS cards with no edge when the white layer is popped up on foam pads, which is what I've done here. For a finishing touch I die cut the word you from the same Matt gold card and stuck it inside. 

There are a few Valentine challenges around so I'm going to pop my card into the challenge at 

CAS on Sunday too.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, whether or not you're celebrating Valentines Day. This year my hubby and I are planning a romantic get away for the night, with dinner, at a hotel in The Netherlands, as part of a family visit....feeling just a little bit spoiled already.

Night Owl

Being away at Uni, my daughter sometimes asks me for cards for her friends. This one is for a guy, clearly, since I have made it for the new challenge at The Male Room.

 them 

I have a new blender tool which is totally awesome and so I couldn't resist doing a silhouette card. The Owl Builder punch and the Bird punch are both used here. 

I made the sentiment using my computer, I think it will be quite apt for a student!

This last photo shows the owl is popped up on foam pads

Blast From The Past

Hi There! Time for a new challenge at The Male Room and for the next two weeks the theme for your male projects is Games.I had fun a few weeks ago creating Angry Birds cards and this gave me the idea to try something else. Do you remember this one?

I used the Owl punch to make the little aliens and a circle die to make Pacman. The dots are peel offs, which have some dimension, they almost look like gems. I rounded the corners on the black background and added a blue mat. My google eyes are the finishing touch.

Inside, I stamped a greeting. I think my card will be going to some teenaged male friend of my sons, hope they know who Pacman is!

You can use any game for your inspiration, including games like rugby, cricket, or board games like chess or how about snakes and ladders!

Intergalactic Greetings

OK, OK whose crazy idea was it to have Sci-Fi as the challenge over at The Male Room this week?  Oh, yes, that would be mine. I don't know why I did it, I don't own any alien or monster stamp sets, not into digital stamps and, quite frankly, all out of ideas until just now. I do enjoy some good sci-fi movies and I think a lot of our male family and friends, young and not so young are into this particular genre, so I thought it would be a great idea.  Good job I have some great teamies over at the challenge blog as they have all risen well to the challenge!
Here is my card..

Of course I had to make the sentiment on my computer and you will notice that I have used the very versatile owl punch once again to create my aliens.  The DP I found in my stash, it actually has wine glasses all over it (cleverly hidden here) but I thought it looked a bit space-like.
I do hope you have a go at this one, it is a fun theme, perhaps mostly for cards for the boys, but you lot in blogland are always amazing me with your ideas!

Halloween Tag

Well, I've really got into Halloween this year - it must be all the challenges and amazing inspirational projects from fellow crafters on the blogs. This time I've made a tag (yes, still avoiding the cards!) and it's for this week's challenge at Make My Monday. It's not really scary at all...take a look

I made the little ghosties using the Owl Punch and some googly eyes. I printed the background by adding inks to my craft sheet, spritzing and then dragging the tag through. Once dry I could add the black ink, sponged around the edges, and the other embellishments. Finally, I replaced the string with black and white ribbons, it looks a bit spidery, doesn't it? I thought it would be fun added to a goodie bag.

Father Christmas Owls

Every now and then there are 5 Saturdays in a month and at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown we like to do something a bit different.  We have had Anything Goes (but a card, tag or ATC) for a while so we're ringing the changes with a new type of challenge.  Now we will ask you to do a 'Previous Challenge' BUT not any old previous one, a particular type, chosen by that month's hostess.  For June it is a previous sketch, so you can use any one of our sketch challenges -there are about 20 to choose from. I've gone for one that was before my time on the DT so I've never actually done it before, way back it's sketch #2!

and I've made a fun little card with it

I used some textured DP from the Holly Berry Bouquet range again and then some ivory and red cs to make my little owls in their Santa suits. The Santa hats and gold mirriboard buckles I cut out freehand and then I stuck on some googly eyes. I heat embossed the sentiment and popped it up on a banner I cut and scored. I've just noticed that one of my owls looks a little bit tipsy as his hat and belt aren't quite straight, too much egg nog I fear!

The other members of the DT have all chosen their favourite sketches so have a look at the blog and we'd love to visit yours, so do join in with us this week.

All You Need is Love Take 2

I don't normally enter challenges twice - I'm often not even organised well enough to enter once, but, today as I added the sentiment to my Less Is More challenge entry, another idea popped into my head.  Having the time and the idea at the same time is quite unusual so I got straight down to it and created another card for the kraft and cream challenge.

I used the owl punch from SU again, punching one out of kraft and one out of cream and a couple of flourish 'branches'.  I have reversed it this time, so I've used  kraft cs as the base. All these two little shy owls need is love, so I added the same sentiment.  Not so much pretty and feminine this time as cute and fun :)
Don't forget it's their second birthday over there, so do 'fly' over and join in the challenge!

Christmas Cat Sketch

As many will know I'm definitely a cat fan, but when I first saw Mynnette's sketch challenge for September it was not this card that came first to mind. However, this is what evolved and, whilst it is quite a liberal take on the sketch I think you will find all the elements there - take a look and see what you think!

I used a piece of freebie paper for the window scene and cut a window frame out of off-white card stock. I stamped the cat outline, coloured it with Promarker and snipped it out.  The tiny heart shape is from SU's Owl Punch.  The oval chipboard shape I first covered with red glitter, before making the sentiment banner, using another freebie, this time from a Forever Friends set. The beautiful 'wallpaper' is actually from SU's DP set Hollt Berry Bouquet.
At 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown you will find some fantastic other cards from the DT,  and hopefully they will inspire you to have a go too. A sketch is just a starting point after all, I wonder what fabulous ideas will come out from this one!

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