The good life...

Another of my pre-stamped images from 'the box' - this time I used a rubber stamp that I have had for ages from Paper Nation- I tend to stamp a couple as they are in a crate and when I've got them out and inked them I might as well! I teamed him with one of my favourite digi-scrap papers from an STS blogtrain called French Tulips- this check (I know more checks!!) is so versatile for guy's cards. I printed the sentiment from TLC straight onto the paper and finished the card with some foliage cut with a Crealies die and a few Candi.

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

• Make it Monday- linky party
• Cupcake- Ooh la la (French Tulips papers- reds and blues)
• Cards for men- kicking back, relaxing
• Waste not Wednesdays- neglected stash (image stamped ages ago)

Cards for Men challenge 18 and a freebie sentiment...

Well, here we are, almost at the end of August. This time at Cards for Men we have 'G is for...' as our challenge. This one had me thinking to start with, but I eventually thought of green, grey, golf, Grandad, gnome, gardening and the one I finally used- guitar!

I dug out a wood mounted rubber stamp from Jolly Nation that I haven't used for ages for this one! Jolly Nation was my first stamping addiction, but not my last! My son plays electric guitar so I bought this to make a card for him. I coloured him with my Promarkers.
The papers were a freebie download  from No Reimer Reason called 'Americana'. I carried on the star theme by die cutting a star to mount the button on.
I made the sentiment myself and used a PNG file this time which allowed me to print it directly onto the paper. If you would like it, please help yourself!

We are sponsored by Letraset for this challenge and you know how I love my Promarkers! Pop over to the Cards for Men site for details of the prize and to see the rest of the fabulous DT cards. You have until 11th September to play along.



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

• Totally Gorjuss- Anything goes
• Challenge Up Your Life- For a man

G is for gardener...

I dug out some of my wood mounted rubber stamps today- I'm sorry to say I hardly ever do that nowadays. I wanted this gardener image by Jolly Nation for My Time to Craft's 'G is for..' challenge and another stamp for a card that I can't show you yet!
I used digiscrap papers by Scrapping Sisters called 'one year older' and decided to make a center stepper card. The little pot is part of the image but as I cut them out I decided to use it as a separate element. I made the 'plant label' sentiment from some textured cardstock from my stash. I rounded the top corners with a small corner rounder punch abd cut the other end to a point. I stamped the sentiment then darkened the edges a little with some chalk.

I would also like to enter this card in:

• Stamptacular Sunday- Fancy folds
• Anything goes- Birthday/celebration
• Oldie but a goodie- great outdoors

Footballer...

I made this for Matthew to give to his friend who plays for Metham Athletic FC and coloured my v.old favourite Jolly Nation football stamp in the team colours with my Promarkers. The papers are from a freebie set by Summer Driggs called 'Fangs for the memories' which is really for Halloween but is so useful for other things too. Card Candi and a computer generated sentiment to finish off.

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

• Gem of a challenge- Let's hear it for the boys
• Here come the boys- Sporty
• Cupcake- your fave. from the last 150 challenges- 146 Boy, oh boy

"Born in the USA"...

This card really reminds me of that Bruce Springsteen song! Not really surprising seing as the papers came from an Independence Day digi scrapping kit- 'Freedom' by Summertime Designs. I made this card ages ago for my son's birthday but never got around to posting it on my blog. The layout matches the sketch at Papertake Weekly so I thought I would post it and enter this.

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.

"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.

Skateboard birthday...

Some of you may have read in my recent posts that I have just changed from working 2 days a week to full time teaching. Because my son has just gone back to school he had a couple of party invitations with very little notice because they were early September birthdays. I managed to find a card in my stash for the first but did not have a card for the second so *Shock, Horror* I decided that we would just have to buy one from Morrisons- well, the choice was dire and I just could not do it!!! So out came my stuff and, after saying I would keep it very simple, I got carried away and was still at it at 11.45pm! Sorry the photo is a bit dark but I took it at about 7am so he could take the card with him to school today!

This card hits loads of challenges, which is a good thing due to my lack of crafting time right now! The layout is from the Spoon Full of Sugar sketch and it was a really nice one for these papers and this card. The papers are from Shabby Princess and are a free download so long as you are not using them to make cards to sell. These papers cover:-
Cupcake Craft- red, white and blue
My time to craft- polka dot party
Our Creative Corner- stars and stripes (with the die cut star from the red paper)
Stamp Something have 'Favourite Stamp' as their challenge- hard one because I love all my stamps but Jolly Nation are some of the first stamps I bought and I still keep coming back to them. I love the simplicity and how they just seem to look like people you know! (They also had an option of die cuts which I hit with the star.) The image is coloured with watercolour pencils and a brush. The ABC challenge this week was 'D is for Die Cuts' so that is the sizzlet star! Last but not least, Allsorts had 'Something for the boys' which I was fine with because having a son I do have the stamps and get lots of practice. I think I will need to build up my stash of boys cards again to avoid more midnight crafting!

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.

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.

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!!

Bright citrus birthday.

As soon as I read that Cute Card Thursday had citrus colours as its theme this week I got straight to printing out these free download papers from Papercraft Inspirations. Had a bit of a job deciding which stamp to put with them but I think this Jolly Nation singing girl works well with these funky colours. I have coloured her with my new Prismacolor pencils, Sansodor and paper stumps- I'm still working on my technique with these and am not entirely happy with this yet. I was worried about soaking the cardstock too much and making it look oily but it seems to evaporate so I'm getting braver! I followed sketch #46 at Friday Sketchers which was perfect for this card.

Saturday Challenge #21 and Cupcake Challenge #57

Secret crafter Saturday Challenge was to make a card featuring 'Transport'. Cupcake Challenge was a sketch which I have rotated and made square- very square in fact! The stamp is Jolly Nation and the patterned paper is BasicGrey. I had fun experimenting with sponging ink around the edge of the rust card which is something I have not tried before but will definitely do again. I'm not a huge peel off fan but I think the 'Happy Retirement' works here because it matches the other gold elements. A square punch to fit these letter stamps was a good investment!

I'm very excited to say that one of my cards is in the showcase on Elzybells blog today- thanks Elizabeth.

A Spoon Full Of Sugar- Challenge 40

The challenge was called Shape Shifters so I have made an angled card by starting with a square card and cutting a slice off the bottom and righthand sides to give a tipped back look. I bought this Jolly Nation stamp because he reminded me so much of my son who has just started learning electric guitar. The card is folded from some I got in a pay-per-box from Holmfirth Mill- sometimes they have a great selection in, other times not. It is hard to see on the photo but the mirror board which I have used for the die cut and matting is also sort of coated like a CD- this mirror is actually the back of the blue card so the inside of the card is all mirror- my son thinks that's fab! I love this greeting stamp set from Elzybells, it covers so many occasions and has a really nice font.