Damn Men!

This fortnight's challenge at Try It On Tuesday is MAKE IT MASCULINE.

Man cards...I struggle so much with them! I try to come up with something different and original but in the end always revert back to the easy option - which is usually something rusty looking in the shape of cogs or clocks!

So here is the inevitable 'cog card for a damn man'!

Some time back I was gifted by a fellow blogger a couple of pieces of Tim Holtz shimmer card which is specifically for use with alcohol inks. This was the first piece I used and I must confess the shimmer is fantastic (which is probably why the pic is so bad!)

Once I'd covered the shimmer card with alco ink I took a cog stencil and inked over it to give a bit of depth to the background.

I used gilding wax to colour the die cut cogs.
Hope you can find time to make a man themed project this time round - and if you're seeking inspiration the rest of the DT and our Guest Designer have some for you over on the challenge blog!
Thanks for looking. x

Is this happening to anyone else? EDITED - THANKS TO GUNDI!

 The annoying mystery has been solved. A big thank you to Gundi (Paperielle) for her answer and it all becomes clear now - it's not my posts at all which violate anything - it's the links in my blog post!
Here's Gundi's reply for anyone else who has (or may have in the future) received messages from Blogger (and it is more likely if you have been blogging for a long time)
Hi Viv,
I got emails like this from Blogger too. Then my son helped me. He said there are links in my posts to sites that no longer exist. I checked and it really was. But I didn't feel like deleting all those links, so I deleted all the posts in question. They were all posts that I had written 8 to 10 years ago, so deleting them didn't hurt that much. I hope I could help you. Gundi

Over the last couple of days I have received e mails from Blogger saying
"This post was unpublished because it violates Blogger Community Guidelines. To republish, please update the content to adhere to guidelines"
Today at the top of my Posts Page the same thing - yet it doesn't say which post!
Having read the Community Guidelines I am a little at a loss to see what violation has been done anyway as my blog has been in existence since 2008 and the only thing I have shared on it has been my art work!
I am not very impressed that these things are just deleted without any prior warning - particularly as at the moment the posts are really old ones dating back since 2010.
Is this happening to anyone else?
How do I stop it?

Keep It Simple at Try It On Tuesday

For the next two weeks our challenge theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Keep It Simple'.
So a CAS card from me!

I smooshed a bit of watercolour card across some watery Mowed Lawn DI. One of my better results I thought!

Cut out with a stitched die and stamped some bamboo at one side. The bamboo stamp is years old and I think it's from Choc Baroque.

Added a thin stitched die frame on top as an experiment - didn't glue it at first!

I love Ginko leaves so when Inkylicious brought this set out I had to have it.  Stamped and fussy cut and then arranged them inside and outside the thin frame before glueing it all in place.

I was going to add another ginko on the top right but remembered I had a chinese writing stamp and a little bit of the smooshed piece left so used it up.

Finished it all off with a couple of little citrus green dots, using a bigger one to hide the overlap of the offcut bits!
For this make I used linen textured cardstock to give the background some interest.

Please go visit the challenge blog and see what the rest of the team have come up with this time!
Hope you can join us too and thanks for looking today. x

Reminder post - Try It On Tuesday - Use a Stencil

Mid way through our USE A STENCIL challenge at Try It On Tuesday.

Having made a card using my circles/bubbles die the waste was lying on the desk so I used it to make this!

Blending Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon and Peacock Feathers over the waste and overlapping to make sure it filled the entire side of the card.

Added a white heat embossed sentiment on a scrap of black card and a couple of teeny sequins.

Was really quick to do and is now in the 'man' stash box! (yes even with the sequins on it!)

Just a week left for you to come and join our challenge - hope to see you there! x

Try it on Tuesday - Use a Stencil

Onto our next challenge at Try It On Tuesday!
(As promised here is the second post from me today - If you are here from the Card Chain Challenge April Reveal link post please just scroll down to the previous post!)
This time at TIOT we want you to 'Use A Stencil' - that's it - plain and simple use a stencil in anyway you want!

I did a simple technique called 'Double Stenciling' for this card.

My background stencil was inked with Antique Linen.

To my shame this Sweet Poppy (along with a couple of others)bought some time ago has never been used. 😞
I don't know why cos I really like it!

Leaving my background stencil in place, I put the poppy field stencil on top and blended the flower heads Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade and Fossilized Amber.

I then removed the background stencil and put the poppy one on top lining it back up, then used the same colours over the top.

This gives a shaded effect where the stencils all overlap and you can see the background stencil on the flower heads. Quite like it!

A little bit of Bundled Sage for the stems and a triple die cut sentiment to finish .

Please have a look at the DT makes over on the blog - lots of lovely ideas and am looking forward to seeing your stencil makes too! x
Sharing over at
Crafting Happiness - Flowers
Make My Monday - Flowers
Stencil Fun - Flowers
NBUS - My stencil!

April Card Chain Challenge Reveal!

This is reveal day for our April Card Chain Challenge and as it's also launch date for our new challenge at Try It On Tuesday this is the first of 2 posts from me today!

This month I am feeling very pleased with myself as I had a go at replicating the sketch AND the colour combo (- very daring for me as I actually find following sketches quite difficult) and also used the Friendship theme. Not often I manage to do more than one thing!

I love this Altenew Wallpaper Art stamp set even though the flowers are quite big but they are beautiful.

I don't though have the matching dies so this involved an awful lot of fussy cutting.

The colour combo was charcoal, lime and bumblebee so I used Altenew Pure Graphite ink on the flower and the big leaves the coloured with Nuvo Watercolour 'Willow Green' which is the nearest I could match to.

Bumblebee proved a little bit trickier as I tried a couple of yellows for the flower centre and they all looked wishy washy and almost the same as the lime! In the end I went for a Promarker (Canary) and brushed over a teeny bit of yellow Wink of Stella - doesn't show up very well in the pic either!

Stamped the sentiment and decided instead of 'drops' to do a bit of spattering... got a teeny bit carried away I think!

My card flew off to to Gail in Norway and this month a big thank you to my friend Hilary who sent me a beautiful card and some gorgeous foiling!
There's still time to join in the May challenge - pop over to the blog and sign up!
Thanks for looking today - hope you'll check out my DT post for TIOT as well and maybe link up there too! x
Sharing my flower over at
MMM - Flowers
Crafting Happiness - Flowers