A different kind of fast food

 A card for my stock pile of guy cards , I seem to find them easier to make than girly ones guess that's what happens when you have sons and not daughters and hubby and son both work in a place where girls are in the minority big time.

I used this fun LOTV image as the weather has been nice and all the ads on the radio seem to be gearing up for the start of gardening and barbecue season. This cute chappie seems to have made off with the sausages guess they were too good to resist not being charcoal black like many BBQ sausages from my experience. Guess I don't go to the right BBQ parties.

I followed the Saturday sketch from LOTV but not sure if the challenge has closed yet but thought it was a fun sketch. I decided to try and do the challenge at crafty little fairies that was shabby chic or vintage but I've missed the challenge anyway. Have to say I'm not altogether what shabby chic style is when it comes to cards so I went for an aged look with the hope that they will accept it as being vintage.

I used a Kraft base card and add some faded effect dark green patterned paper that I have no idea where it came from as all the bits I used were in my scraps folder. I matted this on some paper that has rusted letters on and distressed the edges with a pair of scissors then added ink to the roughed up edge. I added the plaid paper again roughed and inked edges and the same to the strip of rusted letter paper I layered on top of that.

The sentiment is stamped in momento cocoa ink and stippled with a paint brush using the same ink to soften the white card. I stippled around the image of the dog too for the same reason to age its look. I used spellbinders dies to cut the circles and a sakura pen to add faux stitching as a finishing touch.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

LOTV Saturday sketch-layout

sentimental Sundays- vintage or steam-punk

As  you like it-stitching real or faux ( this time round faux and although I bought a wee sewing machine just for ding cards I do find faux so much quicker and controllable too even though I love the real thing for embroidery and dress making)

polkadoodles-animal magic

the stamping boutique-distress it

red rubber inspirationals-masculine birthday

time outoptional masculine

fairies challenge blog-vintage/shabby chic

To a special Grandma

A card for a special Grandma who lives in another country deserves to be special too.                                 I decided to use this cute bear from LOTV and try something new for me with my new embossing folders from die-sire. I used a chevron pattern and a daisy pattern to emboss some cram card and then cut a circle from it to make an aperture card. I've seen some lovely ones on the LOTV gallery but I'm quite happy with my first attempt.

The bear is coloured with promarkers (the flower colour inspired by some vibrant wallflowers I have in my garden) and then fussy cut before being stuck to some acetate that I placed behind the aperture, I love the glossy effect it give the backing paper that was a magazine freebie so it isn't the thickest of papers. I have to admit after colouring the bear I had real problems deciding on what colour papers to use for both the backing and the decorative strips I added top and bottom.

I eventually decided that blue would highlight the blue butterflies and the blue and pink paper I punched with a Martha Stewart border punch would tie in the backing paper too think that ones K and co. The sentiment is a tiny peel off that came with a creative nation kit from qvc many moons ago but was the perfect size to add to the envelope teddy is carrying. Hope she likes it. 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges;-

A creative romance-Eggcellent spring

sunflowerfield challenges-Easter or spring

OSAAT-flowers

papercrafting journey-for a special lady

MAWTT-Easter or spring

creative knockouts-spring

For a special mum

We were lucky enough a few weeks ago to have a new The Range store open a few weeks ago so now I have access to even more crafting supplies as the store is next to Hobbycraft and the Range offers competition price wise.                                                                                                           I had a wander around the store and one or two crafty bits fell into my basket and amongst them was this cute stamp which I thought would be perfect for mother's day.                                                                                                                I coloured him in with promarkers and used sakura glaze pens for the tea. I stamped the teddy onto a spellbinders fancy oval and mounted that on a layer of green gingham freebie paper from birds.com and put that on a layer of red copy paper.The sentiments were also something that dropped into my shopping basket and again are from Docrafts at the Range. The roses are from my stash,the leaves are die cut coloured with promarkers.

I decided to make a wee gift box to put my mum's mother's day gift in after seeing a picnic style box whilst having a wander around blogland, with a fab tutorial here. I covered the box in the same red and green gingham and added a die cut butterfly and white ribbons along with more red roses from my stash. The window i added acetate and decorated with a spellbinder fancy circle.

Mum loved both as well as her gift.

I would like to enter these projects into the following challenges:-

brown sugar-mother's day

2 sisters-teddy bears

catch the bug-anything goes

little claires monthly challenge-make a tag

stamping sensations-use dies or punches

crafty hands challenge -anything goes

craftitude-anything goes or add corrugated card or paper

crafty catz-animals

sister act-anything goes

Lilacs in the springtime

Lilacs in the springtime think that's a song but I thought they would make the perfect image for my mum in laws birthday at the beginning of May. I didn't have a stamp that just has lilac on but I did have this lilac flower fairy. I coloured her with promarkers and added sparkle to her wings with sakura stardust gel pen.

I recently got these grand nestabilities spellbinders dies and I now know why people get addicted to die cutting. i decided to make an easel card using a score pal to make the score lines but decided to keep it simple by letting the image and the fancy edges of the die cuts tell the story so to speak. I used a small fancy circle spellbinder die onto which I stamped the sentiment from LOTV. I finished the front of the card with a hand tie bow.


 The inside of the card I I again used a die cut and covered it with some lilac heart patterned paper and added a go kreate die cut as a place for the message to be written.

I added some flowers and punched leaves as the stop for the card front when opened, I didn't have the exact colours so I changed their colour by using promarkers in the colours I coloured the image in.

I really love the look these dies create you hardly need embellishment and I can already feel another addiction growing-poor bank account.

Sorry about the photo quality but for once the sun was shining but hope you get an idea of how the card looks.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

passion for promarkers-use a sentiment

paperminutes-more than one fold

creative card crew-spring

whoopsi daisy -things with wings

The ribbon girl april card challenge-spring

Di's digis-spring

scorepal-more than 1 fold and monochrome (hope mine counts as its mostly monochrome

Really reasonable ribbons-flowers or buttons and bows

bearly mine-spring

Bathtime bucket

How could anyone not say 'ahh' when they see this wee chappie, once again from LOTV. This time not only coloured with promarkers but sparkle added with sakura glaze pens. The image base I distressed with brown ink to give extra definition.

I had a plan to increase my stock of male cards so I went with the sludgy end of the spectrum  for the papers and I also thought the browns went well with the bucket colour. The brown dotty papers were scraps from my scraps folder and made a good base for the LOTV sentiment.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

passion for promarkers-give us a laugh(funny image or sentiment)

cute card thursday-all boy

Allsorts-no flowers

paper crafting challenges-masculine

paper creators-spots and dots

613 Avenue-sights sounds and smells of spring( as spring arrives i see people starting to wash their cars each weekend)

The squirrel and the fox-all creatures great and small

challenges 4 everyone-anything goes

artbymiran-anything goes

Purple fairy

This image by sweet pea stamps is I think a fairy for grown up little girls , well every girl likes some fairy sparkle in their life , she's a little Gothic I think too. I coloured her with promarkers and sparkle added to her wings with sakura glitter pen. She is stamped on a spellbinders die cut oval and added to a white base card on a matt of embossed circles paper. I added two ribbons under the oval. No sentiment as yet as I haven't decided what to add a sentiment on, oval or tag or a simple rectangle banner.








I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Sugar creek hollow-create your own background

my mums craft shop-anything goes

Charisma cardz -anything goes

crafty girls challenge-anything goes

craftitude-anything goes or corrugated paper or card

Art by miran-anything goes

crafty calendar challenges-things with wings

cupcake inspirations-monochromatic

Brown sugar-CAS

Suzy bees bloomin challenge-anything goes

Sweet as cherry pie

Sweet as cherry pie, sitting pretty on the edge of a spellbinders die cut circle. Coloured in promarkers this C C designs cutie wishes a happy birthday with a blue peel off sentiment on a base of birds.com blue gingham and magazine freebie cherry paper matted on a base of red and onto a white base card.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

4 crafty chicks--colour an stamped or digi image
creative knockouts-for a child
4 crafty girls-anything goes
papertake weekly-anything goes optional Easter treat holder
just add ink-layers

Puss in boots with a dash of red

This card uses one of the many fab LOTV images but is just so super cute I decided to go for a more elegant look by using shades of grey, black, white and a dash of red.
I used promarkers to add colour and mounted on a black oval cut with a spellbinders die.
I layered the oval on white embossed card that has a quilted effect and layered this onto red pattered mirri-card. i love how the light catches it and gives highlights of gold.
The sentiment is also LOTV just inked up in black and all topped off with a hand tied bow.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Sweet stamps-dies

top tip tuesdays-cute

just inspirational team B challenge-pets

love rubber stamps-anything goes

open minded crafting fun challenges-animal antics

allsorts-use those dies

the squirrel and the fox-inspired by a book( more a story but a children's book)

creative knockouts-texturise

hiding in my craft room- anything goes

As you like it-favourite animal and why( I love all animals from the fish and frogs in my pond to the unconditionally loving pet dogs I have been fortunate to share time with but at the moment I love the cat that decided to live on my patio 2 years ago, when he arrived you could see his ribs and he had lumps of fur missing. He never tries to come in the house and makes me laugh with his laid back attitude. I think if I come back to earth I'd like to be a cat, fed daily and laze in the sun with nothing to do.

Pretty pastel freebies from docrafts-Pay it forward

I recently bought a copy of the docrafts magazine and in it was several freebies one of which was a sample of Bellisima decoupage samples and papers. Not something I do very often but thought I'd have a play and make some more cards for my son's charity box, sort of pay it forward.

The kit contained 2 complete sets and 4 papers but I decided to make 4 cards and split the decoupage sets into 2. I'm not normally a soft pastels kinda person, if I use pastels they are more pale brights I like to see my colours but these muted pastels are growing on me and they work so well with the images.

The first 2 cards use a dressmakers dummy holding a pretty summer cocktail dress with matching shoes and bag, the kind of thing you could wear to a summer wedding or similar event.

The first card I mounted the decoupage base onto cream card and cut around to make a matt and then stuck this to one of the freebie papers and this onto a base card. The sentiment is also from the freebie kit and I curved this and mounted with sticky pads and tape so the curve was supported. The card is finished with a cream hand tied bow, I think it makes quite an elegant card.

The other bits of this decoupage set I layered using sticky pads shaping the parts where necessary and mounted them onto a spellbinders die cut oval.

The pink base paper was mounted onto the base card, its quite pretty with the decorated corners which add extra interest.

The sentiment again came in the kit and co-ordinates well as it has the same flowers as appear on the base paper. 

There are still a few sentiments left over  and a cake stand and word image from the kit but the other decoupage is a parcel stack again in soft pastels.

I again made 2 cards from this set and found that one I found the base of the decoupage fit perfectly into a spellbinders die cut circle. I don't have many dies but am becoming addicted and find I am using them and the few embossing folders I have more and more.

The card again is kept simple so focusing on the image simly mounting the diecut onto a paper base and a sentiment added.Again the sentiment has the same flowers as appear on the base paper, something I might have to look at playing with when stamping (make a mental note to self to see if I have stamps that I can do this with).

The last card in the set again mounted the image on a die cut and then onto a base covered with the freebie paper.


This time I added a band of cream ribbon, cream just seemed to work better than white  and again curved a sentiment from the set and supported with sticky pads and tape.

Hope the chaps and ladies that work with my son not only need cards for their loved ones but think that these are pretty enough to donate some pennies for so he can raise some cash for the children's hospice.

I would like to enter these cards into the following challenges:-

MAWTT-picture inspiration
order of the opus gluei-add texture
sketchy colours-green lilac and cream

Penny black birthday

Who wouldn't love a cheerful bouquet like this full of the joys of spring. This cute hedgy is from penny black and coloured with promarkers after being stamped on a spellbinders die cut circle. I added this to a mat of fine check paper from freebies by birdscards.com , a ribbon from my stash and a LOTV sentiment.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

cupcake inspirations-garden

eureka-no square cards

crafting from the heart-spots or stripes anything goes

artistic inspirations-anything goes

craft your passion-mum/mother's day/for the ladies

wags n whiskers-rainbows or rainbow colours

brown sugar-anything goes

love to create-bingo(pink/die cut/ribbon

creative card crew-animals

daring card makers-use dies x cut preferably but others ok if like me you don't have any xcut dies as yet

What a hoot

This digi image is a freebie from Beccy's place and I thought he would make a fab card for a male of any age or as I live near Sheffield  any Wednesday fan too. I coloured him with promarkers and mounted him on a cream circle to represent the moon. I mounted this on pearlescent royal blue paper to suggest a night sky.

To finish the card I made a base of blue gingham another freebie from birds.com and added a spellbinders cut label with a sentiment from a magazine freebie set which just seemed to fit perfectly attached to the card with a pale blue brad.


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Oddball Art stamps-use a digi
The stamping chef-anything goes
Aurorawings challenge-anything goes
Dare to be sassy at sassy studio designs-use your favourite colours( blue is my favourite)
Cute card thursday-its a wild world
fab n funky-boys to men
hiding in my craft room-use a digi
Allsorts-all about the boy
Qkr stampede-use a bird
613 Ave-anything goes optional twist birds of a feather

springtime flowers for a mum

I seem to be on a roll with LOTV stamps at the moment and this one is perfect for

spring and for sending wishes to any special lady. I used this cutie to send love for mother's day. It's not for my mum or mum in law but my son has decided he would like to raise some money for our local children's hospice and thought asking for donations for greetings cards from those at work may help him make a start.I have put together a mixed box and thought as many of his colleagues are male there may be the need for at least one mother's day card this week.

I first made this style of card at Christmas and love the stunning effect it gives, the papers are freebies from birds.com and I love the soft pastel colours. The edges are a Martha Stewart border punch. The image and peel-off sentiment are mounted on spellbinders die cut circles all finished off with a hand tied lilac bow.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

A gem of a challenge- mothers day /for a special lady

the east wind-spring

left of centre-anything goes for 1st anniversary

crafty ribbons-anything goes

Ali-craft-spring

my time to craft-mother's day/special lady

pumpkin spice-dots

crazy for challenges-shake your thing

totally papercrafts-beautiful borders

Cards for Kelly

Hi all as in the previous post I said we had a phone call early Sunday morning to say my sister in law had been admitted to hospital for a kidney transplant. She has had diabetes from childhood and a few of years ago became quite ill and finished up having some of her toes and fingers amputated and went into kidney failure and has been on dialysis since.

It is great news that she has been lucky enough to get a kidney match and we are all very thankful to the donor family even though we don't know who they are.

The cards below are some I have made for family to send to Kelly to help keep her positive and speed her recovery though if all goes well I'm sure she will be feeling better in no time at all.

If anyone else would like to send he support cards I'm sure she would appreciate them greatly as she tells me of all the cards she receives at birthdays , |Christmas and other celebrations the only ones she keeps are the handmade ones she receives, she stores them in a special box. I think it would be lovely if my blogland friends could overwhelm her with cards to save and give her something to focus on when she hits the hurdles of recovery and adjustment that I'm sure she will face at some point over the next few weeks.

She is at present on the renal unit F,

Huntsman wing,

Northern General Hospital,

Sheffield

UK

I  know how precious all your time is but know that you crafting peeps are kind and generous too and I hope you know how appreciative I will be if you can find the time to send a card to Kelly. I know she would be thrilled to get cards from around the globe.

A little bit about Kelly. She's not a girly girl I've only seen her in a dress three times, twice when a bridesmaid ,the other her wedding dress, she usually wears jeans and a t shirt top and jacket. Not really a girly girl but she does like sparklies. She has two jack Russell dogs and one cat and a cockatiel. She use to enjoy gardening though has been limited over the last few years , likes camping, building and flying model planes though again has found this limited since loosing her fingers and enjoys socializing and holidays in the sun.

Thanks again in advance to all you lovely peeps.

I used  a bugaboo image and sentiment which I coloured with promarkers and graphic markers the papers from my scraps folders. Hope its just the not nice nurses that are on holiday and sad to say being a non practicing nurse unfortunately there are some not nice nurses though not very many.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

challenges for everyone-anything goes

suzy bee's bloomin' challenge-anything goes

bastel-traum-get well soon

crafty hazelnuts pattern paper challenge-anything goes

delightful challenges-anything goes

crafty girls-anything goes

For this card I used my new stamp that I was lucky enough to win from High Hopes, it was so difficult to choose one image from so many super cute stamps.

 This cutie comes with 2 sentiments one that arches over the top and a valentines message that sits beneath. I haven't used either but that just shows the versatility of High hopes stamps. i coloured the image with promarkers and mounted him on some blue copy paper.





The sentiment I wanted to keep light hearted so as to keep Kelly's spirits up when as in all recoveries there is a set back. i used a go kreate die as I thought it resembled a dog tag  and the sentiment is from a see-dee set stamped in black ink and added a red ribbon bow to finish it off.

The papers are magazine freebies and as they are bright and cheerful I felt they worked perfectly.

i would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

robin's fetish-animals or birds

suzy bee's bloomin' challenge-anything goes

bastel-traum-get well soon

cards and scrap-use stamps

crafty hazelnuts pattern paper challenge-anything goes

totally papercrafts-hey cuties

abc-challenge-E is for embellish

The third card I have made also uses magazine freebie papers and an image I'm sad to say I can't remember where its from so my apologies for that . Kelly loves to play games on her laptop so hopefully she will find this a fun card too.

I added sticky pads to the back of the image to give a 3D effect and mounted on a larger go kreate fancy square which I matted on yellow card and then onto the freebie papers. I added some gross grain ribbon  to finish the card off.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

allsorts-colours begining with B

suzy bee's bloomin' challenge-anything goes

abc-challenge-E is for embellish

bastel-traum-get well soon

crafty hazelnuts pattern paper challenge-anything goes

feeling crafty challenge-dies and or punches

crafty ribbons-anything goes

Update on Kelly the op seems to have been successful  so far and she came home at the weekend though still has to return to the hospital for daily blood tests but she's happy as its better than dialysis 3 times a week. thank you all for you kind thoughts and support.

What a busy couple of weeks

I'm ready for a rest. Last week our son moved into his new home even though its still not fully decorated he has a functioning kitchen and bathroom and somewhere to sleep. You'd think his arms had been amputated though as he has no internet or TV as yet as he has to decide which supplier of each he wants and sort a date for fitting etc and of course save for the connection fees and the TV license, so for now when he comes home from work with hubby as they car pool he has his tea at home and his fix of internet connection and TV he wants to see, the later being far less important in his eyes.

He informed me at the weekend that he'd like his guest bedroom sorting as well as the rest of the house please as whilst out having a drink after work on Friday his dad kindly volunteered his spare room for a friend to stop at so they can go out for a meal and a drink and I can go too and be their taxi driver as I'm not a drinker. The guest room at the moment is my tool room ,dump room and store room so I wasn't overly joyful as not only does it have fitted wardrobes in that are in need of taking out and water pipes that need boxing in the walls need papering as they are royal blue, sunshine yellow and bright green, with touches of pale pink as well as coffee and latte with dado rails on 3 walls. I have the feature wall paper but have to get the other paper as I think that will be easier than painting over the wide and bright colour array.

I have also had this vomiting bug that my son brought home from work only hubby to have it now then that will be a full house, really good way to waste a weekend when I planned on a little craft time.

I have a birthday card to make for my brother in law for the end of the month and also after a phone call yesterday a get well/speedy recovery for my sister in law ( see next post).

Right off to finish a bit of house work and iron some shirts and then I might get some craft time before preparing dinner. Hope you are all well and that I get chance to visit some of you real soon, thanks for popping by.

guest designer for High Hopes

I was lucky enough to be a winner at High Hopes stamps challenge a couple of weeks ago and part of the prize was the opportunity to be a guest designer for this weeks challenge of a little green. I sadly don't have as many high hopes stamps as I'd like but I think Toubled travis is perfect when coloured in green.

I used promarkers to colour him and mounted him after fussy cutting him out  on bronze mirri-card. The papers are magazine freebies . I added some green sparkly hexagons and the fab high hopes sentiment on a spellbinders oval.

I know with all his injuries that he seems as though he would be great for a get well card but with the fun sentiment I think he'd make a great just cheer up card or even birthday card for someone into sport or is accident prone.

I would like to enter Travis into the following challenges;-

challenges 4 everybody-anything goes

dream valley challenges-men/boys

a gem of a challenge-for the boys

Dis digi challenge- spots and dots

brown sugar-anything goes

frosted friday challenge-polkadots

sister act-anything goes

stampin with the dragon-anything goes

A simple thank you

My son is so enjoying his new job and learning so much too though its still all gobble-di- geek speak to me with acronyms I really don't understand but each to their own. 

Last week he was doing something new and although to me it seemed to be doing ok (I only know as he was working from home) he said he actually had to keep asking questions of his teacher so once finished he asked if I would make him a thank you card for his mentor.

I decided something simple would be best for her as it says thank you and isn't making too big a deal as I'm sure he will need more help as he learns more. 

I decided to use high hopes dunno duck again as I thought this was the perfect image, keeping it simple I matted the image on silver mirri-card using a punch to round the corners and added a 'thank-you'peel-off, card done.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

Animal friends-use punches /dies
cards und more-anything goes
Artistic impressions-anything goes/feminine
card mania- anything goes
crafting from the heart-anything goes/button and pearls
crafty boots-anything goes
creative creations-anything goes
lexi's creations-anything goes
challenges for everyone-anything goes
colour me creative-anything goes

Springtime fairy

I saw a card that Amy made at a thousand sheets of paper she made that was bright and sunny and made me smile and really feel that Spring is on the way. I decided that I too wanted to make a bright and cheerful card so I made this.

I used a sugar nellie fairy which I coloured with promarkers and sakura glaze pens and the papers were magazine freebies, stitchy bear and coloured copy paper. The sentiment is also a magazine freebie. Simple but I am now definitely looking forward to spring.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

the sugar bowl-use a fairy

Lothian crafts-female birthday

Ali-craft-anyhting goes

dis-digis-time to celebrate

crafty calendar-lets celebrate

Flying the nest

My son is on the brink of moving into his new home so thought I'd be prepared and make him a card for when he does. I know it won't make that much difference as I will still see him on a daily basis being his carer to help him meet his daily living needs but it will be a big step for him towards his independence and technically he will have flown the nest.

I decided I wanted to make a fun card not the usual new home card and thought this cute High Hopes stamps fit the bill perfectly. It is called dunno duck and as my son thinks I'm quackers at the best of times I couldn't use anything else.

I coloured him with promarkers and mounted the image on a fancy spellbinders circle which I wrote a sentiment around trying to keep it light hearted.

The papers are papermania and bits from my stash, the new home sentiment is LOTV stamped in brown ink, quite simple but I think it will make my son smile.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:-

jelly park-new beginnings

simply create too-anything goes

sugar creek hollow-something new

A gem of a challenge-something new

addicted to CAS-die cuts

papernest dolls-anything goes

A creative romance-something new

tip top tuesday-clean and simple

love rubber stamps-anything goes
high hopes stamps-use your favourite high hopes stamp