Cards for Men Blog Hop candy winner...

I was lucky enough to be able to offer 3 fabulous digi images of your choice from Hope Jacare as candy on my blog and the lucky winner of this great prize is.....

Lindyloo

....congratulations hun and thanks for taking part in our first Blog Hop! Please email cardsformen@donnasden.co.uk to claim your prize.

If you followed the whole Blog Hop the rest of the girls are starting to post their winners or you can wait 'til later this afternoon when Donna is going to post all the winners at Cards for Men.

Have a fabulous Christmas everyone!

Hugs, Alison xx

Cards for Men is One Year Old and we have 2 challenges and a Blog Hop to celebrate!!..

Wow, can you believe it's been a year of challenges over at Cards for Men? To celebrate we have lots going on with tons of prizes available.
There are two challenges this time, both with a Christmas theme. You can make a card or a present or both, it's up to you. We'll draw a random winner for each category and top 3 as usual. You can get all the details and lots more ideas from the rest of the DT over at the main site. Here's what I made:

Firstly my card. I kept this quite simple- the holly design is some printed card from my stash which I have used to make my base card. The red and green have been cut with Nesties and my scallop scissors. The image is a digi by Bugaboo and coloured with promarkers and I made the sentiment on the computer. It reads 'If you stop believing in Santa you get socks for Christmas!'.

The gift is my homemade Green Tomato Chutney which I made from the plants I grew last summer (seems like a lifetime ago with my garden now covered with snow!). One thing I'm loving about digis is that you can resize them, so the image is a bit smaller here.

The topper was also made on my computer and now you can see how the set comes together. (You don't have to make them match- I just wanted to!)
I made two cards and decorated jars for two of the men in my church housegroup whose birthdays I missed when I was up to my eyes writing reports earlier this year. Here they are all together.

Also, we are having an Anniversary Blog Hop. If you didn't come to me from Donna I would hate for you to miss anything so you can get the full list of blogs on the Hop over at Cards for Men. At each stop there'll be a word to collect and a candy draw. I'm so excited to have 3 fabulous digi images of your choice from Hope Jacare to give away.

Here's a bit about Claire who draws these amazing images: "I'm a SAHM with three young children. I trained in Textile Design at the Glasgow School of Art and I love all things handmade, but especially papercrafts.  I love to doodle ... and my doodles are available to purchase as digital images through Stitchy Bear Stamps."

To be in with a chance of winning this great candy  at my stop you just need to leave a comment at the end of this post. A random winner will be drawn on 20 December 2010.

Each stop will have more fabulous candy and a word which you should collect to make up a festive phrase. My word is 'And'. At the end of the blog hop you should have 11 words, work out the phrase and leave it in the comments back at Cards for Men to be in with a chance of winning another great prize. The blog hop will run until midnight on 19th December 2010 and a winner will be chosen on 20th December.

Your next stop is Amy. If you lose your way you can go back to Cards for Men to get the full list. Hope all this makes sense and Good Luck everyone.

Pink with a purpose...

Thankfully I have not had to go through breast cancer myself but I have had two colleagues who have had it and, although I wanted to make a special card for them, I found it hard to find the right image and have not really been happy with what I made. A few weeks ago Bugaboo released these images as freebies and I had to have a play! I'm hoping I don't need to use these cards, but if I do, at least I am pleased with how they turned out. The papers are from a digi scrapping kit called 'Think Pink' by Just so Scrappy and the matte silver card, gems and ribbon are from my stash.

I would like to enter these cards for:

• Charisma Cardz- one for the girls
• Stamp Something- thankful somethings (the second card is a 'Thanks for your support' card)
• Digis with attitude- pink, black and silver (lots of pink and silver-black on the image and sentiment)
• Allsorts- monochrome
• Karber- sparkle (the gems)
• Craft your passion- monochrome

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 24...

Our challenge at Cards for Men this fortnight is to make a Christmas card for a man or boy.

I love this image from the November bundle at Bugaboo- it's actually the reason I got the set! I coloured him with promarkers and even found time to use glossy accents on his nose and to suggest the ice at his feet. The papers came from an old download by Papercraft Inspirations, and the sentiment was a Freebie Friday from Sentiments4you. One thing I love about digi stuff is that it can be resized, so I played with photoshop to make this mini card too.

We are being sponsored by Bunny Zoe Crafts this time and she is offering a £10 voucher for our lucky winner.

Here's a little about our sponsor: Bunny Zoe's Crafts is a family run online Craft store who ships worldwide. We provide friendly and efficient customer service, with quick processing and dispatch of orders. We sell a great range of Rubber Stamps from around the world, Digital Images, Personalised Stamps, Designer Papers, Stamping Essentials, Copic Ciao's, Distress Inks, Dies, Flowers, Ribbons & Lace, Buttons. Charms, Flat back Pearls and many, many fabulous card making goodies.
The challenge runs until 5th December so why not join in? We have a Blog Hop starting on the 6th December with a special challenge and loads of prizes- so put the date in your diaries!


I would also like to enter this card for:

• The Pink Elephant- I followed their sketch
• Ooh La La- Rudolph
• Digi Doodle shop- anything goes
• The Crafty Pad- red and green

A nice surprise..

I got a lovely surprise late last night when I was checking the challenges- I made the Top 3 for my HOOT! card. Thank you so much to the DT for picking my card.

Hoping to have something to show you soon- I may be able to get some crafting time in tonight or tomorrow while I wait in for a delivery. Was hoping for some yesterday but after a lovely lie in my husband and son went off to make some pancakes for breakfast and while getting out the flour managed to knock a pot of those "edible ball bearing" things out of the cupboard where they opened on the worktop and bounced everywhere in a mesmerising fashion- lol. Cue a big tidy of the cupboards because they were rather precariously placed so I could hardly be cross. I think we will be finding those for a while yet! I then let my son have a friend over in the afternoon so other than printing off a few digis that was that for crafting yesterday!

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 23...

Our challenge at Cards for Men this fortnight is to make an Animal card for a man or boy. Make sure you have a look at the details at the end of this post because we have a special participation only freebie for you this challenge.

The DT were lucky enough to be able to choose an image to play with by Hope Jacare and I chose to use House of Hamish. I printed him to fit in the second largest of my Labels 8 Nesties and made my mount by drawing around the outside of the nestie and cutting it out.  (It is the only frustrating thing about these- that they don't increase to make their own mats.) Had fun with all my brown promarkers doing all the woodgrain! The papers are from a Stuff to Scrap blog train called Great Outdoors and I ran the plain one through my argyle embossing folder- I must get these out more often as I'm always pleased with the effect! It needed a little something else so I added a couple of brown brads.

We are being sponsored by Hope Jacare and we have one of her images as a rubber stamp for our lucky winner. Here's what Claire says about herself: "I'm a SAHM with three young children. I trained in Textile Design at the Glasgow School of Art and I love all things handmade, but especially papercrafts. I love to doodle ... and my doodles are available to purchase as digital images through Shop Handmade."
Claire has kindly given this Robin digi image to give as a freebie for everyone who takes part in the challenge. It will be e-mailed to all the participants when the challenge closes so make sure you leave your e-mail carefully with the 'blue frog' linky when you link up your card.

I would also like to enter this for:

• CRAFT- dry embossing
• One Stop Challenge- embossing
• Challenge up your life- blue and green (hope it's ok that mine is with brown too.)
• Crazy4challenges- square cards

What a HOOT!..

The reason I have managed to be so productive this weekend is a total takeover of the dining room followed by a refusal to clear up until this evening when I was bribed with a delivery curry if we can have the table back to eat it off!

I have had this card in my head for about two weeks and have finally got around to making it! The little owl is by Pollycraft and the papers are a freebie download called Falling for Fall from Summertime Designs.

I added dimension by matting the image twice on core'dinations and using 3D foam between the layers as well as underneath. The sentiment is from Pink Cat Studio and is on one of the Spellbinders ribbon tags.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• Digi Doodle- Autumn projects
• Totally Papercrafts- Tag it
• Crafty Emma's- Autumn
• Alphabet- b for birds

Beer Monster!..

This great image comes from Pollycraft and the funky papers are from a Stuff to Scrap blog train called French Tulips.

I would like to enter this card for:

• Paper Play- circles
• Challenge up your life- Blue and Green (hope it's ok that mine has red with it too)
• Crafty Catz- spots and stripes

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 22...

Our challenge at Cards for Men this fortnight is really easy to play along with because it is 'Anything Goes' but ,of course, it must be for a man or boy!

The DT were lucky enough to be given some images to play with by Digital Delights and I chose to use Sparky the Knight for my card. My son loves how he has a worried expression! I used digi papers from Summertime Designs 'Fangs for the Memories' set which is really for Halloween, which I don't celebrate, but has come in useful for so many different cards. I wanted diamonds for a 'heraldic' sort of look and cut them out to make them look like pennants. The image has been popped up and the shield and visor are decoupaged.
 

We are being sponsored by Digital Delights this fortnight and they are offering a $10 gift certificate for our lucky winner.
Here's a bit about our sponsor: Welcome to Digital Delights, a magical place filled with my little digi creations from all walks of life. We have a wide range of digital stamps which are delivered straight to your email 24/7!!

You have until 7th November to enter so why not have a go? Don't forget to check out Cards for Men to have a look at the cards by the rest of the DT- they are a talented bunch!
 
I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Secret Crafter- Manga (I think he fits that style!)
• The Stampman- Cards for men
• Stamp Something- digi image
• Crafty Calendar- Birthdays

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 21...

Our challenge at Cards for Men this fortnight is to make a Birthday Card and ,of course, it must be for a man or boy!

I could not choose between these two colour schemes and sets of papers so I decided to make two cards using a similar layout. I think it shows the versatility of the stamp from Fresh Brewed designs. I have decoupaged the image on both cards because, for me, it was crying out for it! The sentiment comes from a Woodware clear set called Little Monster and was just perfect- I love the font. I put my Big Shot to good use for this card- first the Nestability circles, then the Sizzlet star die cuts, the star embossing on the blue background card and the much neglected Cuttlebug circles that I re-descovered for the sentiments on this card! The DP for the top card comes from a digi set called Play Ball by Christie at Stuff to Scrap and the DP for the bottom one is also a digi set from a blog train by LDS. I was lucky enough to find card to match in my stash and the scraps of Coredinations for the stars.

Sorry about the poor photos but I don't have time to re-take them as my son has been feeling poorly.

We are being sponsored by Fresh Brewed Designs this fortnight and Heather has kindly donated a free digi stamp for people entering and is offering 3 images of your choice for our lucky winner.

Here's a bit about our sponsor: "Hi. I am Heather Dennis. I am a homeschooling mother of 2 wonderful children, the wife of 12 years to the love of my life, a Christian and the owner of Fresh Brewed Designs. I have loved to draw and create ever since I was a child. My daughter has inherited my love of art and recently inspired me to start creating again.All the images in my shop are hand drawn. I offer a wide range of images from coffee, cute and inspirational.I also love to create custom drawn images, so if you are looking for anything in particular, please feel free to drop me an email."

I would also like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

• One Stitch at a Time- use your digis
• Craftalicious- anything goes
• Allsorts- inspired by a song- mine would have to be 'The Monster Mash'!
• Crazy4challenges- birthday
• Create4fun- digi stamp
• Mark's finest paper- stripes
• Stamp Something- punches and dies
• Penny's challenges- circles

New Home card...

Sorry about the awful photo! I can't redo it because it had to be made, photographed and given yesterday! This is for my husband's business partner and his family. I used a Pollycraft digi image and digi papers from the Family Home Evening blog train in warm autumn colours. I kept the layout simple as I did not have time for complicated but I couldn't resist doing the little dots around the mat and on the heart to pick up the dots on the image. The flower has been home made from felt with a Sizzix originals die and I cut the foliage with another die.
I would like to enter this card in the following Challenges:

• Papertake Weekly- any challenge from the last 3years- I'm doing 'check this out' from Feb 2010 with the gingham paper.
• Cute Card Thursday- 'make your own' with my felt flower.
• Charisma- 'Autumn colours'.
• The Stamp Man- Autumn
• Pollycraft- anything goes.

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 20...

Our challenge at Cards for Men this fortnight is to make a card on the theme of Autumn and ,of course, it must be for a man or boy!

 I don't have any specifically 'autumn' images so I decided to use autumn colours to make my card. Autumn is also the start of the new academic year so I made my card as a good luck card suitable for a young man starting College or University. The papers are a free download from Shabby Princess called Shabby Fall and I used promarkers to colour the 'my guy Ian' image in warm autumn tones to match the papers. I confess to buying the 'tiny leaf' Sizzix originals die especially for this card but dies go on forever and all the leaves were cut from oddments in my scraps box which gives a nice tapestry of colours.
I saw a card in this shape while visiting blogs (sorry, I can't remember whose!) so I had a play last week to work out how it was done. It wasn't too hard, just involved a bit of measuring, similar to a side step card but on both sides. Does anybody know what this style is called?

Cards for Men is being sponsored by Crafts and Me and they are offering this fabulous stamp for our lucky winner:

Here's a bit about our sponsor: Crafts and Me has everything for the card maker, with a wide range of rubber stamps from around the world. Teresa has just introduced her own range of rubber stamps from three international artists Hannah Lynn, Molly Harrison and Sara Burrier.

I am also entering this card for these challenges:

• 
  
  Craftalicious- Autumn or harvest
• 
  
  One stitch at a time- anything goes
• 
  
  Stamptacular Sunday - fall colors
• 
  
  Stamp Something - fall colors
• 
  
  AiFactory - anything goes
• 
  
  Charisma Cardz - anything goes
• 
  
  A Spoonful Of Sugar - anything goes
• 
  
  Creative Card Crew - autumn or fall

Just hangin'...

This card was born of indecision! I could not make up my mind which of the wonderful Phindie's Place images to use for my 'Summer Days' DT card a few weeks ago so this one got printed but not used. (You can see the one I used here.) I had decided to use papers from the Stuff to Scrap French Tulips blog train for my 'transport' DT card but could not decide which, so these got printed but not used! (You can see the ones I used here.) I could not leave them sitting there because I loved them, so I put them together to make this card!
I'm entering it for:

• Charisma Cardz- Anything goes
• AiFactory- Anything goes
• Creative Cottage- Boy's birthday cards
• The Sisterhood of Crafters- birthdays

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 19...

Our challenge this fortnight is to make a card for a man or boy on the theme of transport and we are being sponsored by Peachy Keen Stamps who are giving not 1, but 2 stamp sets to our lucky winner!

Here's a bit about our sponsor: Peachy Keen Stamps is a family owned and operated leading clear stamp manufacturer based out of Northeast Wisconsin. Our stamps are made with the highest quality polymer on the market today, giving them their unique peach tint. The whimsical images designed by Kathy Jakopovich coupled with their durability make them a favorite amongst scrapbookers, card makers, and artists alike. These stamps are sold exclusively online at www.peachykeenstamps.com and at independent stamp and scrapbook stores worldwide. Please visit our website for a complete list of retail locations.

I decided to make a 'congratulations for passing your driving test card' using this Elzybells stamp that was from the large order of stamps that I just had to have before they close! The torn up 'L' plate and the sentiment both come from a Woodware clear set. The papers are from a Stuff to Scrap blog train called 'French Tulips'.

Your Next Stamp have 'anything goes' as their challenge,  Fab 'n 'Funky have 'what'eva!' and Paper Cutz have 'any theme, any colour' so I am entering this for all these. The Creative Cottage have 'celebrations'- what better reason to celebrate than passing your test! Stamp Something have 'spots and stripes' and this fits with my backing papers. Finally, Crafty Creations also have 'transportation' as their theme.

Cowboy Billy...

This card has been so long in the making but I finally got it put together today! I printed, cut out and embossed the Cowboy Billy image from Pink Cat Studio weeks and weeks ago! I bought the "Stampedin'" digi papers by Rainamoon Scraps from Stuff to Scrap a couple of weeks ago, and I have been doing bits on the card for a few days!
I am entering this card for:
Cinema Saturday - western theme
Freshly Brewed - brown
Cooking it up with Katie- Use 3 papers, Add Something Clear, Be inspired by a Song or Music. (The balloon, belt buckle and Billy's boots have been glazed with Glossy Accents. Not being a big Country and Western fan- my song is Jimmy Nail's 'Cowboy Dreams'!)
Paper Pretties - brads or eyelets (I know it is only one brad but I'm entering this because of my gold sheriff's star!)

You are not The Stig!...

If you aren't from the UK this sentiment may not make much sense to you! The Stig is a mystery (or now not so mystery!) racing driver on a car show called Top Gear.

I made it as a 'congratulations on passing your driving test card' and I made the sentiment, which reads "You are NOT The Stig! Well done and take care!" myself on the computer. I wanted a trendy, grungy look for this card with a young driver in mind but I'm not totally happy with it- I prefer the other car card that I made today but I can't show you that yet!

I'm entering this card in the Allsorts Challenge of 'New Beginnings' as it is for a new driver and the Karber Challenge of 'a card for a boy' as this is aimed at a 17 or 18 year old.

An 'Ethel' card...

For those who were wondering about the title of this post, this card has been made with stamps from the Murray and Ethel sets,which are a fabulously funny but also gentle set of stamps featuring 'seniors'. The papers are all from the 'Owl always love spring' digi set from Summertime Designs- but I used the ones without owls!

I reduced the size of one of the papers to paper piece her dress so it had a floral print then picked out colours from this for her accessories. I wanted them to look really bright and clashing but as they match the papers I'm not sure that came off! The flowers were white and coloured with promarkers to match the papers and I finally have some small foliage in the form of a Marrianne Designs die which came with 2 flower dies.
I just love the sentiment! Here it is in more detail:

I'm entering this for Crafty Emma's 'floral frenzy' challenge and Lexi's Creations 'flower power'. Cowgirl Sunday have 'anything goes'. Our Daily Bread have 'buttons, brads or eyelets' and I have used some brads I've had for ages as my flower centers.

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 18...

Our challenge at Cards for Men this fortnight is 'Long Summer Days' which will run until 12th September.

Phindie's Place are sponsoring this challenge and she has offered the fabulous prize of a $10 gift certificate. The DT were lucky enough to be given some of her images to make their cards and they are just gorgeous- if you have not seen her designs before you must pop over to her store and have a look!

Here's a bit about our sponsor: Phindy's Place Digi Stamps is where you can find hundreds of beautifully drawn and detailed images for all your handmade card, scrapbook and paper crafting projects. Digi stamping is a new endeavor for children's book illustrator Philomena O'Neill and she enjoys drawing charming line images for crafters to color and embellish for their own creative efforts. Philomena likes to think of this as a collaboration between two artists.

So... on to my card! I could not resist this little guy from Phindie's Place! My son is now 8, but this reminded me so much of him when he was little- he was a gorgeous 'chunky' little lad who was a determined walker at nine and a half months, although he was a bit older before he decided that he liked ice cream and I remember some of the faces he pulled at how cold it was when he first had it!

I love these colours together, as you can tell from my blog background, and they are such lovely summery shades. The papers are a digi download from the Stuff to Scrap 'Great Outdoors' blog hop.

I would like to enter this card into Papertake Weekly's 3-2-1 recipe challenge (mine is 3 DP, 2 ribbons and 1 image). Cooking it up with Katie have 'for a boy, checks and add some brown'. Stampin' for the Weekend, Crafty Emma's, Bee Crafty and The Paper Players all have 'anything goes'. Finally Corrosive Challenges have 'for the guys'.

Rock Chick...

This is my second card using the sketch from Sketch Saturday and it could not be more different to my first! I rotated and slightly rearranged some elements but the bits are basically the same; the other, however, was soft and natural whereas this is bright but grungy.

Still lovin' my digis- this one is called 'Whatever!' from Pollycraft and I even worked out how to paper piece it by setting up two A4 sheets on Photoshop and running it twice through my inkjet (don't do this with a laser printer). This was mainly out of necessity because of my lack of the right colour promarkers but I love the effect- although it was rather fiddly! Just had to put the pink streaks in the fringe although the shade of pink is bugging me already! I usually make felt flowers with my Sizzix originals dies but thought I would give this coloured mirri a go today. The hearts are also die cut with a Sizzlet die then I put the tiny gems on each. Allsorts have paper piecing as their challenge this week so I am entering this.

Parking thanks...

This is what I love about making your own cards- Where would you find a card that says 'Thank You For The Parking Space'?!!

My husband asked me to make this for him to give to somebody who has been letting him park each week while he goes to a meeting in town so he does not have to walk far to get to it- he has a back injury which makes this hard for him.
The layout is from Sketch and Stash and my new stash used on this card is the digi stamp from Pollycraft. I made the little sentiment circles on my computer before cutting them out with nesties and adding a star brad to the middle of each.

Kaboodle Doodles have 'add a little metal' so I hope my brads count even though they are painted ones! Stamps R Us have 'all male theme'- I hope this is blokey enough, my husband does not do girly!

Under the sea...

Now I have that song from Little Mermaid on the brain!

More playing with digi images- this time the lovely Emma the Mermaid from Fred She Said. I won this ages ago but, sadly, my smudging problems meant that I couldn't use her. No more, though, now I have the new laser printer!
The papers are a wonderful digi scrapping kit that I collected called 'To the sea' by Mommy Me Time Scrapper; re-sized and arranged for printing on Photoshop. ABC challenge have 'mainly blue' and Totally Gorjuss have 'aqua- the colour or watery theme'. The layout comes from Sketch Saturday but instead of covering up that lovely sanddollar strip with anything I made tiny starfish with a sizzlet die and dotted them with a white gel pen before putting them in the corners. What mermaid would be complete without a shiny tail? So I painted iridescent glitter glue over it- My Time to Craft have 'Glitter and Glitz'.

Rhinestone Cowgirl...

Now that our laser printer has come and my husband has networked it to my computer I can finally kiss goodbye to my smudging problems with digi images! I celebrated by having a big play with the images I have been collecting! First comes Cowgirl Ava from Pink Cat Studio. I have to confess to buying this digi paper set specially to make this card- it is called 'Rhinestone Cowgirl' by Scrappy Cat and is available at Stuff to Scrap- but I didn't break the bank because it was only $1 which is about 66p! I don't have a good selection of pink promarkers so had to make do with what I had, I think they match the papers reasonably well but I am such a perfectionist- lol. The sketch is from Friday Sketchers but I made an easel card because I just had to use that galloping horse paper.

Charisma Cardz and The Stamp Man both have easel cards as their challenge. JUGs have 'rodeo theme' in honour of Ethan, the little boy this set was made to commemorate. Pink Elephant have 'ribbon and sparkles' as their challenge and My time to Craft have 'glitter and glitz'- you can't see much of the pink grosgrain, but it is there, and I have used a gem to make a rhinestone belt buckle along with glitter on the ribbon of the hat and tiny star gems in the opposite corners. It is so unlike me to make such a pink and girly card and, although I have no idea who it will be for, I do like it!

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 17...

This fortnight the challenge at Cards for Men is to make your card using Decoupage, so we really want to see that dimension. We are being sponsored by our wonderful team leader Donna this time, so here's a bit about her store:

"Donna's Den of Crafts is a family-run business where we aim to please. We stock a wide range of cardmaking and scrapbooking items from Dovecraft, Joanna Sheen, Crafter's Companion, Spellbinders.....to name but a few. Our prices are reasonable and p&p is only £1. Most in-stock orders are dispatched next working day. Why not pop along and take advantage of a 10% discount for the duration of this challenge. Just enter the code CFM0410 in your shopping basket."

As well as that fantastic discount Donna is giving a prize of a £10 gift voucher for our lucky winner!

I'm a stamper at heart so I decided to decoupage a stamped image of Rugby Hamish by Sugar Nellie. I stamped him out 4 times and drew on the kit of my son's Under 8s rugby team- Meltham All Blacks. So many rugby stamps have striped tops on so I love the fact this one is plain which allows me to really personalise it.

I coloured all my layers with promarkers but paid more attention to the one that I knew would show. I made my backing with Nesties and chalked it for a hint of sky and grass. I used 3 layers to make up the main image and after cutting them out I used a large ball tool on the back over an old mouse mat to give some gentle roundness to the pieces. I layered them up with 3D foam then just used the sweatband and collars from the last image which I attached with glue gel for a very slight lift.

These papers have been so useful for rugby cards! They are from a free download by Summertime Designs called Fangs for the Memories which is really for Halloween but has these great diamond papers. It also has the same paper in burgundy which works great with the yellow for Huddersfield Giants! Great papers for sports cards are so hard to find.

I am also entering this card for the challenge at Our Daily Bread which is to 'stamp it more than once'.

Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 16

This fortnight the challenge at Cards for Men is called 'Off on an Adventure'. Our sponsor is...

Squiggle Stamps carry a unique range of cute, quirky and whimsical stamps designed by a talented team of illustrators. Our images are available as both Rubber and Digital Stamps with new designs added regularly. We are lucky to have a wonderful Design Team and you can see all their fabulous creations and take part in monthly prize challenges on the blog at http://www.squigglestamps.blogspot.com/

The prize is a set of 5 digistamps and the DT were lucky enough to be given an image to play with- this is what I made with mine...

I didn't want to go with the classic pirate colours of black, white and red so was thrilled when I found this paper set among my digi downloads. The papers are from a set called 'Captain Christopher' which was a freebie download from RebeccaB Designs and I love the seaside colours of rich aqua and sandy beige and, of course, the skull and crossbones paper! I managed to find a pearlised beige cardstock and some blue of the right shade in my stash for matting with my nesties. The ship's wheel embellishment was in a pack of goodies that our team leader Donna sent me from her shop- Thank you hon!
I am entering this card into the Dutch Dare challenge and Paperplay as they both have 'anything goes!'. I'm also entering it for Totally Papercraft's challenge of 'At the movies' as Treasure Island (my son wanted Pirates of the Carribean but the colours and style are wrong!).

Happy Yorkshire Day!..

August 1st is the 25th Yorkshire Day so I thought I would share a little something that made me smile...

An American tourist comes to England to visit. He tours around the major cities and, being a great lover of cathedrals and churches, he visits many - starting in St. Pauls Cathedral in London. Whilst in there he is admiring the great architecture and amazing fittings when he notices a golden telephone behind the altar. He asks someone what the golden phone is...and gets the answer, "That's a direct line to God! But it costs 50 million British pounds to use it !"
Amazed, he snaps some photos, and moves on for his next visit.
In Lincoln Cathedral he is again loooking around at the majesty of the interior, when he sees another golden telephone behind the altar. Again, he asks someone what it is...."a direct line to God mate! But its 50 million British Pounds to use it!"
Again, amazed, he snaps some photos, and moves on for his next visit.
He visits great cathedrals and churches the length and breadth of Britain - Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol etc etc....and all have these golden phones behind the altar - £50million pounds a call.
Finally he arrives in Yorkshire and calls in York Cathedral. He is taking photos and taking it all in when he notices that there is a sign next to the golden phone which reads, "All calls 10pence".
Aghast, he asks the Vicar about it, "I have seen these golden phones in all the places I have visited, but they are £50million to call God...how come this one has that sign on it?"
The Vicar replies "This is Yorkshire lad...its a local call from here!"

Happy Yorkshire Day from God's own county!

A silly little mini card...

This card really is mini- only 10cm across. The crazy thing is, I will probably have to put a 'large' stamp on it because of the layers, 3D foam and brads! Not including the card itself, there are 8 layers. My poor Big Shot machine! Had a right rummage around to find the little flower punch (that I knew I had but had not seen for ages!) to make the little flowers from the corner offcuts after cutting out the circles and found mini brads in the three colours. The sentiment is one of the, many, stamps I just had to have from Elzybells before they close. As you can't turn the card around to read it, this is what it says :-)
"It's been one of those days and then you get home to this card and some mad person is making you turn this card round and round to read what it says! Tomorrow will be better, promise. Have a great day!"
I am entering this for:
Cute Card Thursday's challenge of 'texting crazy'-make a feature of the sentiment.
Colour Create- Hot pink, warm orange and saffron.
CRAFT- hot and spicy colours.
Craftalicious- make your own flowers.

I faded the paper for the inside using Photoshop to give a pattern that I could still write on and stamped a tiny flower on the back of the envelope.