PDCC 63

Hi there everybody

I have a quick card to share with you for today's Play Date Cafe Challenge. It is another CAS card, it must be my week for that style lol

The colours this week are green, silver and gold.  Well I have been thinking about this for the past few days and for some reason, I don't know about you, but I find silver with gold quite a challenge.  I knew I needed to make a male birthday card, so thought the colours would be great for it.   As it turned out I never had much time to play so I ended up with this.  Now where is the silver and gold you may be asking, well the silver has been used on the wing mirrors on the car, and the star is gold, so technically all the colours are there.  You just have to look very hard for them!!! ;o)

This is the inspiration pic from our lovely Sarah..

As you can see it's very quick to make;

1. Cut strip of stripey paper, attach to centre of card
2. Stamp car, once in main solid image, and then mask off to do tyres in brown
3. Stamp on reverse of silver card and cut out wing mirrors
4. Attach finished car with pop dots, attach to card
5. Stamp sentiment, and add a star to finish
6. Breathe a sigh of relief that while it may not be your best piece of work, at least you met the deadline!!  Sometimes life just gets like that, doesn't it?!  I'm hoping to get to play over the next few days so should have a few more cards to share with you

In the meantime, why don't you pop over the other girls' blogs and check out the loveliness!  Here are the links for you.  Don't forget our new DT girls will also be joining us as players so you could get a sneaky peek of what fab work is to come from them too!

Julie Ranae (Senior DT)

Sarah Anderson (Senior DT)

Savannah O'Gwynn (Senior DT)

Andrea Ewen (Private Blend Designer)

plus our new girls ...

Jaclyn Miller

Michele Gross
Tracey Kuzniak
Jinny Newlin
Libby Hickson
Fiona Shultz
Colleen Dietrich {New Private Blend Designer}

Pop on over to the Cafe and link your post. If you use an online gallery, please use the keyword PDCC63, and remember to use our inspirational colours to be eligible to win!

I can't wait to see what you come up with on the silver and gold idea, I could really do with some ideas on how to use it better in the future!  I'm hoping loads of you will do 'man' cards too, that way I can add to my inspirational folder of cards for male birthdays!

Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone

I managed to get a few minutes to post about a card I made earlier this week for the Waltzingmouse Sketch.

My Mum asked me to make some more dreaded 'man cards'. For those that follow my blog you will know these really aren't my favourite. I don't know about you, but it can be so easy for man cards to look so, well let's be honest, uncool! My friend and I were having a discussion with Mum to explain that man cards don't need all the fuss on them that we do for women's cards. They just like plain, simple, to know they've been remembered and that's about as far as their interest goes (according to my man anyway lol)

I used my new Papertrey Ink dies with some Basic Grey papers.  Those stamps are SO much fun to play with.  The little tickets are adorable, and that 'Say it With Style' font for the 'Happy Birthday' is such fun!  I hadn't seen much of it, but now I have the set I keep seeing it everywhere, on coffee tins, on books, signs etc!  Funny how that happens!

So tell me what are your special ingredients for making a good 'man card' as they are called in our house? Do you have fall back ideas that you return to again and again? I'd love to hear all about them! I need all the help I can get!

So how did I do? Is it ok?? Please forgive the poor picture, I was hoping to get around to rephotographing it but Mum put it in the post before I got chance.

Did Mum like it? Hmmm, not sure, but she does feel a bit happier about it being more simple, so that's a good start!

Come back tomorrow, I have a scheduled post for a special someone! ;o)

You'd better sit down...I stamped a card!!!

Have you recovered from the shock yet?!  I stamped a card, and I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out for once!  If you have only just come across my blog you may not have known that I am only just starting to get back into my stamping, and when I do stamp it has tended to be still using my die cutters but adding little stamped sentiments.  I have been trying to get my head around the fact that stamping can actually look modern.  I guess it's me showing my age, where I started out stamping so young lol.  I thought I'd push the boat out this time and stamp a bit more for a change!!

Now, this card is like one of those optical illusions, is it straight or not?  lol.  Actually it is, but you do have to look twice just to make your mind up!  The sketch is from Card Patterns #54.  The plan was to use some string or something along the right hand side, but it didn't look right so I ended up leaving it off.  I have also used a bit of artistic licence too. The flower is now my little sentiment label and as you can see on the opposite side to where it's meant to be!

1. Cut Basic Grey 'wide tie' paper to fit front of white card, rounding all corners, adhere to card
2. Cut out two rectangles, one in blue cardstock, the other in Basic Grey 'skinny jeans' paper
3. Adhere to card at angles as shown
3. Stamp outline tree on white cardstock and a solid stamped tree on a separate piece of dimpled cardstock
4. Distress edges using Tim Holtz inkpad (using dimpled cardstock for this helps to achieve the mottled effect)
4. Cut around solid stamped tree and pop dot partly over the outlined tree
5. Stamp the sentiment on a piece of blue cardstock, cut off edges into banner shape and adhere to the card


Stamps: Kanban Clear Stamps - 'Spring Silhouette'
Paper: Bazzill Cardstock, Basic Grey 'Boxer' - 'Wide Tie' & 'Skinny Jeans'
Accessories:  Tim Holtz 'Broken China' distress ink

Have a lovely evening!  I'm off to watch a very dated 'Babylon 5' with Ian.  He got the series for Christmas and we are slowly watching about 100 episodes of it lol.  It's terrible sci-fi acting, but worth a giggle!!

Wild Thing

Happy Sunday!

As promised here is today's card for the Corrosive Challenge Blog #26, 'Welcome to the Jungle'. I really enjoyed making the card for this week's challenge. I thought I would try and do a scene. I don't often do them, but I came across one of Natasha's little pack of stickers so asked if I could 'borrow' it. Well, she does that to me all the time so it's only fair I get to do it back every now and again, don't you think?!

For this card I cut a rectangular piece of dotted glitter cardstock and using my Martha Stewart punch I cut a green strip to stick along the bottom border. I then cut out a frame using my Nesties and backed the gap with some stripey glitter card just to give a different effect. I stuck on the lion and palm tree stickers and then cut out some extra branches using my 'Tulip Dance' cutter. (if you look at my last posting you will be able to see that the leaves are from the same cutter). All I did was cut some pieces out of them to make them look a bit more jungle like. Now, I am SO not a jungle kind of girl, much more a five star hotel with a hot bubble bath, so please go with it if they're nothing like jungle leaves lol. I cut out a couple of red dots to add a bit of colour on the leaves. I then attached the little 'Wild' brad using a piece of string and then stuck another little brad with the word 'Adventure' in the bottom left corner. To finish I added a plastic sentiment plate which I tied ribbon through, again to bring in some colour, because it was all a bit green!


Natasha and I went out for a coffee and cake yesterday, just us girls because Ian has been poorly, and afterwards we went into one of the little gift shops before heading home. I was looking at one of those little handbag hooks/holders, have you seen them? They look like this, you can get loads of different versions of them. Anyway, I haven't quite made my mind up if they are trendy or old fashioned, but I would really like one. I hate putting my bags on the floor when I'm out. So, we were looking through a basket at them and each was £9.00. I decided I wasn't keen on any of the patterns there so we headed home. As we were walking back to the car Natasha said to me, 'we need to get ones we like, that would have been £18.00 if we had bought those ones'. Umm, at what point had I said I was getting one for her too?!!! I think this is now the age where it starts getting VERY expensive lol. Anyway, I quite like the idea of this one that I found on line here, what d'ya think?

I'm going to have to grab the packet of sticky things off Natasha to find out all of the details for the card, so if you would like them just drop me a line. I'm off to get my forty (or more hopefully!) winks. Sweet dreams x

Wise Old Owl

Hi there everyone!

How's your week been? We have been having really good weather here, which has been great, especially as Natasha is on summer holidays. The weeks are flying by though which is a shame. I love spending time with her, she's so much fun and never fails to make me laugh :o) We bought her a set of steel drums the other day so it's been like the caribbean here. I love it. Soooo much better than listening to a recorder. She's been compiling her own songs too, all that's missing is the rum! Might have to sort that out later lol

I got my Pax bead the other day, woohoo. It's smaller than I thought it would be, but I really like it. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about see my previous post entry here.

My card for this week's Corrosive Challenge #25 is this wise old owl...

I actually messed up on this challenge, because we had gone round to a friend for the day and when I got there I remembered I hadn't made a card for this week's challenge! Luckily, she also makes cards so I was able to have a rummage through her card making bits and pull something together. I love looking through other people's card-making bits, don't you?! The picture is taken from my phone, but it came out ok I think. Phew, nearly missed that one. See, if I'd been a wise old owl I'd have made the card earlier in the week, AND looked at the sketch too!!

The story doesn't end there though. I gave the card to my Mum because she really liked it and wanted to send it to someone so no longer had the card in my possession. When I got home I opened my e-mail from Janet (who runs the Corrosive Challenge Blog) only to find I had remembered the sketch completely differently to what it was! By then it was too late to do anything about it. Anyway, you will get the idea, but let's just say I've used my artistic licence to do this one!!

I'm really sad actually because I only have two more cards to make and then my 3 month DT season has come to an end :o( I've thoroughly enjoyed being part of it. Janet has certainly set some great challenges and got my little brain working on new ideas.

I've put together another card based on the 'wrong' sketch so will share that with you later in the week. Oh yes, I have also just had an idea having seen a pair of teenager socks, but you will have to wait for that one ;o)

I will come back and add the 'how to' make it info later. I'm off out to get some chips!!! Don't ask, it's just one of those things I've wanted all week and now I'm off to get them!

Have fun!!

Don't forget to check out all the DT cards, they're fab.

Quick Man Card!

Hi everyone

I had set this post to go earlier this week, but mustn't have done it right! Have you all had a good day? My 'Sis' and her man are over, so I've not made any cards this weekend. (Yes, she is still talking to me after my comment on the royal card!)

Today's card is a quick male card. As you all know by now male cards aren't my forte. I always find mine look a bit naff somehow.

For this card I used my Basic Grey mat pad, cutting out two rectangles in different papers, then two squares, one larger than the other so that I could put '40' in it. I wrapped some dotty brown ribbon around the larger rectangle. As Heidi Van Laar puts it I 'fussy' cut the banner, once in cream and again larger in brown, which I then added the letters to. I love the way she says that because I hate cutting out small areas, so it always makes me giggle. Decoupage is one kind of card I would hate making, so hats off to all of you that have the patience for that! You should check out her blog, she does some amazing cards, I love them!

Dies: Sizzix 'Wango' Alphabet Set, 'Easy Peasy' Alphabet Set
Paper: Basic Grey 'Archaic' (I think!)
Accessories: Brown and white polka dot ribbon from stash

Soldiering on I will continue in my quest to make a great male card! I look to you all for inspiration :o)

Going Retro

Hi guys

How's your weekend going? It's been really muggy here all day and we finally have a thunderstorm and lightning which should clear the air.

I am not at home today but I had five minutes to do a quick posting of a card I made the other day. I thought I would try and go a bit retro! I needed to make my cousin's other half a card for his 40th birthday but I wanted something a bit more colourful, rather than the browns/greens/blues for men's cards that I normally use.

I also wanted to use some string and this simple card is what I came up with. I cut out two pieces of paper, rounding the right hand edges. I then cut out a star from a piece of DP and mounted it onto a black circle. I tied some string around the top layer and added the white circle which had been matted onto black. I added the '40th' sticker. Having stuck down the bottom rectangle I pop dotted the top one to allow for the string and then added the star.

Don't forget to enter the Corrosive Challenge competition today. The theme is for a folded card this week. I really enjoyed moving away from the traditional square/rectangle card. It was fun. Head on over there now, there's still time to join in!

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday :o)

You're a Star

Happy Friday everyone!! I can't believe it's the weekend already, can you? I must be getting old, the time seems to be going by quicker and quicker lol

Today I have another quick make card to show you. For some reason at the moment I'm into stars and circles. I whipped up a quick boyz birthday card for one of our friends. Did you notice that I haven't used a challenge for it this time, be amazed..be very amazed!! I do love my challenges, they are great for getting my mojo going!

I think this card is self explanatory, so will just leave you with the recipe.

Dies: Sizzix 'Circles #2', Quickutz Star
Paper/Card: 3 Bugs in a Rug 'Seeing Stars - Twinkle', Bazzill Bling & Classic
Accessories: Stampendous birthday phrase stickers

Hope you all have a lovely Friday and I will try and post something over the weekend.

Hugs, Ruby ♥

Easy Boy's Card

Hi there, hope you all had a good weekend. We had a lovely time, we saw friends on Saturday and had a lovely lazy day yesterday. The weekends fly by though, don't they?

So, this time I have a quick and easy make card to add. I don't know about you but I find cards for boys in their late teens a bit harder to do. In my family the boys tend not to be into anything specific. They are all really traditional and don't play football, golf, go to the pub etc. They are all quite studious, but I've already done that whole studious theme thing too many times. I wanted to make a card that I could adapt for boys' birthdays and came up with this simple idea.

I cut out a piece of green cardstock to match my ribbon, added two strips of brown at the top and the bottom. I tied the ribbon around the back of the green card before sticking it down. I cut out a star using my Quickutz star cutter and stamped a sentiment. Before I stuck the star down I added a brad.

Dies: Quickutz star
Paper: Bazzill Classic
Stamp: Rubber Stampede 'Swirl Happy Birthday'
Accessories: Corner rounder, ribbon, brad

Not my normal style, but sometimes it's nice just to do a simple card, don't you think?

Grey and Yellow

My last card for today. I liked the idea of this challenge over at Moxie Fab World this week because the colours are a bit unusual so I thought I would play!

To start with I cut wavy lines on three different pieces of card/paper as seen. I cut along the yellow curvy line so that the front of the card was removed to show the inside. I then cut some grey (light elephant!) card running along the same lines as the front and cut out the letters, 'B-R-O'. Finally I cut out the phrase and sponged some ink along the yellow curvy line to soften it a bit.

Dies: Sizzix Phrase, 'Happy Birthday #2', 'Junk Drawer' Alphabet Set
Paper: Basic Grey papers from 'Offbeat' pad, Bazzill Bling & Classic

Quick question..I had some feedback earlier that someone was not able to leave a comment because every time they tried their system crashed. If you have had a similar problem or my blog seems slow please could you mail me so that I can check it out if it's a problem with my blog. I'd really appreciate it :o)

I'd love to hear your comments on my postings ♥

My first challenge entry!

I decided to enter Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge #39. I have wanted to participate for ages but really needed to get some bits sorted on my blog before I entered (and obviously pluck up some courage to enter too!) I needed to make a man's card and thought I would do something a little more contemporary using the given colours. I used a bonus sketch by Peet that I found on 2 Sketches 4 You.






Recipe:

Dies: Cuttlebug retro squares die, 'Easy Peasy' alphabet set by Sizzix
Paper: Bazzill Basics - Bling/Classic
Accessories: Black/white gingham ribbon