A Giggle

The good people at The Male Room challenge are asking for an amusing male themed card to give them a giggle.  I decided to go with my first Christmas card of the year using an image from La Pashe Oldies collection.  The decoupage sheet was printed and cut out along with a simple greeting and apart from the time taken to cut and stick this is a fairly simple card.

Butterflies

Butterflies are always popular and my newest follower pointed me towards a challenge blog which is all about butterflies. You can find this blog here.  This time they are asking for glamorous butterflies with glitter or sparkle so mine have been painted with clear Wink of Stella which doesn't show up too well on the scan but is evident when seen for real - I also added some 'diamond' gems.  Background was made with embossing folders and sponged with Distress ink.

Background - Creative Expressions A4 embossing folder and free folder given with magazine recently
Large butterfly - Spellbinders
Small butterflies - Joy die
Branch - Tim Holtz die
Bird cage - Spellbinders
Distress ink - Milled Lavender and Dusty Concord

Garden Shed

I've had ideas going round in my head for a few days to use the Hardwood stamp to make a garden shed - not an original idea but this is my take on it.  The background was from my stash and seemed just right with the addition of a little extra blue brushed around the edges.  The shed was constructed from pieces of stamped card and I remembered I had a selection of miscellaneous die sheets on white card so I selected a fence, sponged it with Distress ink and over stamped with the wood grain.  The flowers on the trellis came from my little pot of saved 'waste' bits left over from various punches - yes I know, sad isn't it??  This time I picked out some flowers and little bits for the centres..  There were a couple of die cut cats on my table which I thought made a useful addition to the overall picture and luckily I remembered that somewhere in the depths I had a punch for the flower pots.

Shed - Hardwood stamp from Stampin' Up
Trellis - Tessatina die from Memory Box
Flowers - 'waste' saved from Tonic border punch
Leaves - Tattered lace die (chopped into small bits)
Cats - Impression Obsession die
Flower pots - punch which I've had for YEARS!
Grass - Marianne die

Scooter Boy

I was tidying up a few files on my external hard drive and came across several digital 'stamps' which I've had for so long that I've forgotten quite where they originated and some of them haven't even been used as I can recall.  I thought this one would make a good card for a young male and the image has been combined with some die cut bits and pieces - still using up scraps!

Backing paper from my stash
Image and mat - Spellbinder die
Border and faux ric-rac - Spellbinder border die
Sentiment - computer printed to fit Bitty Banner die
Banner - Stampin' Up Sizzix Banner and Bitty Banner dies

Free Stamp

I have to confess to buying yet another 'samey' magazine just because they were giving away a really nice daisy embossing folder and a stamp which I've used to make this quick card.  The bear was stamped onto a scrap of watercolour paper and coloured with Promarkers and pencils - a nice touch is that the sentiment is part of the stamp but of course it could always be cut apart and used separately.  The embossed piece was sponged with distress ink and I simply added a strip of patterned paper and a fancy die cut border.

I must try to stay away from the magazine section when visiting the newsagent because I am so easily tempted!!

Labels - Deco labels from Stampin' Up
Background - free daisy embossing folder 6" square
Distress ink - Spun Sugar
Promarkers and coloured pencils
Border Die - Cheery Lynne

Snippets

Last week I was introduced to a challenge blog  HERE which was new to me and thought it would be ideal as a way of using up some of the many bits and pieces which accumulate on and around my desk. You know the sort of thing - left over scraps of backing paper and card, odd die cuts when you try out a new die and the inevitable pieces left from printing out a sheet of designs from a CD; the list goes on... and on...   It was my friend Anne who told me about it and she was lucky enough to win a prize on her first week of entering so congratulations!

For  my card this week I've used up backing paper, a butterfly and a label shape which were all left over from bits printed from a Debbie Moore CD - I simply stamped a greeting onto the label.  The embossed panel was an experiment trying out a technique shown recently by Sheena using one of her embossing folders (a freebie) with Distress inks and Stazon ink pad and the strip of die cut lace was coloured to match.  Rest assured I still haven't really made much impression on the 'stuff' which keeps on piling up - maybe I should be ruthless and ditch some of it??  I often wonder what gene I have which just compels me to save every last scrap of everything.

Sailor Boy

I've used another image from Hobby House together with odd bits and pieces of card and paper from my desk to make this card for my great nephew whose birthday is next month.  I hope you are all having a good weekend and that your weather is better than here where it is cold and raining at the moment.

Image - Hobby House

Backing layer - Spellbinder die

Corner - Whimsy die

Number - X-cut die on punched Stampin' Up postage stamp shape

Bunting - Stampin' Up stamp and matching punch

Name -  set of small letter stamps