Buttons!

Buttons! And this time for a masculine card for the new challenge at The Male Room

This was a chance to play with new stuff again, this time the set Jars Of Love. I can see loads of ideas for this set but here is quite a straight forward one with a sentiment which I think a man would appreciate

After stamping the jar and cutting it out I stamped a few button images to add background to my real buttons. I used my new banner punch too, love the crisp edge I now get on my banners when I don't have to hand cut them out. The sentiment fitted just nicely and I sponged the edges to lift the banner a little.

I stamped the handle of the jar across the jar image and then matched it up against the same image stamped directly onto the card front. Finally, I added a hand drawn border.

By the way, this is Buttons in our family, a lovely old gentleman, once the children's pony, now happily retired for the most part, except for the odd occasion when I hitch him up to the cart and he takes me for a spin along the country lanes

Incey Wincey Spider

I'm going to squeeze in one more Halloween card this October, well I still have a couple of days to send it out. This one is for the new stash challenge at The Male Room, a challenge blog for masculine projects. Here is the theme

....so for my card I used a brad. Yes, I know, a brad, just one.

Here it is, a little spider, sitting in a stencilled web, with his little legs hand drawn on and a small sentiment, from Holiday home. Want a closer look?

So, if you're not keen on spiders ( and I have to say I quite like them, and certainly I'm not scared of them in any size) don't take a peek inside!

I added a hand drawn thread to this guy. I hope that the fun side of the card would appeal to the male sense of humour. Not sure if everyone knows the Incy Wincey spider rhyme I used for the title of this post. Something I remember from my children's and, in fact, my own childhood. 

Incey Wincey spider, climbed up the spout, 

Down came the rain and washed poor Incy out.

Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain,

So Incey Wincey Spider climbed up the spout again.

Diamonds (and Pearls) Are A Girl's Best Friend!

Diamonds and pearls- don't you just love them! They are classic in every way, especially on Christmas cards and today at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown Asha has chosen them for our stash challenge

I loved this challenge, -to add bling? Oh, yes, bring it on! I could have gone sophisticated and elegant, CAS, vintage, shabby chic, steam punk even, all styles apply, but I went homestyle modern, with lots of Kraft and cream and a pop of warm burgundy. Have a look

The ornament stamps from Ornament Keepsakes were stamped in versamark and heat embossed with white. I used Kraft and black for the card stock. The matching die cuts make cutting them out simple. I used Kraft cs for the mat, added a layer of twinkling vellum and a border of washi tape. There are diamonds on the large round ornament and on the snowflakes. I added grey pearls to the other large ornament and a large black pearl to the centre of the small one. The ornaments are popped up on foam pads of different thicknesses.

The Noel was stamped on mountboard and then covered in several layers of clear embossing powder to give a tile effect. Finally, I tied a bow in some burgundy coloured satin ribbon. With all those layers I thought I could enter the challenge at Winter Wonderland, where they tell me it is only 89 days to Christmas! Whoopie! Also,Completely Christmas are having an Anything Goes challenge, so I'll enter my card over there too.

Charming Christmas

It is the last Saturday in June and so my last week as hostess at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and I'm leaving you with a stash challenge. I often browse the packets of charms available in the craft stores but never too sure how to use them, so this was initially a challenge to myself (and a chance to see what the rest of you can create to give me some ideas for the future!)

I've used two charms, the bird and the birdhouse, and I had the

Idea of the bird decorating his home for the Christmas season. I used an aspen tree stencil  and I've added some Dazzling Details frost. I stamped and embossed the banner, before fussy cutting it out.
Here are some close ups of those little charms....

Metallic Mosaic

We have one final challenge for February at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, chosen by this month's hostess Jacqueline, and she has asked us to use metallic papers. Lucky me, for I have some metallic origami papers, given to me by a Japanese student who was staying with us one time. I also knew straight away what I wanted to do.

I started with a black card base, which I embossed with my Mosaic embossing folder.  I then used the matching punch to punch out the mosaic shapes from different coloured papers, the shiny ones are actually glittery black, which I also used for the mat, but they don't photograph well, I'm afraid.

I heat embossed the sentiment, letter by letter, in gold and finished off each mosaic tile with a tiny matching rhinestone. Quite dramatic, don't you think? The addition of the part 'tile' definitely improved the design. As I've included a sentiment I' m going to enter my card in the challenge at crafty hazelnuts Christmas challenge too, haven't been able to play there for a while.

Hope you have fun with this challenge!