Cards for Men challenge 7- Embossing...

We had so many gorgeous entries for the sketch challenge and it's great to see that so many of you want to join us on the DT! We are now visiting all your blogs and Donna will announce the new team members on the CFM site as soon as we can decide!
Anyway, on to our new challenge- Embossing, which I'm proud to say I was asked to set so I hope you like it! I actually set it to challenge myself too because I often neglect my embossing folders but am always pleased with the results when I use them- lol. It doesn't have to be embossing folders, you can also do heat embossing with powders or hand embossing with brass stencils and a stylus. Don't forget- your card must be for a man or boy.

The DT were lucky enough to be able to choose images from our sponsors- Paper Pretties. I used the 'Go, go Gordon' digi image, which I have coloured with my promarkers. I quite often use the dotty technique that I have used here for grounding the image but this is the first time I have used it this much to make a background- I think it works?!
My papers are from a digi scrapping bloghop by Stuff to Scrap called 'March of the Animals'. I embossed a plain, distressed effect piece of the DP with the 'Christmas Stars' embossing folder by Cuttlebug (silly title- I use it far more during the year!). I then matched a piece of Core'dinations card to the greens and embossed it with a new border folder I got from Papermania called 'Tasty Trims' before sanding it back to bring out the core.
The ticket sentiment was a free digi from Mudmaven Designs.

The challenge runs until 11th April so why not pop over to Cards for Men to check out the rest of the great DT cards and enter for yourself?
Paper Pretties are offering a super-cute pirate clear stamp with loads of sentiments for our winner, details on the CFM site.

Did you notice my new watermark? Sarah, aka Rainmac, from our DT was kind enough to send me a voucher for Whimsey Stamps when it was my birthday and I used it to get this and a lovely shaped border digi that I'm hoping to get the chance to play with soon. Thank You!

I would also like to enter this card for the following challenges:-

• I love Promarkers- go dotty (DP plus dotty colouring technique)
• Sisterhood of crafters- let's hear it for the boys

A box card for Easter...

I made this card to give to my son for Easter after getting the mini eggs the other day. The image is from Bugaboo and all the DP came from a digi scrap blogtrain called 'scripture heros'. Here is the inside:

There is space to write and a box full of eggs, which opens with a flap at the top. Here's a close up of the box (and eggs!).

The box has an acetate front. I used Labels 3 and the circles for all the shapes. If you would like to make one of these yourself, there is a tutorial here.

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

• Totally Papercrafts- cuddly and cute
• Stamp Something- spring somethings
• Gorjuss- spring is sprung
• CES challenges- Die cut crazy

I just had to make this!..

How unseasonable can you get? The weather finally starts to get better, it's gorgeous here today- and I make a snow card!!
In my defence it was just one of those cards that fell together. Dutch Dare had an inspirational photo with turquoises and browns and I knew I had some digi paper somewhere in those colours- when I found it it was Summertime Designs 'Winter Wonderland' freebie- so the rest of the card went from there! The image is by Pollycraft and is a bargain at 49p at the moment. I coloured him with Promarkers and glittered the snow on the ground and some dots for falling snow. I also glittered the edges of the sentiment which was a freebie from Raindrop Echo at Sentimental Sundays from a while ago but they have a new set here each week. (I love that sentiment- I need to be more like that when it snows, I got grumpy with it this year and shovelled in a mood!) I gave in to my 'want it' for some Marianne snowflake dies and have used them to make the two unconventionally coloured snowflakes, which I finished with a gem each.
However, I have been really busy this week doing extra hours at work and only just got a photo, plus I had forgotten they are now weekly- which means that, after all that, I missed Dutch Dare! Never mind, because I would like to enter my card in the following challenges:-

• ABC- Q for quote
• Charisma- to 'die' for- diecuts
• Digi Doodle- anything goes
• Do it with digis- girls and boys come out to play
• Paper Cutz- your choice

Cards for Men challenge 6- a sketch...

Our challenge at Cards for Men this fortnight is a great sketch by our DT member, Mandy. We are sponsored by Letraset, who are offering a set of 12 Promarkers for our lucky winner. The challenge runs until 27th March so why not pop over to CFM for the rest of the details and to see the great cards the rest of the team have made.
Edited to add: We're having a DT call at CFM- details on the challenge blog.

So here's my offering-

I used this lovely little gardening teddy from Elzybells (now closed down) and coloured him with my promarkers. I printed this design paper ages ago then didn't use it so was glad to find the perfect card for it. The paper is from a Stuff to Scrap blogtrain called 'great outdoors' and I found matching cardstock in my stash. I was so chuffed when I remembered I had these brads- my husband got me them for Christmas years ago!

I would also like to enter this card for:-

• Paper Play- shades of green
• Colour Create- Green, brown, cream and black with an option of leaves
• Stamp Something- green and cream
• Allsorts- 'the luck o' the irish'- lots of green is fine

A pink, polka dot Easter card !...

I wasn't going to use this paper set again as I have made 2 other cards with it lately, but then I saw that Cupcake Craft have 'pink polka dots' as their challenge- so what could I do?!

The papers are from a digi set called 'Think Pink' by Just so Scrappy and I do love them so! The layout is from the great sketch at Sketch Saturday this week. This sketch had quite a few layers so I would also like to enter my card for Do You Stack Up's challenge of 'layers'. I confess to buying the digi stamp from Bugaboo especially for this card, but I'm sure I will use it plenty more times. Catch the Bug have 'scallops' as their challenge so I took this opportunity to use one of the scalloped card cutting dies I bought from Go Kreate a little while back to cut the card base, a Nellies die for the image and a Nestie for the sentiment. I finished off with a piece of organza ribbon from my stash and some card candy.