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Tuesday, 28 July 2020

Warp Speed

Morning all.
It's Tuesday again so it's time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.
This week our theme is:-

GET WELL WISHES

My OH is like most men, when it comes to cards he can't do with sentimental or twee for that matter so I try to go for a clean and simple as well as a fun design if I can for masculine cards, hence this layout.


I used the rocket and sentiment from Paper Smooches Space Cadet set and a die cut embossed planet on a galaxy background.
Quite a simple card to make really, not fussy by any means and perfect for all ages.
So that's all from me but please check out the rest of the team for more MASCULINE get well ideas.

Monday, 27 July 2020

One Layer Christmas

Morning all.
Just popping by to post a card for a couple of challenges. 
We have tipped over the yearly halfway mark and with plenty of time on my hands, I thought I would make a start with my Christmas stash.

Here is my latest creation.


It was the challenge over at LIM that got me thinking to start with. I do love a one layer challenge!
The Christmas tree and baubles over at the Card Concept influenced the final design too.
These cute Christmas pud stamps are from Clearly Besotted and make perfect baubles. A little bit of prep and some judicious masking allowed me to keep the whole design OL. The strings were added with a black fine liner and a ruler. A quick and simple card once the idea came.

Joining in over at :-

     

N is for No Fuss

Sweet Stampers Challenge
Christmas in July

Wednesday, 22 July 2020

Uniko BA Inspiration

Morning all, have you taken part in the great butterfly count, it started over the weekend? 
I did, I love butterflies and try to plant flowers that will attract them as well as keep the banking by our track wild. It's the perfect spot to literally spot butterflies as they land on the various wild flowers or just bask in the sun on the track.
Today I'm over at Uniko with another Brand Ambassador inspiration post featuring butterflies. Last month I used the English Country Garden stamps and matching dies to create a couple of cards, this month I'm back with a couple more.


These two are totally different to the last pair and were inspired by the latest challenge over at Twofer.
I've used the large butterfly die from the set, a positive followed by the negative. First to cut out a vellum butterfly which I then stamped and embossed and secondly to create a mask and inked and stamped through it.

Here's the first inspired by this card I saved ages ago.


I loved the movement that the die cut sweep created. 
Using an Avery Elle curved die to create the sweep out of linen effect card an inset panel was added, made by inking a panel of white card with Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserve DOx, splashes of water and over stamping with the large butterfly in the same colours of DI. The sentiment from Pure Florals - Peony, was stamped in the same two colours for the large sending and black for the small one. I heat embossed the lighter pink with clear EP before moving slightly to create the shadow by stamping again with the darker pink ink. A few PP sequins complete.
Last year my Joe Pie Weed was absolutely covered in small tortoiseshell butterflies, hence the choice of colour.


At one point the flowers looked orange as there were so many drinking in the nectar.
This year there are lots of small skipper butterflies on the wild flower bank as well as the early broods of tortoiseshells, meadow browns, gatekeepers, some peacocks, small coppers and the ubiquitous 'cabbage' or large white. Yesterday was a red letter day as I saw my first Silver Studded Blue of the year. They are extremely rare, just surviving in a few discrete colonies, the nearest is an old airfield about 2-3 miles away as the crow flies. They are very picky eaters, feeding off gorse, heather and bird's foot trefoil. It was next to the later that I spied my female, a little gem who must have been blown in on the prevailing wind.

Talking of wild flowers, this was the inspiration for the second card.


When you look across the wild part of our garden all you see are the grasses and wild carrot swaying in the breeze against the green fields and blue skies, well on a good day!
This technique has been around for ages, all I did was cut a piece of copy paper the same size as my base card, then cut out the butterfly using the same large die. The resultant mask was then taped over the card and the background inking added using Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn.
I used the small elements from Organic Wishes to stamp the silhouettes in black before removing the mask and stamping the sentiment from English Country Garden.

I'd like to join in over at:-



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Friday, 17 July 2020

Uniko Challenge

Morning all.
The months are whizzing by, mid summer has gone and we are heading towards high summer.
It's time for a brand new challenge over at Uniko.

Here is my inspiration for you based on our new theme.




My garden is just coming to it's full glory, the plants after having a hard time during a very dry April, have relished the rain of recent weeks and are lush and full of promise. The soft muted colours of Spring are slowly making way for the vibrant ones of high summer.
Last autumn I decided to create a new herbaceous border out of a rather tatty piece of lawn against the neighbours fence. The grass was marked out with a hosepipe and then the OH sprayed it off, I slowly dug over the new bed due to a rather wet winter and added some lawn edging, before planting my small nursery of plants that I had accumulated from garden visits, seeds and a bargain bucket at a favourite garden center, most of which are now flourishing. One of my favourite plants are the Hemerocallis lilies, I've never grown them before but I love their bright colours.
So when I saw the theme, I just had to use the Pure Florals Lily stamp set.

I chose a bright blue base card to reflect the sky on a hot summer day and the bright pinky orange colours of my new lilies.
To start, I stamped the large lily bloom with Altenew Morning Frost onto Mixed Media paper, using their Maple Yellow and Coral Blush inks to watercolour in a no line technique. Detail was added with my Zig watercolour pens before fussy cutting the lily.
On a strip of black card I stamped the greeting from Pure Florals-Peony and heat embossed it with gold EP. The gold 'Sending' die cut was threaded with the black strip and then glued down under the bloom which was added with foam pads.

OK, that's all from me for the mo but please check out the rest of the team and our wonderful GD Anrushee for more inspiration here.

Joining in over at:-

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Tuesday, 14 July 2020

Christmas in July

Morning all, Tuesday again so it's time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz.
This week our theme is:-

NO PATTERNED PAPER

I think the best route to go down for this is a CAS design, which is also my go to style for masculine cards!
I used a couple of challenges for inspiration to make this.


AAA would like to see a made in minutes card with option of a Christmas theme and The Male Room are into sports for theirs.
What is quicker than a CAS design? Well having the odd bits and bobs around in the scrap box!
The skier from LOTV was already stamped but the doggy to the bottom left hadn't stamped properly so it had been put to one side, it just needed colouring and the doggy cut away! The white panel was in the scrap box as was the snowdrift which was left over from a previous card. All I had to do was use a pre folded Memory Box card base which was sitting in my card base box, add a Uniko greeting and pop the skier up on pads before popping the whole thing on the base card. As I had cut off the snow from the original, I added it back freehand with a black fine liner, simples! Another card for the Christmas stash.

For more masculine inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here and then why not join in?

I'm joining in over at:-