A "Man" Card

I think most of us agree that cards for men are not the easiest to make, but I needed to make one this week for my brothers' birthday. I spotted this Our Daily Bread stamp recently and thought it would be perfect for the job.
I used Brilliance  Lightning Black ink to stamp the image onto white card and coloured it with coloursoft pencils. I then trimmed it and mounted it onto some navy blue card. I also stamped the scripture quote, which is part of the same stamp set, with the Brilliance ink and mounted it to match. I cut some light blue card to fit onto my white base card and added the two panels. I considered several forms of embellishment but ended up just stamping a corner from the Chocolate Baroque Pretty Poppies set with Adirondak Denim ink.

I am entering this in a new challenge,
 The Male Room - Anything Goes
Make It Monday - Anything Goes.
The Squirrel And The Fox - Nautical / Sea Life

Thank you for taking a look and for your comments, they are much appreciated.

Blue Birthday

When I made this card I decided to play about with a set of stamps from Just Rite. It includes the stamp for the frame, about four flower stamps that fit  inside it, a kind of collaged label and some sentiments. I also have the set of nested dies made to go with it for cutting the frame, although I was a bit disappointed that it didn't cut out the centre and none of the oval dies have are a good size and shape match.
I picked out this piece of blue card as a starting point and stamped the frame with Versamark ink and embossed it with WOW clear powder. I cut it out using the appropriate die and stamped the flower in the centre with Brilliance Lightning Black ink. Having made sure it was properly dry I coloured it with Promarkers. I wanted to know how well they would work on coloured card, and although I used blue pens on blue card they showed up really quite well. I am fairly new to these markers as some of you who follow my blog regularly will know I generally favour pencils for colouring. So, even though I was fairly happy with the result I thought it would look better with a light background so I set about colouring it with a new Zig pen that I have, called Wink of Stellar.It has a beautifully fine real brush tip and delivers a sparkly white ink, and I think it is available in several colours, I have  the white, and a black one. The sparkle doesn't show in the photo but is lovely in sunlight. Having decided that I quite liked the result of my "play" I need to find something to mount it on. I quite like stamping my own backgrounds but I also have rather a lot of paper stacks that I buy because I like them!!. I chose this one because it is blue, it's from a Paper Cellar pad called Langley Place.I trimmed it to fit my card and highlighted some of the design with a blue pencil and a silver gel pen. I then decided to add some pink ribbon to brighten the whole thing up,wrapping it  around the paper before fixing it to the card.  To finish off I added a die cut greeting using a Britania die and the same blue card as the frame, and a few pink gems .
I am entering this at Crafting When We Can-Floral
                               Craft Room Challenge- Heat Embossing ( the frame )
                               Eclectic Ellapu-Anything Goes
                               Through The Craft Room Door- Anything Goes.
                             
Thank you for taking the time to look and for your kind comments which are much appreciated. Jean

An Angel For Rudolph

I can't believe it's got around to the 25th of the month again already, but the calendar tells me it has, and that means it's Rudolph  Day at Sarn's blog Stamping For Pleasure.
This little card is only just over 4" square. Last year I bought a lot of envelopes this size with the idea of making smaller Christmas cards but most of my cards ended up bigger so they didn't get used.I thought I'd try again this year and dug out some of my older stamps to use as well. I have had them so long I don't know what make they are as I used not to label them. The little angel is stamped with black Memento ink and coloured with promarkers, then cut out.I used Go-Kreate nested dies to cut the wavy squares, one with white card and the larger one with some gold glitter card I found in my stash.
I stamped the holly sprays with Peeled Paint distress ink and added the red berries with a Barn Door Distress marker. The glitter card was self adhesive which was handy and I placed it diagonally on the card. I sponged round the edge of the white mount with a little Tumbled glass DI before adding to the card. The angel is fixed with foam pads.
I am off now to link this up to Sarn's blog, do pop over and see what the others have made.

Summer Flowers

I made this card using one of the newest Chocolate Baroque stamp sets called Poppy Meadow. I already had some of their poppy stamps but I really liked this set because it has the grasses and seed heads in with the flowers which I feel adds a real wild flower appeal.
All the stamping is done with Brilliance Lightning Black ink and the colouring with Derwent coloursoft  pencils. The  main image is edged with the black ink pad and mounted onto pale green pearlised card. The background stamping is another image from the same stamp set and the sentiment is an Art Journey stamp.

I am entering this at,
Fashionable Stampers-Flora and Fauna
Make it Monday-Anything Goes
Great Impressions-Anything Goes
Eclectic Ellapu-Flowers

Thank you for stopping by to look and for your kind comments
which I really appreciate.

Sister's Birthday Card

This is the card that I made for one of my sisters who had a birthday last weekend.All the stamps I used are from a large Chocolate Baroque plate entitled Butterfly Daisy Collage.I first stamped the main image onto white card with Memento Elderberry ink and embossed it with clear EP. I coloured the flowers and butterfly with promarkers, then trimmed the image down and sponged the edge with spun sugar Distress ink. I covered the square base card with a piece of Crafty Individuals backing paper having trimmed it to size using a deckle edge cutter. I stamped one of the corner stamps in the top left hand corner using the same ink and EP as before. I mounted the coloured panel onto purple card and fixed it to the card, and stamped the smaller butterfly just above it. I stamped it again onto white card, coloured it, cut it out and stuck it over the other one with silicone glue to raise the wings slightly. I also added a little pink stickles to the centres of the flowers but it doesn't really show in the photo.

  Having made the card I decided to make a matching bookmark, so I stamped a smaller  image from the same set, masked the top flower and stamped the small butterfly. I then coloured it to match the card and cut the bottom edge to shape,and   sponged the edges.  To finish it I covered the back with a piece of the CI paper and punched a hole and added a purple tassel that I had  saved from an empty perfume bottle.

I am entering this at Make It Monday- Anything Goes
and at Through The Craft Room Door- Anything Goes.

Thank you to all who read this and for your comments, I really appreciate them all.

Christmas Flowers

When I said in my post last night that I would be back with a card for Rudolph Day at Stamping For Pleasure hosted by Sarn, I had no idea what the date was, so when I realised that the 25th was today I had to get busy this afternoon and make this card. As I am also using it for the Chocolate Baroque Christmas card group where the theme this month is flowers I decided to try out this stamp.  It is a CB stamp but I don't know which set it is from because I got it in a mystery grab bag a while ago. I am not sure if they are meant to be flowers or snowflakes but I have stamped them in Christmas colours and they can be Christmas fantasy flowers for the purpose of this blog .I coloured the stamp with distress markers in Pine Needles and Barn Door and spritzed it with water and stamped onto watercolour paper.When it was dry I added some yellow stickles to the centres.I layered it onto red and green mounts and then onto a red base card, having already stamped the two right hand corners with a foliage corner stamp and Versamark ink. To finish it off I tied some green ribbon just in from the fold.I wanted to add a greeting but couldn't find a suitable place for it so it will have to make do with one inside.
Now I am going to link this up to Sarn's blog, so thank you for taking time to this and for you lovely comments, they are all much appreciated.

Two For The Price Of One

I have got this month's quintiles for the Chocolate Baroque swap to show you today and also some Atcs also for a Chocolate Baroque swap.
The theme for the tiles this time is June Brides but
unfortunately I haven't got any bride stamps so I had
to improvise a bit. I began by printing some backing paper from an Artylicious CD.(Decadent Brocade). I trimmed it with a deckle edged cutter to fit the 5" tile of dark brown card. I over stamped it with the lovely background stamp from the CB Dusky Damask set with Versamark ink and embossed it with WOW vanilla white embossing powder.I used a rub down cream lace across the top and added a strip of tiny flowers on top of that. As I have no suitable stamps I decided to use this image from a Crafty Individuals mini book.I cut it out and mounted it onto cream card to make a frame. I used skeleton leaves, ribbon bows and some cream mini flowers made with a Britania die,cream coloured pearl paper and some mini stamen coloured yellow with a promarker, as embellishments.                                                        
                                                                                 The theme for the ATCs  is Steampunk, another style that I am not entirely comfortable with, but which I do have a few stamps for. These both started as ivory card and were shaded all over with distress inks in antique linen, tea dye and vintage photo. one was embossed with a TH  embossing folder and the raised area coloured with grey and brown inks.The grid  stamp is from Art Journey.The clock face is part of a CB set, Punky Romance and I stamped it with black ink and embossed it with clear EP onto ivory card and coloured it with the brown inks. I cut it out and fixed some chain with a brad in the centre and and used foam pads to stick it in place, and fixed a metal embellishment over the background embossing. The other one has some background stamping with the same grid stamp as the first one and also using a Crafty Individual crackle stamp. the main image is from CB Steampunk Travel set and I stamped it straight onto the card but decided it didn't show up very well so I stamped it again, coloured and cut it out and fixed it over the first image with silicon glue. The card was then decorated with a piece of mesh fixed with metal embellishments and a little Frantage embossing in the corner.

I am sorry I haven't been around much lately I have been a bit short of inspiration or/and motivation but have several projects in mind so hope to back again soon.Maybe later this week even, with a Christmas card for Rudolph Day,(not made yet!)over at Sarn's blog Stamping for Pleasure.
Anyway many thanks to every one who comes to look and for your lovely comments.