Steamboat

I have decided I need more stamps. I definitely need more stamps. I do not have enough stamps. I don't have enough men type stamps. I have to buy some men type stamps....(as well as other stamps)
so I did.............and made this man card!

I used some black cardstock and stitched paper from the lovely Melissa Frances Fifth Avenue collection as the base for my card.  
I then layered another piece from the same pad and sewed again after distressing all the edges.


The stamp is by Stampendous and called Steamboat Ride. I like it a lot as I think it will be good for vintagey grungy type cards as well as CAS ones. I used Versamark ink and stamped the image onto a blue/grey paper from My Minds Eye which happily for me was a great colour match to the other papers!  I highlighted the waves with a white gel pen, distressed the edges and then stitched it onto the same black cardstock.


The two tickets were downloads - one is an admission ticket for the princely sum of one dollar for one person  for a 'Midnight Cruise on the Robert E Lee' dated May 29th 1882 - (how romantic a steamboat ride in the moonlight - hope the owner managed to find someone to share the moonlight with!) and the other is a poster for the Missouri River steamboat trips between St Louis and St Joseph.


I used some twine and a button from my stash and a couple of black pearl to embellish the card. The edges of the image were decorated with some punched out scraps and I popped a metal corner onto the top of the card to finish it all off.


I was a tad bothered that the black cotton may make the card dark and sombre but I think it worked OK - so I carried on the theme inside!
Challenges -
City Crafter - Ticket to Ride
Paperminutes - Maritime
Crafty Cardmakers - Distress It
Lexi's - For a man/boy
Simon says Stamp and Show - 1 for the Boys
Here Come the Boys - Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - Male theme
Chocolate/Coffee and Cards - 4 the Boys
Sisterhood of Crafters - Many Layers
Incy Wincy - Vintage
PaperShelter - Vintage


Its been another warm day here but not a lot of sunshine about so it's felt very sticky! I know there's been some heavy downpours elsewhere cos my friend rang me to tell me about her horrendous motorway journey in the driving rain! So wherever you are I hope you're dry (and warm!) and as always thanks for coming to see me! x

Shaped Card

This week's Less Is More challenge is a 'shaped card'.
I have some grand nesties in different shapes and was considering whether to do label shape, circle shape, half circle etc etc. I thought I might do the shape in hammered cardstock instead of the usual linen and when I lifted it from the drawer to open the new pack underneath were these pre-shaped cards which I must have bought about 5 years ago! I did use one from the pack at some time - honest- either that or the pack only contained 4 instead of 5 and I was ripped off!!! LOL
It's also been a long time since I did anything oriental themed and as the screen fold blanks were intended for oriental or vintage, oriental won on this occasion.

I hope there is enough white space to satisfy Mandy and Chrissie. I had originally intended not to stamp at all on the third panel but it looked odd so stamped a little bit and left some space for a greeting.
I spread out a small selection of my oriental stamp pile (and yes some of them have NEVER seen ink - slap wrist....) the geisha/sumarai warrior stamps were put back as I thought they would be too big and I wanted to give a soft feel to the project. I used Versamark ink in Smokey Gray and Onyx Black and an archival rainbow ink pad called 'Peacock' for the dragonflies and flowers.

The stamps are from several different places. Majority are from a set that is mounted onto blue foam backing - also had these years!

The dragonflies are part of a clear set of 'winged things' but as I've thrown away the packaging again no idea who's they are!

I clear embossed them and although it doesn't show up very well they have a lovely shimmer to them.

The sentiment stamp is from Elusive Images and the die cut leaves were sent by Maureen and I just ran them across the rainbow pad.

It's another lovely day here so am off to try and do a bit of weeding - who said 'weeds are flowers too'? LOL

Thanks for dropping in! x

Hello Sailor!

'All the nice girls love a sailor' - or so the song says!
And who couldn't love this little man in his sailor suit?
He's part of a set called 'Sailor Boys' and I couldn't resist - (as with all things from the pen of Ms Manning),- there's 3 sailor boy images, this cute dog and some toy soldiers so no doubt I shall be colouring some more and making lots of sea themed cards.

I coloured the image with promarkers and used some watercolour pastels for the background. Stitched onto dark blue card and placed 3 red eyelets in the corner (they're suppose to remind you of port holes - LOL).
The patriotic backing papers were a free download - there's a set of ten papers all on the red/white/blue theme and you can grab them from here. (A great site!)
I decided to layer and stitch them onto the same dark blue card and used red cotton cos I thought it would stand out better than blue!
The ribbon is from my stash, placed onto a piece of white card with the edge punched out with an MS punch and layered onto the blue card.
The  sentiment was also a freebie (what a cheap skate I am...lol) from TLC and the silver sailboat charm was the last of the sea type ones from my stash with some sewing thread in the red/white/blue colours threaded through.
The inside is also co-ordinated using the same papers.

Challenges -
Papertake Weekly - Red/White/Blue
Desmet Designs - Red/White/Blue
Mo's Challenge Blog - World Traveller
Play Date Cafe - Colour combo - (Denim/Cherry/Baby Blue)
Order of Opus Gluei - Sew What
Charisma Cardz - No flowers
Forever friends - Use 2 images(one animal)
52 Card Pick up- week 21
It's another glorious day here so am off into the garden to enjoy the sunshine - hope you're all basking in the beautiful weather! Don't get sunburnt! x

LIM

The challenge over at LIM this week is a Baby card. I'd already made one which was definitely NOT suitable- (please see below post - lol)  so had a bit of my fill of babies this week but as I hadn't managed to enter last week's challenge I wanted to make sure i kept to my promise to myself of at least doing one LIM a month!

This is not, in my humble opinion, a very exciting card! Although I really do like CAS and have become more comfortable with it over the last few months, I think I am guilty of 'less and less and lesser' and somehow they always seem unfinished?

I am not even sure if the Head Girls will allow a shaped card, so am risking the naughty step by even contemplating submission. If I am firmly rapped on the knuckles then I shall just have to take myself off and try and do another one.
White pearlised card and two embossing folders (good old Swiss Dots and Houndstooth Check), some fabric rose trim from my stash, a wee bit of a pink ribbon and a LOTV sentiment and that was it! (Which is probably why I don't think it very exciting.......)

I am shamelessley touting for votes again too.......if you think my cross over wedding card over at Fashionista is the best, please would you register a vote? They have a bag of goodies for one lucky voter and it may just be you!

Have just come in from the garden - we've had a real busy few hours - we've cut the 150 foot long garden hedge and some of the shrubs at the front so we're both hot and tired now! But at least the sun is shining and is supposed to be with us for a few days - so am going to make the most of it!

Thanks for visiting, hope all is well in your world. x

Baby makes 3 and a second Top 5

Happy Monday!

And can you believe it?? I am sooo happy - I've been picked in the Top 5 again over at Fashionista!!

We're now at the 'peoples choice' stage again so please take pity on me cos I didn't win last time and pop over and vote for me... promise to share my lottery winnings with you if you do...when my numbers come up that is...lol

You may even win the goodies that Fashionista have put up for one lucky voter!

I've had a mad busy weekend and managed yesterday to find a spare hour to finish this for a lady at the Bowls club who has just added another grandchild to her family. I used the same image and colour scheme as one I did a few months ago - but made this one as an easel. This LOTV image rates amongst one of my favourites.

I stamped the image with Versamark onto white textured paper and paper pieced the little blanket. The tiny piece at the top across baby's little shoulder was a bit fiddly to cut out but managed it! Coloured the rest with promarkers, cut out the image with a nestie and stitched onto the scalloped frame.

The papers are all 'My Baby Love' from Raspberry Road and I think the soft blues and lemons work really well together and are great for a baby boy card where you want to escape from just blue!
I stitched most of the papers and last week I bought this ribbon in a tiny haberdashers in my local market town - she had lots of new ribbon in lovely colours and designs and I spent rather a lot of money - and before you ask - Of Course I NEEDED it............ lol

The sentiment on the front is by TLC, (I think it's just right for a new baby) and popped on some tiny lemon pearls in the bottom right corner, a couple of 'baby blue' buttons and a pram buttton from my stash.
I decided to put the new arrival's name on the easel base instead of the front - and tied a smaller bow using a thinner piece of the same ribbon, adding a tiny metal heart charm which says 'Made With Love'- the lemon teddy is also from the same button pack and then I put three more lemon pearls onto the base prop.

My desk unfortunately looks like an absolute bomb site and I have precisely two inches of space left, the floor is littered with all kinds of bits and I HAVE to clear up before I do anything else - which is really annoying - as I have three images somewhere under the pile that are waiting to be done ( if I find them and they're messed up I'll be cursing!!)

Challenges -
Fussy and Fancy - New Baby
CRAFT - Easel Card
Charisma - Use a Metal charm
I Did It - Anything Goes
The sun is shining brightly here and it's quite warm - I did a pile of washing and was just about to hang it on the line when my lovely farmer neighbour decided to muck spread the field opposite with some unmentionable concoction that smells what can only be described as 'less than pleasant'... and that's being polite!! But at least it's an excuse for me not to go and work outside - don't want to risk being gassed do I? So the craft desk and the floor it is..............any excuse????? You're darn right!
Enjoy your day!

Those Darned Men - Vol 2!

Bit like buses - no men's cards for ages then 2 come along at once....
A big hello to my new followers - it's lovely that you have chosen to follow me and to ALL my followers - I really appreciate that keep dropping in to see what I'm doing!

Second male themed effort to share with you all today - this image from Mo Manning really is just perfect for my dearly beloved.

This is him! I'm convinced Mo must know him - He sits here to my right with his two screens and his headphones and I can hear 'click click click click' as he plays on line with all his 'mates' from all over the world.. makes me laugh cos it sounds like they're a bunch of school boys when actually some of them are older than he is and in the rest of them there isn't one of them under 35!

'Boys and their Toys' was an expression designed for my very own Inspector Gadget..... he asked me the other night what I was doing and I told him 'Colouring you in'................ LOL

Mo's image 'Computer Guy' coloured with promarkers, matted, layered and stitched onto papers from my stash, some dark grey square brads and a PC generated sentiment.

The layout is based on a sketch this week from Willow Sketchie - I just tilted it slightly.

Challenges -

MAWTT - Keep it real
Willow Sketchie - 3 different papers/Sketch
Crafty Creations - Male Birthday
Dude time doodles - Masculine Birthday
Cards For Men - Kicking Back (and this is how my OH relaxes would you believe!)

Grey day here again - had a nice day yesterday strolling round Trentham Gardens with Maureen and her OH- and of course having coffee and cake......LOL - sun came out and although not very warm it was quite pleasant in the sunshine - really do wish this unsettled weather would vanish and give me some much needed blue sky and WARM sunshine!
Hope all is OK with all of you - have a nice day! x

Those darned men!

Why are men so difficult?
I don't mean the men themselves  -although I know one or two VERY difficult ones -
(and if my dear beloved husband is reading this - 'Not you dear - you are WONDERFUL!xxxxxxxx)

I mean making cards for them is difficult - I sit, plan, get the stamps and papers out, fiddle about for ages and then all my efforts end up in the bin 'cos I don't like them!

So I decided to not bother with papers this time and to use this stamp bought with the proceeds from a challenge win and selected specifically for men cards.

I don't like buying stamps for men cards - feel I'm wasting my money cos I'd rather be buying something pink and girly....LOL 
To be fair, I enjoyed colouring this in!

I stamped it twice onto bright white card then used a nestie to cut out one of the images.
After colouring with watercolours - (they're getting a lot of use just lately!!) - I mounted the circle onto the other stamped image with foam pads so that the ends of the flourish underneath were visible.

The two pieces were then stuck onto a layer of teal coloured card.
I scored a couple of lines onto the card base and used the same teal card for the band across the centre.
Stamped the sentiment, popped in a couple of eyelets in the same colour and cut out the little seagull.

Was quite happy with it when it was finished - (not like me at all!) and someone else must have liked it too, cos it sold yesterday!


A couple of male themed challenges -
Allsorts - Card For a man
MAWTT - Nautical
Pixie Dust - One for the Boys
Southern Girls - About the Boys
Divas by Design - One for the Boys
Try It On Tuesday - On the Beach

It's a beautiful day here - sun is shining- but appearances are very deceptive 'cos the wind is really cold!
Have a great day and thanks for visiting! x

Annabelle's Meadow

Definitely not weather for walking in any meadows here - cold, wet, windy - just a normal day's weather!
We're a bad lot us crafters - we see something, fall in love with it and absolutely HAVE to have it even when we don't need it!

That's how I was with the Wild Rose Studios range of 'Annabelle's Meadow' stamps - they were just so pretty and of course I didn't NEED them but I WANTED them! I did exercise some restraint - and only bought one (Feeding Birds) with my gift voucher from a challenge win - only because the others were out of stock...shhhh - will be notified by e mail when the others come back in......!!!!!!!
This was one of those very rare occasions when I bought something and inked it up within twenty minutes of the postman delivering it. Out with the watercolour pastels and just sat and painted - very therapeutic! Can't tell you how much I enjoyed colouring it - loved it.

I lightly distressed the edges of the image before mounting onto the background.
The papers are all from Pink Petticoat, stitched and layered.

I used some pink lace from my stash and a pearl buckle to create the bow.
The smaller pale blue flowers have been in my stash for ever so thought it was time I used them up! The pink and blue cherry blossoms were from a challenge win.

Stuck a pink and white pearl hat pin and a small pink diamante pin into the flowers and added 3 pink pearls to the top of the card.
I found this little pink ladybug in my stash - something else I have had for a long long time!

Same papers stitched and layered inside and I think you might be seeing some more of this stamp - cos I love it!

Challenges -
Clear it Out - Use up Flowers
Sassy Cheryl's - Stitching
Hooked on Craft - Flowers
Stamps and Fun - Pearls and Lace
Whoopsi Daisy - We Love Pink
The Crafty Pad - Girly Girls
Love to Create - Special Lady
Shabby Tea Room - Colour combo with a rose (and my rose is on the paper!)
Charisma Cardz - Pink and Girly
By the Cute and Girly - Spring is in the Air
Have a lovely day whatever you're doing - and let's hope it will soon be 'meadow walking' weather! x 

Monday first

Been a few days since I last posted - but in between doing all the usual 'life' stuff made some time to visit my blogging buddies and also to make a few cards - so today as I've promised myself a day in the warm craftie space you may be fed up with the posts. We have typical Bank Holiday weather here - cold, wet and windy!
First to share is my submission for the Less Is More challenge, which this week is YELLOW.
Agggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! I like it but don't like to use it!
However, it gave me a chance to use these Stampendous stamps which have never before seen ink.

I actually made this on Saturday night, but it was too dark to take any pics and then I was out all day yesterday so have only just got a chance to get out the camera!
I first stamped the Ranunculus direct onto the card but decided I needed to make it more dimensional even if I was going to enter it to LIM. So found some lemon and white polka dot paper and then stamped the flower heads again and stuck onto the card. I am always nervous of paper piecing but thought the outline of these flowers were good to try it.
The largest flower I stamped again and used some quite slim stickies to raise it a little. Still wasn't quite right so found some yellow marbled vellum, stamped again and then clear embossed. I cut away some of the outer petals and glued the centre - the top layer has curled just a little and I quite like the effect.
The rest of the image was coloured with promarkers and I made a small greeting tag.  I edged it with a very thin strip of the same spotty paper and resisted the urge to use any glamour dust anywhere!

I confess to enjoying making CAS cards as much as the frilly fussy ones - although it does tax my poor brain as I always want to add other things - this one may yet see a couple of tiny lemon pearls somewhere................... or a tiny butterfly..........or anything else that I may find lying on the desk!

Other challenges -
Paper Creations Ink - In the Garden 
Alphabet Challenge - G is for Garden 
Opus Gluei - Beyond the garden gate
Crafty Boots - Yellow

Thanks for looking - whatever you're doing I hope you're warm and dry!

Cross Over

Seen lots of examples recently of these 'crossover' cards that have a post card insert so thought I would give it a go.


I decided to  not to try and go overboard with papers and decorations, mainly because as it was my first attempt if it looked yuk when it was finished I wouldn't have wasted much so a plainish wedding card was decided upon!


I used white pearlised card and 'Budding Vine' embossing folder, layering it onto grey Bazzil card.(Which looks blue in the pic!)

Using up what was left of this satin lace I edged the two crossovers which left me with just enough to use on the insert!

The punched  butterfly was dusted with some glamour dust then I spent quite a while sticking on all the 'trail' gems individually!  The white satin bow was blinged up with another buckle from Imagine.

Outside finished I set about the post card insert.

I really like this LOTV stamp and used the same grey card for a scalloped border. Trying to maintain the clean look, I resisted the usual flowers etc and just used a shiny fabric heart and two larger sparkly gems.

I suppose it looks OK but am not happy with it!

I had several attempts at making the insert, I tried making one with ribbon 'pulls' so it could just be pulled out but it looked real overpowering with the two bits of ribbon sticking out from the top, so I tried it with just one piece of ribbon instead. Didn't look right.

Then I tried making a hanger from some scrap lace  - didn't like that either,
The post card insert ended up being stuck inside another piece of white embossed card and the way things are going it could yet well end up as a tag - or even worse consigned to the bin.  
There's no sentiment yet - until I've made my mind up on what I'm going to do with the inside I thought it best to leave well alone. 


Despite my reservations am submitting it into the following challenges -
Craft Room - Emboss It
Craft Your Passion - Lots of texture
My Mum's Craft Shop - Embossing
Fashionista - Wedding/Anniversary
House of Gilli - Ribbon and Sparkles
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes 

Thanks for being here - it's a lovely day and we currently have lots of blue sky and sunshine! Hope the weather is as calm and peaceful where you are. x