Back in the Game

Now living in Sydney Australia, I have started crafting again. Just gently, with a few stamp sets and ink pads I brought with me and a couple of new stamps purchased from the internet I made these cards to send to family back at home

I’m enjoying looking at inspiration sites such as Pinterest and shopping with Stampin Up and EBay again. It’s amazing how much you forget, especially at my age! Let’s see how it goes....

Signing Off

so, this is it, the last post for me. Today I have made a card for The Male Room and it will be my last card as a DT member. I have had great fun over the 4 or so years I have been doing this for various challenge blogs and have  posted over 560 cards but it's time to say goodbye. Most of the blogs I have worked on are still going strong and I'm sure you will continue to support them. The Male Room is close to my heart as I was there at its inception and remember having the idea of a male themed challenge blog floated at a friends craft club and saying I'd like to do that if only to improve my masculine cards, which I had always found tricky. But, I need to move on and there are great people on the DT, all awesome at creating masculine projects so it's not a hard choice. I had hoped to stay to see the year out but other pressures have got in the way. So, it's not just goodby to TMR but to blogland, at least for the foreseeable future.
I have made a one layer card for this challenge

It's a card for a teenager, or a rock star! The stamp is from Visible Image, and I know a couple of the other DT members have also used this stamp. I chose to push my limits with stamping (I've always been a bit of a 'smudger' which offends my inner CAS style) and I'm very pleased with how this came out

I chose to use lots of bright colours. In my family the guys love colours and I think sometimes we use too much brown, green blue and black as traditional male colours, so I've slipped in some red and yellow.

Originally the black image was going to be heat embossed but guess what? My heat gun broke this morning! Well timed or not? So, the black is as dark as I could stamp it. The sentiment is from Vertical Greetings. These are all great for contempo cards.

Hope you like this as much as I do. Good luck to everyone who works on any DT, it is a labour of love and may be it is not appreciated how much time it takes up but you are all stars and your passion for crafting always comes through in your cards. Happy Crafting!

Flowers to Finish

Hello and goodbye today. This is my last post as DT member at CAS Colours & Sketches, I have decided to take a rest from card making for the foreseeable future. I have been on the DT since November 2012 and was one of the founder members with my friend Jacqueline. It's been lots of fun and I've seen my CAS style develop and change but I'm finding it less and less enjoyable. A month off proved to me that, far from missing it I was actually relieved at not having to make cards and write posts and comments. So this is my (almost) final post- I am on one other DT and will completely finish next week.
Enough of that, here is the sketch for this week's challenge

You can use any shape without right angles, so I went with a circle and die cut an aperture. I embossed another piece of card and layered it over the top and stamped the sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes in the corner. I have also taken the liberty of rotating the sketch, you'll see why!

The flowers are all stamped from Jars of Love and Stippled Blossoms using the two step stamping method. I've used Flirty Flamingo and Sweet Sugarplum, because they were already out on my crafting table and added some Tangelo Twist to the mix.

The surprise is inside, where I have stamped a jar, water coloured some water inside and added a few stamped stems. I also added the stamped band and 'twine'. This keeps the card very CAS on the front, with lots of white space.

Even these lovely new stamps have not changed my mind about giving up card making. I will still be crafting in some way, I always have, and I do still intend to make cards for family and friends, and Christmas, of course. It's been a ball, thanks for checking in to my blog now and then,and Happy Crafting!

Simply Textured

In the summer holiday months the team at CAS Colours & Sketches are taking it in turns to set the challenges and this week I have chosen these three colours

Two of them are new colours from Stampin Up. At first I thought 'cake' but I ended up going floral.

I used a new stamp set too, Touches of Texture, I think it will become a favourite. Here I have teamed it with  Vertical Greetings for the sentiment.

You can just see Sams paws in the photo, he wanted to get in on the crafting today and sat on my table while I was making this card. The sweet Sugarplum colour was used for the sentiment and is the colour of the tiny rhinestones I have used. I used the chocolate chip just for the outline. The card is mostly Flirty Flamingo (what a great name).

Swirly Whirly Hippyy Card

At The Male Room, a challenge blog for masculine cards and projects, we have a fun technique challenge starting today,

I have done this a few times, but I don't have many reinkers, so when I found out you could use food colouring instead I was up for it. I also make a few sheets while I'm there to store away for another time as you can keep going with the same foam, getting a slightly different pattern each time. I have used mine as a background for a bold sentiment

The squares at the bottom are square, metallic brads. They remind me of cuff links and are great for a bit of bling on a masculine card. I bought them awhile back in Michaels, on one of my holidays and only have two more sets of 3 left 😞

I stamped the sentiment in Versamark before heat embossing in silver. Now, here's a thing; the embossing did not come up all crisp as I always prefer, oh no, it canme up a bit fuzzy. I am not sure why, as I had made the background the day before and it was completely dry. I had tried to brush off some of the excess

You will see what I mean in the close up shot above. But, in this case, I think it goes with the swirly whirly background, like a hippy tie die T shirt, if you know what I mean..

The others on the DT have made some fantastic cards using this fun and easy technique, Ian sure you will too. Tragically, I ripped the stamp when removing it from the block, so this is probably my last card using the image. Shame, as I haven't had it very long and I liked it particularly for masculine cards.

Take it Easy

yep, I'm back from my fantastic holiday in Australia and, to be honest, I'm just gently easing my way back into crafting after over a month away. Thanks to Bev, over at CAS Colours & Sketches for this super sketch which really helped me get going again.

I started by selecting two complementary DPs from my stash (new resolve to stop hoarding and start using!) Then, with the pennant idea in my head I reached for Perfect Pennants to help with the sentiment. Wish I had the matching nesting dies but I don't so thesewere cut by hand.

A few fussy cut flowers, stamped using the two stamp method- they are from my newest stamp set, Jars of Love. I've just sprinkled them around.

I stamped the inside with a plain sentiment from Best Dad Ever and added three more flowers to tie in the design on the front.

Finally, I added a liner to the envelope using the matching DP ( remember my pledge to use it up??).

This is a fairly simple card, minimum stamping, keeping it simple by leaving lots of space, which doesn't necessarily have to be white, hope you like it. Check out my teamies' cards over at the challenge blog.

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!