Little boys...

When I chose the checked paper for this card I decided it would also look really cute paper pieced on the shirt. The digiscrap papers are from a Stuff to Scrap blog train called 'Sunny Daffodils'. The image is from the beautiful 'Swings and slides' collection by Pollycraft. The blue has been embossed with the Swiss Dots folder by Cuttlebug and the buttons were removed from a really old shirt of my husbands!

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

• Stamptacular Sunday- fun in the sun
• Papertake Weekly- Here comes the sun
• I love Promarkers- anything goes
• Stampin' for the weekend- My favourite things (checked DPs, this layout, paper piecing)
• Daring cardmakers- Old, New (borrowed and blue) (The buttons must be 20 years old! The image is new. Lots of blue. Couldn't get borrowed in.)

Pollycraft DT call...

I have been waiting for the sun to come out so I can get a brighter picture but I think this is the best I'm going to get today!
Paula at Pollycraft is having a DT call and has been generous enough to provide 2 freebies for us to choose from to make a card to enter. I love Sonny Honeycloud so I just had to use her.She has been coloured with Promarkers, cut out and mounted on 3D pads. I am loving these digi papers from Shabby Princess at the moment- they are a freebie called 'Festival' and they just scream summer to me! The calico background for my image is also one of the papers as I did not want anything too stark and white. The sentiment was a freebie from Scrap-a licious Times, again printed onto the DP. The flower in the middle was coloured with my Promarkers to match the papers and the pearl brad and tiny pearls are from my stash. finished off with a couple of die cut swirls.
I am very fond of Pollycraft images so have them as a label if you want to see any more cards made with them. If you click on any of the pictures they will open up larger.

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

• Papertake Weekly- here comes the sun!
• I love Promarkers- anything goes
• Totally Papercrafts- spots and stripes

Cards for Men challenge 13...

This time at Cards for Men we would like to see your male cards featuring 'stars'.

We are sponsored by Stamping Boutique and, although we were given some images, I chose to use one I already had from them. If you follow the Stamping Boutique Blog Tracey posts occasional 24 hour freebies and I got this one a little while ago- you can now pick it up with a few others in her Birthday Set. I hope she will forgive me for using Photoshop to remove a flower from the heart shaped balloon to make it suit guys better! I find it really hard to colour balloons so they look light and transparent so I was challenging myself here- I think I got it with all of them except the red ones as I didn't have a shade of Promarker to fade to.

The papers are from The June Blog Train Blog 'Monkey-ing around'- they do blogtrains alternate months. The sentiment is a freebie from Scrap-a-licious Times and says 'Birthdays are good for you- the more you have- the longer you live'! The little layered star in the midle has been cut with a Crealies die.

Tracey from Stamping Boutique is kindly offering 5 digis for our lucky winner! The Cards for Men DT have made some great cards to inspire you- so why not pop over and see their work and join in the challenge? You have until 3rd July to take part.

I would like to enter the following chalenges:

• Do you stack up?- use a star
• Little Claire's Designs- Cards for men
• Paper Creator's crafts- for the men
• If the shoe fits- for men

Made by Matthew (age 9)...

Matthew asked if he could make a card for his Dad with me. We went to town last weekend and he picked out a mug and cuddly monster, which he paid for out of his own money. He knew I had a monster stamp set (Woodware clear) and wanted the card to match the present.

He was very clear about what he wanted and chose the style and papers, which I then cut for him. The papers are from a digiscrap blogtrain called 'Spring Picnic' from Stuff to Scrap. He stamped and coloured the images and sentiments himself. The word 'MONSTER' and the feet are also from the Woodware set and the rest of the words came from my Elzybells clear sets.

He even went through my list of challenges to see which he could enter!...

• Cupcake- Boy, oh boy- men or boys
• My time to craft- extra images
• Papertake weekly- Dads or lads
• Little red wagon- for Dad
• My Mum's craft shop- seeing spots
• Dutch dare- for the boys
• Catch the bug- It's a man's world

More Vintage Ronnie...

I hit a real mental block when it came to making Dad's Fathers' Day card- I couldn't find an image. Usually I don't have a problem with guys' cards, but Dad is tricky. I thought I would use an Elzy gardening bear but then I had this sudden doubt because I think I have used it for him before! I was too tired to think about it as I have been fighting a cold, then when I came back to it, feeling better- It all came together in my mind perfectly!
When I was making Chris' Birthday card I printed off the 'Vintage Ronnie' image from Pollycraft twice- just incase! It was also perfect for Dad and the right proportions for the center stepper card that I wanted to make. I used an old favourite digiscrap paper set called 'French Tulips' from a Stuff to Scrap blogtrain, because it is a favourite I knew exactly which papers I wanted! The sentiment was a freebie from Bird's Blog. The little stars have been cut with my Crealies Die from the same paper as the one behind the image which I resized in Photoshop to get a co-ordinated look. Quick trip to the postbox and I was done!

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

• Sentimental Sunday- Fathers' Day
• Cupcake- Boy, oh boy- men or boys
• Papertake Weekly- Dads or lads
• Little red wagon- for Dad
• My Mum's craft shop- seeing spots
• Do you stack up?- use a star
• Dutch Dare- for the boys
• Totally Papercrafts- die cuts or punches

Girly Girl...

I used the 'Felicity Homegirl' image from Pollycraft for this card and took my colours from the gorgeous freebie papers by Summertime Designs called 'A Little Spring in your Step'. The sentiment was computer generated. The faux stitching was hand doodled.

The flower has been die cut from felt with a Sizzix Bigz die called Daisies. I thought it really mirrored the shape of the flowers on the pannel when layered up like this.





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

• Stamp something- Punched or die cut
• Totally Gorjuss- flower power
• Paper Sundaes- girly girl

Vintage Ronnie...

I made this card for our friend Chris. The image is Vintage Ronnie by Pollycraft, which is sold as a fundraiser for Yorkshire Air Ambulance, coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment was a freebie by Scrap-a-licious Times which says 'Birthdays are good for you- the more you have- the longer you live'- love it! The papers are a digi-scrap set called 'It's about time' from Scraps by Andrea. I have chalked around the image to take the stark white off the paper as the papers are more beige and it looked wrong.

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

• Paperplay- Fathers' Day or man's card
• Secret Crafter- male card
• Crafty Emmas- Inspired by a movie (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
• Sentimental Sunday- Fathers' Day or masculine
• Cupcake- 'Boy oh boy'- men or boys

Summer in the garden...

I made a card very similar to this a while ago, but used cool blues and greens with dark brown- You can see it here. I was so pleased with it that I decided to remake it but in these warm, summery colours.
The papers are a freebie from Shabby Princess called 'Festival' and had just the colours I was looking for. The image is from Elzybells (now closed down). The sentiment is a freebie from Scrap-a-licious Times which I have printed onto one of the papers from the set. Finished off with a flower which was white but coloured with promarkers to match the papers and a little swirl topped with a couple of tiny pearls.

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

• Corrosive- summer colours
• Cupcake- Things with tails- the little bird
• Spoon Full of Sugar- Here comes Summer
• My time to craft- Wildlife
• Do you stack up?- Birthdays
• Totally Papercrafts- Summer

A watering can of roses...

Here's another card made with my Pink Petticoat gingham papers. This time I have gone for a soft, feminine combination of rose pink and green. The image is from Bugaboo and I have stamped the sentiment, from Elzybells, straight on to the paper for a cleaner look. I couldn't resist some more bunting cut with my MTF pennant die- I love how you can scale digi paper so that the gingham on the bunting is really small.

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

• Daring Cardmakers- roses or honeysuckle
• Catch the bug- anything goes
• Papertake weekly- anything goes
• Scrapbook sisters- an English country garden

Cards for the Cubs and Beavers...

I haven't posted much over the last week or so, partly because we have been away to Wales to visit my folks over the half term holiday and partly because I haven't had time for other crafting because I have been busy with this little lot!

Beaver cards for boys. (The youngest group in the Scouting organisation.)

Beaver girl's cards.

Cub boy's cards.

Cub girl's cards.

Matthew's group are planning on going on an amazing trip to Switzerland in 2013, when he will be a Scout, and his group have to raise lots of funds to susidise this so I made these cards for them to sell. I used the Lily and Billy dress up sets of rubber stamps from Pink Cat Studio, which meant lots of cutting and piecing as the clothes come as separate images for you to mix and match and they are tiny! Here is one of the Beaver cards for girls in more detail:

I used papers from the Stuff to Scrap blogtrain 'Spring Picnic' for the Beavers as the colours are lovely and sunny and the blue is a perfect match for the Beaver's sweatshirts.

The Cubs have dark green sweatshirts so they were harder to find papers for but eventually I settled on these papers by Shery K Designs which are from three colour matched paper sets. I think they work because they are a lighter tone of the green and are in sort of outdoorsy woodland colours which work well for them because they are always off camping!

I hope they like them and that they help raise some money for the trip. I also hope that Melissa from Pink Cat Studio conciders my e-mail suggestion of making a digi of these images which would certainly help with any future sets if they go well!

Update: I delivered the cards to the Cub group tonight and the leaders were thrilled with them.
Melissa from Pink cat has been amazing and has sent me digis of Lily and Billy as Scouts- Thank you so much Melissa- hugs!

I would like to enter these cards in the following challenges:

• Stamp Man- boys and men (the 10 boys cards!)
• Sentimental Sunday- it has to be the extended scouts version of the Fast Food Rockers 'Fast Food song' that they sing at campfires at Bradley Woods Scout Camp with extra made up verses including the rather cheeky one about Brownies and Guides- you have to be there! It is so funny!
• Corrosive- Summer colours (the Beavers cards)
• Scrappy Frog- birthdays (most of these are birthday)
• Drunken Stampers- birthdays
• Paper crafting journey- anything goes
• Samuel Taylors- males (the 10 boy cards!)

Cards for Men- challenge 12...

Wow, that was a busy half-term holiday! I'm looking forward to getting back into the usual routine.
So here we are at challenge 12 and this time we would like to see your creations in blue and black. They must be for a male of course!

Sorry about the photo- it was taken in the last of the light to get it on the post in time! The DT were kindly given images for our cards by our sponsor, Heart Song Designs, and I have used this dreamy hot air balloon and teamed it with this lovely freebie sentiment from Scrap-a-licious Times. The papers were from a digiscrap kit called 'Little Spring Flowers' by Getting Scrappy with Britt.

Heart Song Designs are kindly offering 3 digi images, of your choice, for our lucky winner. The challenge will run until 19th June so there is plenty of time for you to pop over to Cards for Men and join in. While you're there, do have a look at the inspiration from the rest of the DT- lots of us have used the same image and it's interesting to see what we've all done with it!

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

• Charisma- something that flies
• Stamp Man- boys and men
• Stamp Something- digi day
• Paper Sundaes- lets get sentimental
• Cupcake Inspirations- I took- the blues, the domed shapes, the spirals reminded me of the Fleur de Lis and the plane linked with flight.