Never Too Old to Party!

Good morning. 

It's my turn to host the challenge at Cardz4Guyz and as some of you regulars may know I love a sketch! So here is one for you to play along with, just make sure your card is suitable for a guy.

The sketch is just a guide but the main elements should be visible in your make.

Here is a card I made for my bestie's partner last month.

I used a panel of NitWits paper that I had in my DP drawer and used B99 Copic marker to create the coloured cardstock for the circles and strips. I find this a great way to match the elements to the actual coloured image without cutting into my card stash. 

Our partying friend is Ai as is the sentiment but I cut off the top half of it by masking the stamp as I was inking it up. He is placed onto a die cut circle that I embossed with a Sizzix Argyll EF. 

Quite a simple card and so much easier as I was working from a sketch, I just had to decide on the colours used.

I'm looking forward to seeing your takes on my sketch, you've until Monday March 3rd to get your thinking caps on! There's even more inspiration from the team here.

Joining in over at:-

Color Hues #104

Afternoon all.

As we are over halfway through February, it's time for a brand new colour duo from Color Hues.

This time we have a lovely summery combination which will hopefully cheer you up after all the dull weather we've had recently here in the UK.

Here's my take.

This card was made using one of Ardyth's essential card layouts, that I found on her You Tube channel here. This layout makes the use of the colours so easy!

I first die cut some retro flowers from white and centers from yellow card, using a couple of REALLY old Sizzix thinlet die sets. Then, using Altenew's Coral Bliss ink, I inked the white flowers and added the yellow centers. On a white die cut panel, I laid out my blooms in a grid and attached to the panel with glue at the centers. 

On a panel of white from my scrap drawer, I inked the edge with the same Coral Bliss ink and then stamped a retro flower from Uniko in the ink around the edge for some extra interest. This was mounted onto a sheet of yellow satin paper that must have been in my stash for over 20 years! It was from a block of assorted colours that I bought at the start of my card crafting journey when supplies in the UK were expensive and few and far between! Finally the grid pattern panel was added and the whole lot popped up over a white base card with foam pads. My sentiment from Uniko was stamped onto a sentiment strip and added to complete.

That's it from me for the moment but please check out the rest of the team and our GD here for more fab inspiration. Looking forward to seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery.

Uniko Facebook Challenge

 To continue the birthday celebrations at Uniko we are having a FB only challenge. Link up at Uniko's FB page for a chance to win! 

All your card needs to be is birthday themed and uses Uniko products.

Here's my card, using Background Blocks - Mid Century Linear and a few other little stamps and doodles to create a masculine monochrome card.

I saw this card by Vicki Dutcher using a background stamp and bold numbers but she didn't say whose stamp it was,  so I thought I would use the MC Linear to create my own.

After stamping the background block on a die cut panel, I overstamped with some small stars and circles from Uniko stamp sets and a bit of freehand doodling with a black fineliner, then mounted it onto a panel of black, only slightly bigger than the stamped panel. A die cut 40 in gold and a sentiment from Simply Said Blocks were added before I completed the card by adding the whole lot to an A6 top folding white base card.

Joining in over at:-

BA Inspiration - Happy Birthday

Good morning. 

The birthday celebrations are continuing over at Uniko . Today I'm sharing this card using the Remembrance stamp set.

All the details for this make and all the other birthday inspiration can be found over on the Uniko blog.

Joining in over at:-

Digi or Rubber stamps

I have a collection of both but for artsy techniques like this I prefer a solid stamp that I can stamp in a pale ink, mask and manipulate. Water colouring a digi is definitely a no no, the paper won't go through my printer either!

Conifer Forest

 Good morning, time for a new challenge from Cardz4Guyz. This time we have a really easy theme for you:-

CLEAN and SIMPLE

I always think that this is a great way to make masculine cards no need for any added embellishments! It may be great way to make cards but I had so many ideas drifting across my brain that I found it really hard to settle on a theme and design. Eventually I looked at a few challenges and came up with this card.

AAA Challenge have a CAS colour theme so I went with that and the dark green on the board suggested evergreens, cue Christmas but no, as AAA Birthday are into ink smooshing, so it had to be birthday. 

So off I went. On a panel of mixed media paper, I drew a circle and added masking fluid to create a moon, then when it was dry wet the panel and smooshed on a couple of layers of Paynes Grey watercolour to create a wintery sky, the smooshing gives a little bit of interest and shade, not that you can see that much of it in the end! I Allowed it to dry and then removed the masking. Using a couple of trees from Altenew's Plentiful Pine, I inked them in a mix of Forest Glade and Evergreen ink and stamped my forest. I was trying to get the trees to look as if the moonlight was hitting one side. 

To keep the design CAS, I cropped the image between two die cut panels and stamped the sentiment from the set in black.

So where will you get your inspiration from? If you need some help why not check out the rest of the girls on the blog and join us.

I'm joining in over at:-

Clean and Simple