Cards for Men DT card- Challenge 2...

There were some really great entries for our sketch challenge last time and this fortnight we have a theme for you - 'Let's Party!', so you could make a party invitation or a card for someone having a party. (As usual, it must be for a man or boy of course!) There are 4 digi images of your choice from Meljen Designs for our lucky winner.

The DT were lucky enough to be given some fantastic party digis by our lovely sponsor, Meljen's Designs, and I chose to make my card with this great party cat! It is well worth a trip over to her shop as she has lots of super cute images and loads of great freebies there like the sentiment I used here.

The papers are from the Stuff to Scrap January blog train 'Auld Lang Syne' and if you click on my card to make it larger you will see that the striped paper has silver ticker tape on it which I thought went really well with the confetti in the image! It is mainly coloured with Promarkers but I had to go back to my Whispers Brushmarkers to colour the lettering on the sentiment as they have a really fine detail end to them- my promarkers couldn't cope with that bit as I took the sentiment down to quite a small size LOL! Finished off with a couple of stars cut from silver scraps with an old Sizzlett die of mine. I love this die because it has a really tiny star and heart on it which are fabulous for making your own card candy but I am starting to have trouble with it because I have used it to cut quite thick card and that has squashed the foam so it can be a bit tricky if the star sticks in the die : (

Do please pop over to Cards for Men to have a look at what the rest of the DT girls have made and for more information about our sponsor. The challenge runs until 30th January so there's plenty of time for you to join in!

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

• Craft Your Days Away- anything goes
• Totally Papercrafts- Happy Birthday (also sponsored by Meljen's!)

Happy Mothers' Day...

I made this easel card for my husband to give to to his Mum for Mothers' Day; I didn't want to post it before the day because she sometimes looks at my blog! The papers are a download called Morning Mocha from Nibbles Scribbles and I particularly loved the retro looking circle paper and the brown with purple. I have really got to get to grips with promarkers because the watercoloured brush marker looks really blotchy here.
I have followed the sketch at Friday Sketchers, but although I had a roll of ribbon ready for the band across, it was still there after I had stuck everything down so I had to leave it off! One Stop Crafts have 'spots and dots' as their challenge. Paper Cutz and Secret Crafter both have 'anything goes'.

Guitarist Birthday Card...

Another card for a member of my church housegroup. This is for Ben who is away at University at the moment so I will take it this week for us all to sign so he knows we are thinking of him. I wanted to use this image but did not want the card to look too young so I used dark design papers from two free downloads by Summertime Designs- Vintage Oreos and a Year to Shine. I always ink the edges of printed papers as it takes away the sharp white edge and gives them a 'finished' look.

I am entering this card in Allsorts recipe challenge of 1,2,3 as it has 1 image, 2 design papers and 3 stars.

Two Valentines for the men in my life...

...don't get excited! I mean my husband and my son!

This cheeky little number is for my husband. I thought I might be pushing it with the image AND the sentiment but it made him laugh when he opened it this morning! You see he is rather 'cuddly' and this Murray and Ethel image reminded me of him- in the nicest possible way! I love that Murray and Ethel sentiment too. We have always said "Do you love me?" and replied "I'm still here, aren't I!" so you get the picture of what we are like! The papers are a free (for personal use) download from Shabby Princess.This is for my son so it had to be boyish rather than the traditional Valentines colours. I found the right papers in a recent download which was a free collaboration called Dr Love from Collies Corner and Sweet Digi Scraps. 'Billy' images from Pink Cat Studio are perfect for him right now and this set has mini stamps for the center of the heart- I chose 'Hug me' because I love hugs from him and dread the day when he decides he is too big for them!

Not surprisingly, quite a few of the challenges have Valentines as their theme this week so I am entering these cards for My Time to Craft, Cute Card Thursday and Dutch Dare. Charisma Cardz has 'male' as their theme so I am also entering them both for this.

Goodbye Beavers, Hello Cubs...

Now my son has turned 8 he is leaving Beavers to move on to Cubs so I wanted to make a card to thank the leaders.

The papers I have used were a download which I got for free from Growing pains Scrapped (I think they are now available to buy from Stuff to Scrap). The collection is called 'Dogs and Frogs' and was great for this card because it uses the turquoise of the Beavers uniform and the green of the Cubs.

I have to confess that I bought the stamp set especially for this card- but it is full of elements that I know I will use for lots of other cards! It is called 'Dress up Billy' from Pink Cat Studio and has a Billy figure and lots of elements to paper piece to create lots of outfits- rather like paper dress up dolls when I was a girl!

I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday for this card. I use Adobe Photoshop to resize and crop the papers before printing so was able to size the squared paper so I could cut the corners from it. I tore the edge of the coredinations cardstock to fit with the boyish, grunge look of the papers.

I added a little necker in the colours of his lodge to the back of the envelope to finish it off.

"While shepherds washed their socks by night!"...

...as children down the generations have found it hysterical to sing in place of the real words to this traditional hymn!

Allsorts challenged us to make a card inspired by the words of a Christmas carol this week. I had to have this Jolly Nation stamp when I saw it because having been a primary school teacher for 17 years I have fixed more than my fair share of tea towels to shepherds' heads! It was very simply made from some embossed gold Merry Christmas card from my stash and mats cut and embossed with the Labels 8 Nestabilities.

The image has been watercoloured with brushmarkers scribbled onto an acrylic block and painted on.

My first Christmas card...

I was mulling over the challenges as I went to bed on Saturday night and before I got off to sleep I knew one thing and that was that I was going to dig out my Pink Cat Studio QT Hooty stamps in the morning! I did not set out to make a Christmas card- in fact I was thinking of using the 'get well' image! -but when I started looking for papers I was really drawn to these colours. They are a free download by Summertime Designs called Winter Gifts.
I could not resist using my new nesties- I had the ovals but have just bought the scalloped circles and ovals and the plain circles. I have less time to craft now that I'm working full time but more money to send off for goodies!
ABC have F for Flying as their challenge which is what set me off thinking about QT Hooty. Secret Crafter have 'Dig Deep'- to find an old stamp or image- I got this set for Christmas last year and have used some of the set, but not this image yet, and have not had them out for a while. Just Us Girls have Aqua, red and vintage cream as their colour combo this week. This was what got me searching for papers in my downloads and I loved the crisp look of this set. The DPs have been printed onto a shimmery pearly paper which has not come out in the photo at all and they look much less stark and white in real life!
Getting a photo of this card was a real problem. I finished it on Sunday night and it was too dull to take a picture before work so I ended up taking it to school and nipping outside my classroom to take the photo at lunchtime!

Not blogged in over a month!

I could not believe I have been AWOL for over a month now and not only have I not blogged but I have not been making cards either! There was one card, but I could not put it on my blog because it was a photo card which a colleague had asked me to make for her. Weekends are over in no time now that I am teaching full time and evenings are either taken up with work or I am too tired to make cards. I have resolved to be a better blogger from now on!
It seems ironic that the last card I posted was for my son's friend Jamie and so is this! When I bought this Elzy stamp I thought it may come in handy one day with having a boy (and it was on offer!) but I did not expect to be using it so soon. Jamie has broken his elbow and is in hospital at the moment waiting to find out if it can be set or if it needs operating on so Matthew wanted to send him get well wishes. They are both into playing 'army' at the moment so he chose these free download papers from Summer Driggs called Courage. I paper pieced the t-shirt, trousers and sling and painted the rest using brushmarkers. The Coredinations has been embossed with my new Christmas Stars folder and sanded.

The card is based on the sketch at Papertake Weekly, but I could not fit in the ribbon. Stamp Something have 'brown plus something' as their challenge, where you are allowed to use other colours but brown must be predominant. I have just discovered a new challenge blog called Just Us Girls and they have paper piecing as their challenge so I am entering this card as I have paper pieced his clothes. As these papers are a download I was able to re-scale the papers used for the piecing in Photoshop before printing which is great for getting small enough prints.

Ruby fairy...

Well, my son and I have been in Wales for a couple of weeks visiting my folks and I can't believe how fast the summer holidays have gone! I am back at school on Tuesday and the Head has asked me to go full time in year 2 until one of our staff is able to return from illness. He has indicated that it may go on until Christmas. This will obviously have an impact on my 'work/life balance' but I hope to keep on posting cards, if not quite as frequently as before!

Allsorts had a tough challenge for me this week- no rubber stamping! Rubber stamping is what I do! However, back in July I was lucky enough to win the prize over at Stamp Something Challenges which was $10 worth of digital stamps from Fred She Said. I have never used digi stamps before so decided that this was the push I needed. Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge was 'flights of fancy- anything with wings' so I have used the Little Miss Bitty Fairy image.

As I said I'm a total novice with digi images and as I printed on an inkjet I was rather worried about the ink running when I coloured. I decided to paper piece the dress by also printing her onto this Pink Petticoat paper. I coloured her skin and hair with brushmarkers but the effect looked really flat so I braved watercolouring them onto her cheeks and hair for more shading. I was desperate to use my shimmering watercolours for her wings so went for it and was pleasantly surprised when I didn't ruin it! Any hints on colouring digital images or links to useful info would be very welcome!

In keeping with the challenge, the sentiment has been computer generated then cut out and embossed with my wonderful new Spellbinders ribbon tags dies.

The colour combo of 'ruby, cream and gold' comes from Colour Create. Great opportunity to use this sumptuous red cardstock which is coated and embossed with swirls and circles along with this lovely matt gold and hammered cream- all from the local Pay-per-box. I used a few scraps of the printed paper and gold to decorate the inside.

Mummy-to-be card...

I'm really not sure if I like this card! It has taken quite a while coming together. I printed the front papers when I saw Colour Create's combo of pink, orange and green. They are a free download called 'Happy Mothers' Day' by Summertime Designs. But they have been sitting around for over a week because I was helping out at our Church Holiday club last week and, although we all had a fantastic time, I was too tired to craft in the evenings!

The design started to come together when I saw Friday Sketchers challenge. There were lots of curves which made me think of this Elzybells stamp, which I have had for ages but just not got around to inking up yet! I decided to follow this sketch and round the front of the card which meant I needed to go back to my DP and print a paper for the inside as it would show. About a week ago I persuaded my husband to answer loads of the things I wanted to do with Photoshop but couldn't and he even showed me some things I hadn't thought of! Refering back to my notes, I was able to lighten the pink by altering the opacity and overlay the flowers at the bottom and top corner before printing- I even impressed myself!

I had been thinking about Stamp Something's challenge to use a charm on your card- I don't have any charms! I decided to have a go at making one, so used a little bootie stamp from a Woodware clear set to stamp on shrink plastic. I used a hole punch to make the hole before cutting them out. I knew they were going to end up tiny because they were pretty small before I started but also because I checked them with my shrink plastic ruler (see end of post). They were so small that my heat gun kept blowing them away so I ended up heating them in a ramekin dish to keep them in one place! They are suspended from the mulberry flower by a fine silver thread as I do not have any jewellery making stuff.

Shrink Plastic Ruler.

I don't claim this as my own idea but can not remember where I heard it! Take an off cut of shrink plastic and, using a permanent pen, draw on a line with a ruler and mark off and number each centimeter. Shrink the 'ruler' and use it to give a guide of how small your shrinkies will end up. For example- Measure your stamp in cm. then find the same size on your 'ruler' to get an idea of their final size when shrunk. Sorry for the blurry photo but this is seriously small!

Strawberry Cutie...

Cute Card Thursday have 'Let's get Fruity!' as their theme this week. I knew I didn't have any fruity stamps so I went to my paper downloads and found this lovely freebie which I got from Papercraft Inspirations which sparked loads of ideas. (This same set helped me out ages ago when Cute Card Thursday had bright citrus colours as a theme and I made this card.)

I loved the colours, scallops and dots so I decided to base my card on these. My scallop scissors have never seen so much use! The little girl is Jolly Nation and has been coloured with brushmarkers- it would have been so much easier to do the dots red but I tried both out on a test stamp and this looked so much better that I knew I had to go for it! The flower and leaves are cut from felt using my Sizzix and echo the flowers in the paper and on her hat.

Making this reminded me so much of when I was a little girl. My parents loved strawberries and we used to go to a fruit farm in Lydiate right from the start of the season when they just had a few punnets on sale from the back porch of the house. When the season started properly they sold the strawberries from an ancient stone barn with a really low doorway. No matter how warm it was outside it always felt cool in there.

A Harry Potter birthday card...

I bought this Woodware 'Wizardry' clear set ages ago, it was something I really wanted at the time but when I got it I just was not inspired about how to use it! We went to see The Half-Blood Prince at the weekend and it got me thinking about this set!

Stampin' for the Weekend have masking as their challenge and I decided to try masking this set to make a scene. I used the Post-it note method which took a bit of thinking about! You have to stamp the foreground first then cover them with masks cut from stamped post-it notes to stamp objects behind. So I stamped and masked the cauldron and the yellow bottle, then stamped the other two bottles behind. Finally I added the wand and stamped the owl on a scrap to cut out. It has all been watercoloured with brushmarkers. The outside sentiment came from the same set and the inside one was a clear stamp I had made from a Potter type font.

The layout comes from the Pink Elephant sketch and was a nice clean one to work with. The papers are another of the fantastic free downloads from Summertime Designs. They come from the Happy Halloween set and I put them with Burgundy cardstock to give Gryffindor colours! The inside is actually a label design which is part of the download and just needed sizing, printing, stamping and cutting out!

Yellow and black- not colours I often put together!

Papertake Weekly have a take-your-pick colour combi as their challenge this week. I have been looking at the colour choices for a few days now and then it suddenly struck me- I made this card a couple of weeks ago to thank the man who has run a Multi-skills club at my son's school but not posted it before! It did not fit any challenges at the time and I was beginning to wonder if it ever would! I am entering this because it is YELLOW and BLACK.

I painted the Jolly Nation football boy with brushmarkers using the colours of the school PE kit, adding the school logo to the top! He is 3D over a chalked background, mounted with some textured yellow and some mirri embossed with stars. I then stamped some more yellow with the 'You're a star!' sentiment and the two stars from the Playtime clear stamp set from Woodware. The sentiment is from my ever-trusty Elzybells clear greetings.

Two 'Pirate Monkey' birthday cards.

Another of my new Sugar Nellies. Love this little chap but had a few false starts colouring him for the first time. I started with my Prismas and Sansodor but there was only black in my 24 set and it came out a bit too dark. Went on to watercolour pencils but the grey I had was rather too bluey, so that would not do either! Finally I used my Whispers brushmarkers and washed on the diluted black with a paintbrush then added the darker shading. I was aiming for the sort of look 'Me to You' bears have and I'm fairly happy with what I ended up with eventually!

Both cards are made with free download papers from Raspberry Road Designs from their 'My Baby Love' boy and girl collections. They have a lovely knitted or textile look which is just what I wanted. I doodled the faux stitching around the image and added the buttons to finish off the whole textile look.

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge has the theme of 'In the Jungle'. They want to see animals found in the jungle on our cards- a monkey is perfect for this, but he probably wouldn't need his jumper!

Giants Rugby League card.

Well I said in my last post that I needed to get a few cards in Giants colours done so while I was on a roll I got straight on to it! Huddersfield is the birthplace of Rugby League and it is pretty huge around here- I have even been to a few games myself and, while I don't claim to know what was going on, I really enjoyed it!


This rugby man from Jolly Nation is great with his pint of beer! I have used a combination of watercolouring with my brushpens and using them direct to get nice strong colours like the famous Claret and Gold kit! He is cut out and attached with 3D foam onto the chalked background. I am entering this card for Cupcake Craft's 'Card for a man or boy' challenge. I am also entering it for Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge which requires the use of brads or eyelets- there are 2 little brads on each sentiment strip.

Huddersfield Town FC cards.

I really needed some more cards in the colours of our local football team for my stash because they are always popular and I have run out. Colour Create have blue and green as their combo this week so it was the perfect opportunity to get some done. This stamp from Jolly Nation is great because the shirt is blank so I can make it into any colours I need- here I just drew in the vertical stripes with a fine, permanent pen before watercolouring it with brushmarkers. I prefer to use pens for this stamp because they give nice strong colours which suit the football strips.

I had fun using my VersaMark pad to make the background papers for this card. The blue has a football and stars repeated over it from a Woodware clear set and the green is a background with football words from Funstamps- although it is mostly covered up! I sponged toning ink around the edges of each.

Here are my cards all together. The figures have been cut out and attached with 3D foam over a chalked background. The sentiment is Imaginisce and I added the little football in the middle myself.

Finally, I am still keeping up putting a little decoration inside; not as fancy as many of you ladies, but I like it!

Don't know if you can see from the photos but the miri has an embossed star design in it and the base card has a 'cord' texture to it.

Right, now I need to do some rugby cards in Giants colours!!

Black, white and pink Anniversary card.

I love it when you read a challenge and just know what you are going to do for it! When I read that Colour Create was black, white and pink this week I immediately thought of this Pink Petticoat download that I have had for ages and this Lily and Billy Sweethearts stamp from Pink Cat Studio. I coloured the image with Whispers Brushmarkers, directly colouring some parts but mostly watercolouring with them. I matted them onto silver miri for extra glamour but also because the bag given for inspiration had a silver clasp. The optional challenge was to use polka dots so this Anita's ribbon was perfect, matted onto Core'dinations cut with scalloped scissors. I was also inspired to decorate the inside by the scraps I had left after finishing the card.

I am also entering this card for Dutch Dare 'Create a card using your favourite things'. I love this Lily and Billy stamp set- I think they are so cute and I love colouring them. The sentiment is from my trusty clear greetings set from Elzybells- this set can be used to make so many greetings and I love the size and style of the font. Finally it is a great favourite of mine to arrange the sentiment on a little tab.

Mauve Wedding Wishes.

I had had this card in my head for a few days so I finally found time to make it! The base card has a lovely iridescence which the photo does no justice to and the silver miri board and foiled panel look rather black here- rubbish photo, you're just going to have to trust me that they are there! The image is another from the EBay shop which has now gone- wish I could find out if she was still doing stamps anywhere else. The sentiment is from my fave Elzy clear set. The ABC challenge is 'H is for hearts' so I am entering this card.

Thanks for the kind comments you have left for my son- he is now much better, back at school and looking forward to the holidays!

Mother's Day cards.

There were things I liked about my last card and things I struggled with. I don't usually put so much on my cards! I made these to take into work and am much more pleased with them. The strip across the card has been embossed with the flower border from the Cuttlebug 'With Love' borders. The card base is made from pearlised card. The images and papers are the same as before. The sentiment comes from a Woodware clear set called 'Family Christmas'. Hope they like them at school!

Pink Mother's Day.

I followed a sketch on Sketch Saturday for this card. When I saw the sketch I really liked it and wanted to join in but I struggled a bit with this card! It has ended up very pink and I had to move the sentiment to the other side to make it work- Oh well!!

The text paper is from a DCWV stack. The image is from a stamp I got from an E-bay shop which is, sadly, no longer there. The felt flower and card leaves are both cut with a Sizzix original die called 'Flowers and Vines'.

Fighting against fading light when taking this photo- sorry it is a bit dark.