Masculine Monday - Fox and Friends birthday

The first thing I'd like to say this morning is thank you! I have been bowled over by all the lovely comments and emails following Saturday's post, and delighted that I have new followers too - thank you all so much! I really do appreciate the encouragement.

Now, I have a masculine card to show you as usual on a Monday morning. A couple of weeks ago my youngest son asked me to make a birthday card for a school friend of his. I knew that the boy is an animal lover and this card was the result of me playing around with some items that were out on my desk.

This wonderful paper from the new Well Worn range reminded me of a brick wall - particularly when placed over a sky sponged in with Bashful Blue ink using my cloud template made of punched circles glued together. I thought it might be fun to have somebody peeking over the top!

The somebody in question is a bewildered looking cat made with the owl stamp from Fox and Friends. Doctoring the beak to make a nose and adding whiskers gives it a feline look! I gave him balloons to hold made from scraps of card stock punched into shape using my 1" circle punch (TIP: Use a post it note to hold the circle in place while punching.) The balloon knots and strings are added with markers and I added shine to the balloons with my white gel pen.

The happy birthday sentiment from Party This Way looked quite graffiti-ish to me so I stamped it on the wall using my stamp-a-majig for position. It's quite a random font so it was quite easy to add Elliott's name in the same style.

Supplies needed for the card:

Stamps: Fox and Friends, Party This Way

Ink: Basic Black, Early Espresso, Bashful Blue

Card stock: Whisper White, Scraps for the balloons

Other: Well Worn designer paper, markers, white gel pen, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I hope you've had a great weekend. We got back from Tynemouth safely, having had a wonderful few days away. I'd only just got the laundry done when it was time to pack another suitcase - this time for my youngest boy who is off today on his school trip to an adventure centre. While I was giving advice about how to fit everything in, I told him we'd miss him while he was away. He agreed cheerfully that it would be pretty dull at home without him then told me kindly that he wouldn't have time to miss us at all as he'd be far too busy doing all the fun activities! I have no doubt that he'll be off this morning without a backward glance but I confess that I'll have an ever so slightly trembly bottom lip...

I hope those of you that celebrate halloween have fun tonight. Can you believe it'll be November tomorrow? Hmmm... I think some Christmas projects are definitely in order this week!

See you soon,

Stars in my eyes!

I can't tell you how excited I am today! I have been asked to join Chrissie and Mandi at Less Is More as guest designer this week and I feel so utterly honoured! Regular readers of my blog will know that I've been a staunch LiMette pretty much from the word go. Clean and simple is my favourite style of stamping and the wonderful challenges the ladies set each week kickstart my mojo every time - I've definitely lost the urge to lie in on Saturday mornings!

This week the challenge is to create a card using the theme 'stars' and I've come up with a couple of ideas. The first is a Christmas card using the dashing Dasher:

The night sky is made by scribbling with markers on an acrylic block, spritzing with water and stamping onto Whisper White card stock. (You have to be careful not to use too much water or the card stock will warp - you could try putting it under some heavy books overnight if it does!) When it had completely dried, I stamped Dasher in Basic Black ink and, after cleaning the stamp thoroughly, I used my stamp-a-majig and a marker to add extra stars from his antlers to the sky. The centres of the stars were dotted carefully with the fine end of a versamark pen, then heat embossed in silver. Come and have a closer look:

I got very excited heat-embossing the stars - it was like watching real stars coming out! When I'd finished, I added three Basic Rhinestones for a bit of extra sparkle. The Dasher panel is mounted on vellum then attached to a card base made out of Stampin' Up's gorgeous new Brushed Silver card stock. I love this stuff - it's not overly shiny and has a rather classy finish.

The second card was great fun! I've been thinking for a while now about teaming a magic wand with a 'birthday wishes' sentiment and the stars theme seemed the perfect opportunity. The result was this bright, easy-to-post, one-layer card:

I started with the sentiment from Petite Pairs, drew a wand using a ruler and marker, then added bright stars using a stamp-a-majig for position. That's it - so quick and simple but (I hope!) effective. 

Supplies needed for these cards:

DASHER CARD

Stamps: Dasher, Contempo Christmas (sentiment)

Ink: Basic Black, Real Red

Card stock: Brushed Silver, Vellum, Whisper White

Other: Acrylic block, markers, versamark pen, silver embossing powder, heat tool

BIRTHDAY WISHES CARD

Stamps: Season of Joy (for the star), Petite Pairs (sentiment)

Ink: Melon Mambo
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: Markers, stamp-a-majig

I'd love to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

We've been away in Tynemouth for a few days, romping about in unexpected sunshine, but I'm back today and will be coming round soon to see all the fabulous starry creations you've come up with! See you later!

Hugs,

French Foliage gift set

Yesterday I was telling you about the card and gift bag I made for my friends birthday at the weekend. She has the most gorgeous colouring - blonde hair with green eyes - and looks fabulous in autumnal colours, so it was almost inevitable that I'd use my beloved French Foliage stamp set! Come and see what I've made:

First of all I've got to say that the frame is one of my favourite things in the whole catalogue! It's a set of two embossing folders and they appeared on the top of my wish list the moment I saw them! I trimmed this one with my sharp paper snips and filled the inset bit with a piece of black card stock and a scrap of Newsprint designer paper. That's retired now but you can get the same effect with the new First Edition Speciality paper.

Here's a close-up of the frame with the beautiful leaf from French Foliage popped up on dimensionals on top. To make the leaf, I rock 'n' rolled the stamp using Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso inks and stamped it onto some autumn colours I'd sponged onto a piece of Very Vanilla card stock. The leaf is easy to cut out with my sharp paper snips and I think makes a great focal point.

I'd bought a beautiful wall hanging made out of driftwood for my friend and the shop gave it to me in a plain white carrier. I thought the bag would look great jazzed up with a leaf design. It's so easy to just stamp and go with French Foliage!

Here's a detail of the design - the leaves are quite randomly stamped as you can see.

I didn't know this when I made today's card, but it fits rather nicely with the challenge at Make My Monday this week - to make a card using the colours orange and black. What a month of fabulous challenges it's been over there!

Supplies needed for the card:

Stamps: French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Pumpkin Pie

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Basic Black

Other: Designer Frames embossing folder, Newsprint designer paper (retired), paper snips

I'd love to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I've had a busy old life just lately and regular readers of my blog will know all about the senior moments I've been having. At Milton Keynes market at the weekend, I noticed this notice in the booth window of one of the stallholders:

I think if I have any more of these lapses, I'm going to need to get myself kitted out with a memory card - and maybe a bluetooth charger would help in the mornings too! Anyway, in view of those senior moments, I've decided to take a few days off. I'll be back again on Saturday though - with a very exciting announcement! Whoopee!

Take care and enjoy your crafting - and I'll hope to see you on Saturday.

Hugs,

Masculine Monday- pig

Good morning! It's time for another masculine card to start the week and this is another one I shall be entering into the St Lukes Charity Challenge. This month they're asking for 'cards for the boys' and if you can spare them, you can send them in to be sold to raise money for the hospice. The hospice provides care for the terminally ill and support for their families, and St Lukes is a charity very close to my heart - I believe we all deserve to die with dignity.

This week I'm using my new Button Buddies stamp set again.

The stamp set contains eight images covering a variety of occasions, and each with a feature ideal for embellishing with a button.

The pig really caught my eye and, since I wouldn't dream of sending a pig image to a female person, it's making an appearance on my male card today! Can you see that you could easily add a button to its snout?! I don't usually use buttons for male cards though so I just stamped my pig twice, punched out the nose with my 1/2" circle punch and popped it up with a dimensional. Isn't it cute?!

The pig is masculinised by the gorgeous new woodgrain background stamp - such a useful addition to your male stamping arsenal! Now I wouldn't normally use punning sentiments on my cards but I did think the expression on the pig's face made this one essential! I made it on the computer and printed it out on Very Vanilla card stock.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Woodgrain, Button Buddies

Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Blushing Bride

Card stock: Confetti Cream, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Whisper White

Other: Water colour pencils (for the pig's eyes), 1/2" circle punch

I'd love to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

My youngest son is preparing to go on a school trip at a schools adventure centre and has been busy getting out suitcases and walking boots and sleeping bags. I advised him to practice getting the sleeping bag in its sleeve as the children will be expected to pack for themselves on the trip home. "Oh I can already do it," he told me confidently. There was a storm of scepticism from the rest of the family at this - we have all had our battles with sleeping bags and he is quite small for his age. His response was to  fling himself onto the sleeping bag, turn into a whirlwind of arms and legs and finally step back with the sleeping bag tucked neatly into its sleeve! How did he DO that?!!! My older son summed it up in a word: "Respect!"

I hope you had a lovely weekend. I had a lovely time helping one of my friends to celebrate her birthday. I'll post the card I made for her tomorrow as well as the gift bag I put her present in - I was really pleased with them! Hope to see you then,