Retro Christmas

The last challenge of 2014 at The Male Room is, of course, to create a masculine project for Christmas. My card inspired me to create a second card for a colour challenge I found, over at The Colour Throwdown.
Let's take a look at the Male Room card first

I used my masculine standby stamp, Hardwood, stamped onto pale green card. I then over stamped
the MERRY from Seasonal Scatterings in white craft ink and embossed with tinsel white embossing
powder (I have previously found that the stamped ink dries rather pale unless embossed). I added the
Christmas, since I find men like you to be specific 😉

As its Christmas I've broken my two male card rules, there is ribbon and bling on this card!

The second card started in the same way, with the Hardwood stamp stamped in Lost Lagoon onto the pale green C&S, but then I used this gorgeously retro Christmas colour combination from The Colour Throwdown team...

I found some little wooded clothes pegs in my stash and decided to use those on my card 

Scaredy Cat

The end of October is approaching so it's not surprising that there are a lot of Halloween theme challenges out there. It is a bit of a mixed bag in the UK, some people celebrate it, some despise it, we certainly do not, in my experience, send cards for it, but a challenge is a challenge! This is actually my second Halloween card that I've made this year and I've loved making both of them (it's the cat thing, for me) and this morning it is for The Male Room

I used a mixture of blue inks for the sponging and made the rickety old fence by stamping with the Hardwood stamp onto grey card stock. I was able to perfectly position the little fellow using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig and added the only Happy Halloween sentiment I have, from Delightful Dozen. The cat is from You Little Furball, in case you don't recognise him, but he's not such a scary cat, is he? More of a scaredy cat!
I hope if you celebrate Halloween that you have a fun time!

Mystical Reindeer

Had to say a very sad farewell this week to our beautiful mare, Rio. We had had her for 12 years and this was her forever home, she had a rapid onset type of bone cancer in her front leg and we lost her very quickly, only a few short weeks.

I've not felt much like crafting, so I'm glad I made this card a couple of weeks ago to share with you and friends from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.Thetheme for this week's challenge is

I made a screen card, trying to create a moonlit scene where the deer would appear almost magically and disappear again.

I used Kraft cardstock to make a base ( I just folded an A4 sheet into quarters lengthwise), cut out the top of a punch to form the legs and added Hardwood stamped background panels. I used the colours from the photo inspiration at CSAYL, the ink was Indigo Island and the flourish is from Open Sleigh. The actual reindeer image is one I bought from a craft shop in The Netherlands. I have finished of the card with antique pearl brads, pearls, punched stems from the Bird Punch and some red gem berries. The top is made using a border punch. This is my second screen card, they are rather fun to make. I am going to enter the challenge atCompletely Christmas again this week. Why don't you?

Do have a look at the cards from the rest of the very talented DT.

Bird on a Board

Sorry, I'm a bit late writing the post for the challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, which went live yesterday. I was in London, watching an amazing performance of Titus Andonicus, at The Globe Theatre and clean forgot to post my card! No worries, it's here now...

This week it is what we call 'The Double'- the challenge is to use both the sketch and the colours. Here they are

With Real Red, burnt Brown Sugar and Coastal Cabana.

I have followed the sketch to the letter but feel free to interpret it however you wish, as long as we 

can still see the basic layout it's fine with us. Here is a close up of the little bird, using the Bird Punch, another oldie but a real classic, which always feels fresh on any card, if you know what I mean.  

And inside I stamped a matching image, colouring it partially with my markers

It's holiday week here for us so a visit to the theatre is only one of the things I managed to cram into the week. We went to the cinema to see X-Men, hubby and I will enjoy a night away in a fab little place called Ludlow, not so far from where we live ( a Valentines gift which we finally got around to using) and we started the week off visiting family in Holland. Not much time left for crafting, boo hoo!

Oak Tree Reflections

Good morning! There is a new challenge at The Male Room this morning. Over there we are looking for your craft projects for the men in your lives and this time the theme is Leaves and Trees.
I reached for an old favourite stamp set, as I'm sure many more of you will too, Lovely As A Tree and created this card

I used the new hardwood background stamp, which I finally got around to ordering, some twine and the tab is a punch. I used the reelection technique for the grand old oak tree, sponging in the sky and 

water. I've added just a touch of dazzling detail to get some reflective quality into the water. Last bit of detail is t he oak leaf, stamped in Gumball Green and fussy cut to add to the frame. Could be a Fathers Day card or a family birthday card,either fits the simple sentiment.

There's Only One You

God Morning!  I am up very early this morning as I had to take my son to work (he's a lifeguard at our local swimming pool). I was going to nip back into bed as I'm on holiday but the day was too good to waste and so I thought I'd post today's card for the challenge at The Male Room instead. The original theme for the challenge was Man's Best Friend, but we've extended it to include all pets, as long as your card is suitable for a male. I stuck with the MBF idea and made another card with my Paisley Pets stamp set.

 It is a variation of a card I made last week, using the Hardwood background stamp to make a picket fence (I even used the scraps I had left from the previous card, how's that for thrifty?) but I've given it a masculine twist with my dog in the grass card, rather than the flowers I used previously. I thought the sentiment went well with the image.  It's all popped up on dimensionals and my dog has two small gems for his eyes.  Instead of embossing clouds as I did before this time I've sponged them in using a scalloped circle, love creating flffy white clouds in this way. The grass is cut by hand.
Do hope you'll join us in the challenge.

Along The Fence

I have handed over my hostess hat to Jacqueline for the month of April at CAS Colours and Sketches and she is starting us off with three fab colours

Love this combination. Don't worry if you don't have Stampin' Up colours, just use the nearest shade you do have.  This time, I took my inspiration from a card I saw on FB, it was only possible because I was able to borrow the Hardwood background stamp from the lovely Jacqueline, as I don't own it....yet!

The flowers, which I fussy cut, are from Vintage Vogue and the leaves are from Stippled Blossoms.  I used the cloud embossing folder, also from Stampin' Up. It may be a little to fussy for your taste in CAS, but it will pass for me.