One for the boys

Afternoon all. I have two cards today because I didn't get around to posting yesterday because 'Strictly' is back. I managed to see half of last nights episode before my hubbie came in, he's not what you would call a fan! Not sure who will win this year, but there are a couple who look good after their first outing. I will reserve judgement until I've seen their second dances.

Anyway back to craft. Here is the card I made for the Sketch Saturday Challenge. I thought about adding embellishments but decided to leave it plain. The Magnolia stamp is so gorgeous without.

I've had the stamp for awhile, one of my bargain bucket buys, and not had chance to use it until now. I used Copics to colour her and some papers from my stash. Then I double mounted her using some pale gold card I had left from another project, I don't throw anything away, and a white mount made using a Stampin up edge and corner punch. I always struggle to get this right, this was my third attempt. Anyone any tips? The ribbon is from the infamous stash. I think I will be entering it for the Allsorts Challenge, How does your garden grow, as well.

How do you lot store your ribbons? Mine are in a large plastic storage box and some food storage boxes. They are always coming unrolled!

Now for today's card.

This is for the Ribbon Girls Magnolia Challenge 'Here comes the boys'. I don't have many boy stamps from Magnolia but although this is an oldie it fits the bill. The card blank is in the form of a tag which I stamped in Versamark with a Kaisercraft music stamp. The stars I did the same but used snowflakes. I edged all the blue pieces in Faded Jean distressed ink. The stars I hi lighted with silver glitter and a white Sakura pen and mounted on foam pads. The carol singer I coloured using Copics, mounting him on pads also. The bow at the top reduced my ribbon stash and I used jute string from the hardware shop in the market. Haven't a clue where the button came from, except its from a large collection.

Well the sun is still shining and a friend has just dropped off some apples for us as well as some fresh free range eggs. I've just caught the dog with a bit of fur which must have been left by a local fox. That dog will eat anything given half a chance.

Monochrome wedding

Hi there, thanks for dropping by. The sun is shining again and all looks good for a decent weekend.

I have been blog hopping again and came across a couple of challenges which I think I may enter. I never realized how many talented people there are out there. If you put in a search for images you don't always get what you want in the results. There's so much more inspiration out there.

I was inspired to create this card while searching through blog land. (Is there such a word?)

The challenges were Sketch Saturday  Creative Inspirations,the Crafty Ribbons Challenge and Crafty Little Fairies. I will also have another go at the LOTV challenge ribbons and lace

I rather like the idea of having a sketch challenge, sometimes its very useful when your craft mojo has gone walkabout.

This card uses one of my favourite LOTV stamp and the papers are embossed using a couple of embossing folders. The hearts are from Mei flower and ribbon from the stash. The edges of the papers were edged with Tim Holtz Tea Dye distress ink.

I have to take the dog to the vets later this afternoon for his booster jabs so I better get on and sign off for the moment.

Cheers

Well back from the vets and Max is fine if his pride is a little hurt.

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Purple Wedding

Men's cards

Good afternoon. I seem to be making a lot of men's cards at the moment, what with our Chris, now its my husbands birthday on the horizon. I usually make two, one for me and one for Chris to give his Dad. This makes it twice as hard to come up with ideas. I thought this one would be a possibility and it just fits the bill for this weeks Crafty Little fairies autumn colours challenge. It was a possibility for the Ribbon Girls challenge but entered something else.

The LOTV stamp is so cute I had to use it. The papers are from the infamous stash. I cut some of the individual fish out to fill in the background, embellishments are always tricky for men, it usually comes down to stars and buttons! The edge punch is a Martha Stewart one that is quite good for a fellas card. The circular sentiment is LOTV. 

Now I have to put my thinking cap on and make another (or two) before the day.

50th Birthday

Good evening fellow crafters. What a simply glorious day its been. We have been out in the sunshine picking sloes. Unfortunately not for making sloe gin! We sell them to a tree nursery who grow them on to sell as hedging plants. Apparently our hedges contain native grown trees, so are in demand. Good job they only want sloes this year and not hawthorn as I hate picking them.

Anyway I managed to complete this card for my daughters friend's 50th before dinner. 

I think I will enter it in the Crafty little fairies numbered birthday challenge. 

The stamp is a do-crafts one from a long while back, as are the cupcakes. Nich's friend is really into her baking so the theme was spot on. I made the background using acrylic paint which was then heat embossed with little cupcakes in white. The tag is from Crafters companion's Die'sire range which was stamped like the Spellbinders nestie with versamark and the same small stamps. Ribbon from the infamous stash. (It now fills a medium sized storage box!) The twiddly bits in the two right hand corners is the free Christmas tree die from his months Simply Cards and Papercrafts, which I cut the trunk off, cut in two and mounted under the nestie die cut. The numbers were from an Ellison die set, Block Party, which I cut in white then edged with Tim Holtz Milled Lavender distress ink. The cherries on the buns were hi-lighted with a spot of Glossy Accents.

Well thats all folks. I must bring what's left of the washing after a neighbour rescued the rest when the new line sagged and dragged the washing on the floor again!

Thanks for dropping by.

Ribbon Girls challenge

Good evening, and it really is a gorgeous evening, the sun is slowly slipping over the hill with the promise of a great sunset. 

I'm quite enjoying finding out about all these challenges and blog hopping. There are some really talented crafters out there. 

My latest find was the Ribbon girls colour challenge. This month it is peach/orange. I thought this 

would fit the bill so here goes, nothing ventured nothing gained.

The stamp is from Sugar Nellie - Pillow Talk, its quite a sassy stamp. I have no idea what make the papers are, I bought them ages ago and added them to my stash. I really must use what I've got before I buy some more, well perhaps not. My friend Di says she doesn't need to buy any more and to stop her if she is tempted to buy. However, I know she does when I'm not there to notice!

The embellishments are made from various punches and a Marianne swirl I bought ages ago at my first trip to the September Harrogate show. It must be getting time for that again. The greeting is from LOTV.

Any way I better finish loading the dishwasher or the beep will wake the dog up when it finishes late tonight!

My LOTV Challenge entry

Thought I would enter this card in the LOTV September Challenge, Ribbons and Lace. It's not your usual ribbon n lace as it's for a boy (big or small). It also includes a penny slider mechanism.

Can't remember where the papers came from as they were in my stash but the ribbon was from my lovely local haberdashers. The LOTV stamp is Football Crazy with the football cut off and mounted on the penny slider. The colours were inspired by my Son in law's love of Liverpool FC. The Green card candi is from Craftwork cards.

Christmas is in the air!

Good afternoon fellow crafters, there is definitely an autumnal feel about the weather today. Craft class at  Craftbox, Elsecar this week was all about Christmas cards. We made a Magnolia based card and a mini Santa card which was really cute and really easy. The image was made from two frilly edged hearts and two different sized circles. So simple to do but sooo effective. I thought I would share my version with you.

All you need are 2 wavy hearts in white, a small white circle and a tiny red one. I used Woodware punches.

 Next you colour the white circle, I used a Copic Ciao E21.

 Next you glue the coloured circle onto one of the white hearts.

Next take the other heart and glue it on top of the coloured circle.

Now take the small red circle and glue in the "v" of the last heart.

Finally add two dots with a black waterbased pen for eyes and draw a smile to one side of his nose. Last of all you can add a touch of Crystal lacquer or Glossy accents to make his nose shine!

 

 Like I said, easy but effective.

My oldest friend

Good afternoon. The whirlwind that is little Ben has blown up the motorway and peace is restored. Well almost, as my husband is pointing the front of the house and I can hear a lot of scraping and tapping. I'm sat in the kitchen listening to Radio 2, waiting for Festival in a day to come on. My niece is playing on the BBC introducing stage with her band Screaming Maldini. Quite exciting, even Terry Wogan is intrigued by the name of the group.

Anyway, it's my oldest friend's birthday soon. We have known each other for nearly 50 years, since we sat next to each other at school. Ali has just built her own house with help from her husband, her very own "Escape to the Country". Her smallest room has a beach theme so, inspired by this and our recent holiday to Nefyn in Wales, I created this card for her.

The little girls are Molly Bloom stamps, but I drew the beach huts freehand based on the one we used on holiday.
Not sure about the colours, I think I should have used some more girly ones but I didn't want to make it too fussy by using too many. The background was done using a cloud mask and Tim Holtz distressing ink, broken china.The sea and foreground sand is torn bazzil card highlighted with a Sakura white gel pen.
 Well thanks for popping by.

A sunny Saturday

Good afternoon and it really is. Despite a poor forecast the sun has been shining all day. My daughter and family paid a visit today, and now Dadgwan is fast asleep after a hectic time playing trains and king of the castle with little Ben.

I entered my first challenge last week at Crafty little fairies which was kinda brave for me. No luck this time but I may try it again sometime.

Last Saturday I mentioned I had made the 30's style gatefold card in a different colourway. Well I looked in by box (Well boxes truth to tell) and found it, so I thought I would share it with you.

I can't remember the name of the paper I used but I think it was Graphic45. The lace strip was made using a Martha Stewart edge punch.

The picture in this inner was from a sheet I bought, sorry I don't remember the brand. Although the same template was used the look is completely different.

For a totally different look again here is one I made for my hubbie a few years back.

This has an inner made from a scene from a decoupage sheet from La Pasche. I'm usually not into decoupage but this was from a collection with a vintage feel and as my husband used to work for a mining company rather appropriate.

The front still uses the same template but the pearls are replaced with soft string! Papers were again from the Graphic 45 collection A Proper Gentleman.

Well that's all folks, thanks for dropping by.

A senior moment

Good morning, well just about. It's rather chilly this morning and I'm a bit cross 'cos my washing line broke and I've had to do my wash again! The new line is too short so my husband has added some extra rope but it is now very saggy. He's gone off to play with boy's toys so I will have to try my best to sort it out.

Now back to all things crafty. Still on the theme of inspiration, here is a card I made based on a class I took a few weeks back. I wasn't very happy with the one I did in class so I had another go using different paper and a different Magnolia stamp as I didn't have the same items.

This is what my class card should have looked like, but didn't.

Card class sample http://the-craft-box.blogspot.co.uk

I didn't like the flowers and my envelope was the wrong size for some reason so it didn't go together properly. I got in a rare old mess trying to get the blossom petals stuck to the stems as Julie did in her example. Anyway by doing it again I proved to myself that I wasn't totally senile and that on that Wednesday I must have had a senior moment!

Anyway the washer has almost finished, fingers crossed the line holds this time.