The Male Room #17

The new challenge at The Male Room begins today and we want to see some newsprint on your project.

Well this theme had me trawling through my stamp boxes as I knew I had relevant stamps, just not had them out for while.

Once the stamps were located this card came together really quickly and I'm loving the contrast of the deep brown against that red washi tape strip.

I'm thinking this card would make a great project life insert for a holiday themed page.

Supplies:
Stamps: Papermania Urban, Travel Print; Clearly Besotted, On The Beach
Inks: SU, early espresso
Dies: Xcut, spiro circles; Docrafts, postage stamps
Washi tape from my stash

Be sure to check out what the rest of the DT have created to inspire you - here - then enjoy putting your own interpretation of this theme together. Remember it doesn't have to be a card, scrapbook pages or 3D projects are also welcome as long as they are suitable for a fella.

Thanks for looking today. And keep crafting!

PS
Well what about this! My card was chosen at Addicted to CAS as a winner - here. Such an honour!

AAA Cards #46 Maskerade

Are you ready for some fun with masks or masking? Well check out the new AAA Cards challenge!

Stunning image, don't you think?

I decided to go down the masking route for my card and had such fun with this technique and was delighted with the result. Definitely something to repeat at some point!

And here's a little photo tutorial of how I did it. Apologies for the quality of the photos, but it was late and I had the light on:

1. I taped the card to my craft mat.

2. I used a piece of paper to mask off the bottom at a diagonal angle and applied ink with an inkylicious brush.

3. This shows my paper mask more clearly and you can see how the colours are beginning to progress down the card.

4. I used my craft mat to splodge the inks onto and then gradually pulled it across. I find I get better control this way.

5. This is how it looked when I took the tape off.

Once I'd finished my masking strip I needed to decide how to finish off my card and I so wanted that strip to be on show. That's why I placed the die cut off centre with a trio of sprinkles just to draw the eye in.

I placed a sheet of acetate over my card and stuck the sprinkles onto it so that I could experiment with placing them without spoiling the card. Once I was happy with the placement I stuck them to the card. Y

ou can just about make out the acetate in this photo.

Supplies:
Inks: SU, daffodil delight, crisp cantloupe, watermelon wonder, melon mambo, rose red, rich razzleberry, blackberry bliss, elegant eggplant; Adirondack, purple twilight
Die: Lil'inker, Happy Birthday stitched square
Embellishments: Doodlebug Sprinkles, beetle black asst.

I hope you like my interpretation of the challenge and are eager to get creating. But before you rush off take a look at the what the rest of the AAA Cards DT made to inspire you - all pretty cool huh!

I'm popping this card into the CAS challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

Thanks for your time today - and keep crafting!

Saturday Slot

There's a super simple sketch challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch at the moment that I couldn't resist. Take a look:

And so my super simple Christmas card was created.

 I'm loving this Christmas washi tape that has slunk into my stash and with a simple embossed sentiment and a scattering of star sequins my card was made in minutes. I'm thinking this will be a card that's repeated a few times, maybe in other colourways and definitely when I hit that I'm running out of time phase.

Supplies:
Stamp: Uniko, Simply Said Christmas
Ink: Versamark
Embossing: Personal Impressions, mirror gold
Sequins: Lucy's Cards 
Washi from my stash

So glad you had time to visit my blog today, thanks a lot.

And keep crafting! 

Friday Focus

Today my card is for Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge and they want sparkle.

And not being one to be shy of sparkle here's my card:

I think you could say it's pretty well sparkled up!

I stamped the house first and then masked it off to stamp the tree and apply the stencilled background. Apart from the star on top of the tree the sequins were placed in my usual random way by sprinkling them over and adhering wherever they landed.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Home Sweet Home, sentiment from Rustic Christmas; Clearly Besotted, Modern Christmas
Inks: SU, night of navy, soft sky, baked brown sugar, garden green
Promarkers: midnight blue, cornflower
Stencil: Hero Arts, Confetti
Sequins: Lucy's Cards, crystal
Glitter: Glamour Dust, crystal

Thanks so much for looking today, I really appreciate your visit and hope you liked what you saw.

And keep crafting!

CAS Colours & Sketches #137

Hey! A new CAS Colours & Sketches challenge begins today and this week it's a sketch.

Well this just screamed Christmas snowflakes to me and out came my favourite purples and some very sparkly cardstock.

I started by stamping the large background doily and then die cut a splot from that glitter card. The front doily was stamped, fussy cut and mounted onto pads. A simple Christmas greeting finished off my card an then I made myself stop - it would have been so easy to lash on more glitter and gem stones, but I was determined to stay CAS!

Supplies:
Stamps: niko, Decortive Doilies The Hands of Time, Simply Said Christmas
Ink: Memento, Elderberry
Die: Waffle Flower, Make Something Today

Over to you now. What will this sketch inspire you to create? Will it be a Christmas theme or something completely different? Which are your go-to colours and stamp sets? I'm so looking forward to finding out!

Thanks for your time today, I really appreciate you dropping by my blog.

And keep crafting! 

Uniko - Beautiful Blooms I & II Revisited

It's time to revisit a previously released set at Uniko this month. And actually it's two sets - Beautiful Blooms I & II. And as always there's plenty of DT inspiration and a blog hop to follow with the chance to win one of the featured sets.

     

I've made a couple of cards using Beautiful Blooms I - one of my all time favourites and go to stamps from Uniko. So here's the first:

 

 

I've been seeing a lot of cards using the new crealies patchwork dies and decided to see if I could manage to emulate them using the dies I already have in my stash.

I was quite pleased with the result and think the beautiful bloom looks really cool stamped just off the edge.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Beautiful Blooms 1 & sentiment from A Gift For You
Ink: SU, real red; Memento, tuxedo black
Die: Spellbinders, standard circles small; Lawn Fawn, large stitched circle stackables 

My second card uses both the small and large bloom heads from the set and a classic colour combo.

And apart from the sprinkles it's a one layer card so can be posted easily. Ideal for those times when a quick note is needed.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Beautiful Blooms I & All Occasion Sentiments #1
Injks: SU. crushed curry, smoky slate; Memento, tuxedo black
Embellishments: Doodlebug sprinkles, bumble bee asst.

Of course I couldn't let Beautiful Blooms II sit all rejected on the shelf, so I made a third card just so that it wouldn't feel left out.

I used one of the new Stampin Up in colours - mint macaron - and a favourite pinky purple from Memento - lilac posies. I'm loving this colour clash so much! 

And I'm thinking this may just be my favourite of the three cards. Which is yours? I'd love you to leave a comment and let me know.

Supplies:
Stamps: Uniko, Beautiful Blooms II & Simply Said Birthday
Inks: SU, mint macaron; Memento, lilac posies
Die: Dienamics, Celebrate
Embellishments: Doodlebug Sprinkles, love glitter asst.

Off you go now hopping along the blog to marvel at the fantastic creations by Beverley and the rest of the DT. Here's the order:

Beverley

Deborah

Gillian

Jane (that's me)

Nicki

Sarah G

Sarah P

Thanks for your time. And keep crafting!

The Memory Nest - Make It Monday 46

Already time for the second August sketch at The Memory Nest. And it's another humdinger!

So much going on in this sketch, it makes for a swift and easy spot of scrapbooking. I had this fabby photo to use, but because of the direction of the main viual I needed to flip the sketch. I find it helps to print out the sketch and then hold the paper up to a window to trace the outline whenever I flip sketches.

I picked up on the t-shirt colours for both the background and the elements on the page and added in a little purply grey card to link in the black and white parts of the photo.

I've learnt how to achieve this focal colour photography effect - which I absolutely adore - from an online Jessica Sprague course  - Digi 4 Back For More.  It's such a fabulous course, I'm learning so much and highly recommend it.

I just had to fit my journalling in on the main part of the page as it's such a hoot and so precious. I more or less copied it straight from my son's text message. I'm so looking forward to visiting them and being introduced to the cows!

And a closer look at that grid of circles. Do the the wavy line ones make your eyes go funny?

Supplies:
Papers: SU, Fresh Prints; Chatterbos, Scrapbook Walls
Alpha: Lawn Fawn, Louie's ABCs
Punch: Woodware, circle
Die: Clearly Besotted, Journal It

Well that's me done for today. Now it's over to you. I'm looking forward to seeing your colours and how you interpret the grid of circles and reading your journalling. Be sure to share your pages, or cards, here.

And keep crafting!