Two Cards For Men

Yes, one of the most difficult tasks in the world is to produce cards for men who don't golf, sail, enjoy soccer or any other sport, but I think either of these would fit the bill, because of the colours I chose. They are both made with stampin up images, and the papers are Daisy D's. I must say, although they are a challenge to make, they are not as much fun as making cards for girlfriends, no pretty flowers, no sparkles or bling.

We went to friends for a fabulous lobster dinner on Sunday night. Carol and Alicia had made a trip on Saturday to the guy who sells the live lobsters, and had very specific instructions from him as to their care until they made that headlong dive into a pot of boiling water. So they returned home and carefully put them in the laundry sink/washbasin with ice. The lobsters were heard skittering around at about 11pm. The next morning, Carol went to walk her dog to be confronted by Alicia on her drive. 'They're DEAD' she said tragically. Yes, the ice had melted, and they had drowned during the night. No I didn't know that lobsters could drown in fresh water either. A frantic dash to the computer produced the information that they were quite safe to eat. So we did, and jolly delicious they were too, although we did ask each other 'Are you feeling okay?' rather a lot during the course of the evening, and were all quite relieved that we woke up feeling good on Monday morning!

Fabric Card

Have you ever tried using fabric on a card? It's so easy, all you do is find a fabric with clear simple images, you only need a little remnant, swipe the back all over with a glue stick, and stick onto cardstock. Iron out any creases with your bone folder and allow to dry. When it is ready, cut around the image and attach to your card in the usual way. This little tiger is for a child's birthday. I will put the age of the child on the animal print button (in black I think) before sending the card. In this card, the tiger and the grass are cut from fabric.

Christmas Snowman

I 'borrowed' this stamp at a crop and can't remember who made it, I think it was Stamps Happen. I stamped the snowman twice, once on the pattern paper and cut out his hat, and the tiny scarf on the little bird. The colouring was done with prisma pencils. I stuck a little branch (Martha Stewart punch) in his hat. Glitter on the snowflakes and he looked okay.

I layered two black buttons on top of larger green ones for an embellishment, and regular bloggy friends will notice yet another gingham ribbon. I have always adored gingham, even as a little girl.

A Funky Christmas Tree

This is for James, my elder son, who is my biggest critic! He 'doesn't do cute' and really finds most of my cards fall into that category - the boy has no taste, I blame his father. Anyway, this card might just merit a nod of approval, no bling, no cute hedgehogs or snowmen, and not a bit of glitter in sight!

I cut two 6 x 6" sheets of Basic Grey 'wassail' paper into 1" triangles using the george cartridge, then starting at the top of the card and using foam pop-dots on each triangle, worked my way down the card, adding an extra triangle to each row, and overlapping them so that there were no spaces. The little circles are epoxy brads that came in a pack of SEI paper, and the sentiment is by (who else) Studio G. The trunk of the tree is the border that was left after cutting out the triangles. Quite a lot of inking (color box moss green) in an attempt to make him think his mother is arty.

Christmas Car Card for Bitten by the Bug

The design challenge this week was to use the cars from the Mickey and Friends cartridge and use them on a Christmas card, which suits me just fine as I am steadily getting all my cards done. This one was cut at 3 1/2" in Christmassy papers. The tree is the tall skinny one from Christmas Cheer. Sentiment stamp Hero Arts. There is random stitching in green around the edges of the card which doesn't show up very well in the photo. See what the rest of the design team came up with HERE I think this might be little Max's Christmas card, I will write his name on the license plate - he will probably take a look and tear it up straightaway, but hey, I will have made the effort. At 18 months it sounds as if he is pushing his parents a little, if he does something naughty he doesn't wait for them, just takes himself off and sits happily on the 'naughty step', leaving them perplexed and confused. Oh the joys of parenting, and how great it is to be a grandparent and look on with amusement from the sidelines.

Two Christmas Cards Today

It's amazing what you can find for a dollar in the US, both these cards were made using Studio G wood mounted dollar stamps. The santa one was from last year's collection, and the snowman is this year - I stamped him three times. The 'sending love at Christmas' sentiment is by hero arts, and the HO on the santa card are glitter sticker letters by Making Memories. The papers are DCWV or Martha Stewart. The stars at the bottom of the santa card are Martha's new star border. How strange the tricks that cameras play, the green button on the santa card is the exact colour of the backing paper in real life, in the photo it looks very off colour.

I am getting ahead with my Christmas shopping - I usually pack the four suitcases we are allowed full to bursting with gifts and craft stuff. My friend Barbara, also from the UK who has a house here, came over last summer for a two week break and I was taking her to the airport. Her cases were so heavy we could hardly lift them. 'These are definitely over 50lbs' I pronounced. So we drove up to Publix supermarket, lugged these cases inside and weighed them on the scales intended for customers (I don't quite know why they provide this service, a lot of the customers must want to stop eating for a month after they step on the things). Back to the cases, yep, they both weighed over 70lbs. So there and then, in the middle of the supermarket we unzipped and unloaded. She pulled out a tiny bikini she had bought her granddaughter, 'I can leave this' - yeah, right, that weighs all of 3 ozs. Further down I spotted................soup? canned soup? very big tins of canned soup?............she had packed 12 tins of clam chowder. I unloaded, repacked, and she was fine (I can be very bossy sometimes). So we have the delight of the Publix run with the cases before we leave here. As long as I leave the clam chowder behind everything will be okay..............

Drum Roll........and the winners are

Thanks to all the incredible response to the blog candy and for all the lovely comments. I wish I could have sent something to each and every one of you, but since I am not married to Bill Gates, this was the best I could do.

The winner of the Lattice Arch punch and other goodies is

Suzy Sunshine

The winner of the Branch punch is

KatfromUK

The winner of the Inkadinkadoo stamps is

Fi

If you can all email me please, address is over on the sidebar of the blog and give me your addresses, I will mail your parcels on monday. CONGRATS and have fun

Today's Christmas Card

I've been busy this week, so you can't get much more simple than this - the jingle all the way stamp is from Alphabet Soup by Stampin up, and was stamped in green then clear embossed. The papers are all from the glitter stack by DCWV, I cut a few extra little trees out and pop-dotted them on the border to give a bit of dimension.

Challenge on Cropstop

I was asked to think of a challenge for the Cropstop message board, and came up with the idea of asking everyone to make a card using traditional Christmas colours of red and green for any card BUT a Christmas one. Here's what I came up with. The papers are all by K & Co, and the scallop circle is nestabilities. To see what others have made, go HERE

Christmas card of the day

Another card made with scrumptious Basic Grey papers. The tree was cut from christmas cheer at 4" and shadowed in red. The little sentiment is by studio G acrylic.

Owl Card

Another card from the Wild card stable, this little owl is cute. I cut it from Bo Bunny papers, added some stitching and prima flowers. The greeting inside says 'From owl of us'. The finished card is 5" square (well, squarish)

Christmas Card of the Day

This is probably my favourite out of all the Christmas cards I have made so far this year. The stamp is Daisy D, I stamped it three times, once on white, then on two pattern papers, and cut the pieces out of the pattern papers. A bit of shadowing with copics, a bit of glitter and a pom pom and she looked really sweet. The embossing folder is the cuttlebug snowflake, all the papers are by Basic Grey. Sentiment (which fits perfectly with her trendy bright outfit) is by studio G.

I heard that the strawberry card (posted on 24th October, scroll down to see it) won the Poppicrafts contest, and I have won loads of scrumptious flowers, take a look HERE to see a photo of my prize. I was so thrilled (well, we all like to win don't we?), and my prize will be waiting for me back in the UK when I get home next month - I have asked them to mail them to my friend, they will be safe there, she doesn't make cards :)

One Card - Two Ways

Wild card again - here is the 'present' cut. One to make a birthday card, lots of sewing and bling on this one, another as a Christmas card, using DCWV glitter papers and a tiny stocking cut from Christmas cheer. This cartridge is such fun to use.

I have offered to do an 'airport run' for a friend tomorrow, oh dear, what a shame, I have to pass right by a great big mall and a super-Joannes on the way home, may take a teensy little diversion into the parking lot ..................that's tomorrow taken care of then

BLOG CANDY LEAVE YOUR COMMENT HERE FOR INKADINKADOO STAMPS

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Any Occasion Card

This is another one for my 'just in case' box, a card that could be used for get well, sympathy, well anything really. I like to have a stock of these to hand. The tree stamp is an acrylic one from an oriental set by Lakeland UK (they have stopped doing craft stuff now, pity, they used to have some quite original stuff). The little flower is a wood mounted studio G. Papers are Basic Grey. The border punch is cornice by Martha Stewart (who else?)

Christmas card of the day

This card was cut using wild card, I stamped the snowman with a Great Impressions stamp and put him to peep through the aperture. The snowflakes are buttons I found at Joannes. I decided to keep this one simple.

Hey There - Penny Black and Wild Card

I turned this card on it's side, used the porthole for the image and cut the funky looking frame, sticking it on at an angle around the frame. The frog is a Penny Black image, coloured with Copic markers and then coated in diamond glaze. The shape of the card is quite funky, and the matching envelope is a perfect size.

Happy Halloween to you all. We don't really do halloween in a big way in the UK (it's only a matter of time before retailers realise they could be missing a trick or two, then the stores will be awash with orange and black from Easter onwards.) I remember when my children were young having one of those "I'm not a very good mummy" sort of days, and deciding to make an effort and give them a special halloween tea. So I spent the day making little cakes, and hung white sheets all over the kitchen with a balloon inside for a head shape. So No 1 son came home, and with all the scornful sophistication of a twelve year old said 'Mum, why have you hung old sheets with balloons inside all over the kitchen?" No 2 son didn't say anything, I forgot he was going to a halloween sleepover (with one of those irritating organised mummies who thought of these things weeks in advance). No 3 little girl took one look, burst into tears and refused to eat her tea until the nasty ghosties went away, then wouldn't sleep until a thorough search had been made of the whole house for more nasties.

Christmas Card of the Day

Wild card of course, this is the Ornament cut. I decorated it with holly leaves cut from Christmas Cheer and coated in diamond glaze to make them glossy. The red strip was punched, a bit of stitching and stickles.