Another Male Card!

Wow 2 posts in as many days! Shocking!
This is a card I made late last year, before I had a blog, but as I have been having to think about making male cards recently and I thought this was a good trick I have decided to post the card on here now too!

I know this card is again very simple, (my mens cards always seem to be as I dont use ribbon, flower embellies or gems etc), but it had never occured to me to use 35mm film in my crafting before!
The idea arrived because I couldn't find any photography themed decoupage or suitable digi images anywhere. Luckily I had an old film that had expired as I have used a digital camera for years and so I just pulled it off the reel!

The paper is from the DC Papermania Men's world pack, the die is again my Sizzix favourite and the embellishment was in a '10p each' box at a local craft shop! I was really pleased with how this turned out and the recipient thought it was brilliant as it was so different. :)

TFL, Ni x

The dreaded male card!!!

I don't know where the time goes, another awol stint from me!
In all honesty a lot of it has been enjoying the lovely weather we've been having, me and OH had our first trip to the beach and then a family bbq this weekend, lovely! Also lots of projects happening in the garden - a greenhouse, a mini 'patio' for the garden swing and a raised vegetable bed - so exciting!
BUT - I am back today to share another quick card!

My Dad asked me to make him a last minute card for a clients birthday lunch he had been invited to. I make no secret that like many other crafters this is a style of card I find very hard to create but I would not be defeated lol!

Here is the card:

Headache time - no idea what colour or theme to use, do I have any suitable male style images?
Right, stash rummage for inspiration!

Aha! Found a box of these thick cardboard patterned tags that I bought in £land. About a dozen on a sheet so they are great vale for money and they come in lots of different sizes/styles in the same colour palette. Also they have glitter, ribbon, brads on them so are half embellished for you!

Used my Fruit Smoothie Sizzix alphabet to make the 80, added an 'M' brad for personalisation & layered this onto a large scallop square nestie.
Another tag for the lil greeting topper (which I matted onto some green card) a ribbon thread one this time. Added 2 star brads to finish and ta-daa! Sucess!TFL, Ni :) x

My 1st 'Get Funky!' Challenge - Yay! :)

Well I said I had another Challenge project to share and so without further ado... this is it! :)

It's a special one as this is my first submission for a Get Funky! challenge. Although I love the Funky Hand cd roms that I have I couldn't take part until I started my blog - woo!
This months challenge was Going Round In Circles (see challenge here!) and Anice offered a freebie backing paper download on the Funky Hand website.

I though the paper would make a fab base for my double easel card (my 1st go at this technique also!) and I punched out two circles from the sheet of paper, mounted on foam pads, to use as the stoppers.
The sentiment is sizzix, the scallop circle a nestie, the large butterfly a DC die and I have no idea where the mini punch for the other butterflies came from lol!

The jar is so inkeeping with the theme as the whole thing is decorated with circles! :)
Again using nesties I cut the two patterned paper circles and layered up with a scalloped circle in between. On the top to finish it off is a large green brad and a clear gem.
To jazz the sides of the jar up a bit and use up the odd leftover circles from my A4 sheet I used a circle punch to cut the shapes and then added ribbon between two back-to-back circles and fixed it over the wire closure for detail.

I'm so pleased with how both of these came out, fab new card technique and, although it was meant to be a gift jar to go with the thank you card, I'm going to have to make another one as this one now lives on my crafty shelves filled with my favourite type of cakey/biscuit snack!!!
TFL. :) x

FF Challenge card - ends 30th Jan

Another challenge card from me today, really pleased with some of it, not so sure about the overall finished card though!
This was another DC challenge, this time by CrossStitchQueen, another with a recipie to follow:

* nice pastel colours

* at least one ribbon/bow

* a sentiment/greeting

* backing paper(s)

* a stamped image of any FF bear you wish

* PLUS he/she has to have a friend too.

As the only FF stamp I own is the freebie one from a previous DC mag I decided to attempt something I have seen Barbara Grey do with her stamps, a reflection technique.

You ink up the stamp then carefully roll the brayer over it to 'stamp' the image onto it. Next roll the brayer onto your chosen card/paper and the image will print backwards - a reflection of the original image! Tadaa! (If you look at my bears the one on the right is lighter in colour as this is the reflected image and some of the colour depth seems to have been lost in the transfer process.)

I wanted it to look like the bears were holding the greeting as a banner, not sure it's worked very well though as I didnt notice to start with but the cord is actually coming from the back of their paws and I needed to make a wider card so I could 'hang' the banner from the cord top rather than in the middle!

The rest of the card is pretty obvious, my favourite Happy Birthday sizzix die greeting, a paper ribbon and I cant remember where this spotty backing paper was printed from, oops!