just messing about

Just spent a couple of hours messing about with dylusion inks etc, including spraying the front of my pale blue jumper with cherry red dylusions, must make sure to check where the nozzle is pointing in future!  that was after the cat head butted my very hot mug of tea right down the front of my sweatshirt !  third sweatshirt now has a smear of chocolate down the front, think I need a bib!
Anyhow in the end this is all I produced for my efforts. I've had the dragonfly stamp since Christmas but hadn't got round to using it until now. Stamped with black archival and used a white pen to highlight the swirls, stamped round the edge of the panel with the twiddly bits of the stamp. The background panel is an Impression obsession cover a card stamp. Don't know why the seam binding ribbon looks so odd but given up on trying to make it look "normal" I'd like to enter this in
 My Time To Craft challenge which is Bugs and Insects

Lets Pretend

This week at Cardz4guyz the challenge is Lets Pretend, either a faux technique or some kind of pretence. On my card I have used a woodgrain stamp for the dock on which the boys are standing and I love the idea that the boys are dreaming of becoming pirates.  All the stamps except for the wood one are from the Huckleberry Finn set from Artistic Outpost, the wood grain is Hardwood from Stampin Up.

Bright colours

Make it Monday have a challenge asking for bright colours so I thought I would enter these flowers, don't know what it is about this stamp but the flowers make me happy just looking at them. I have made quite a few of these in different colours, a very quick and easy card. I'm sure there will be lots of other things to do with this stamp but right now I'm enjoying the simplicity of it.

Make my Monday - Bright Colours

Anything goes

Used another Deep Red Rubber stamp for this card, this one is called rusty tractor and I know who this card will be going to as my brother spends all his time collecting and restoring old tractors, lost count of how many he has now, the back ground paper is from my scrap box and just added a bit of black twine and a couple of old metal buttons. This is my DT card for Cardz4Guyz which this week is Anything Goes, hope you will join us

Letters and postcards

Another "just playing around" card using up old stash.  The papers are all from an old Prima paper pad and believe it or not the main image is a rub on!  I had seen on someones blog that they had used a rub on and as I'm on a mission to be using old supplies I dug out my ancient stash and was quite horrified at how many I have, not looked at them for years probably. This particular one was from a very rare purchase from QVC and I seem to remember they were quite expensive but I had to have them and of course they have never been used. I did wonder if they were still usable but it worked beautifully.  The flowers are a Heartfeltt creation stamp, I never did get the die so fussycut  them, the Eiffel tower die was a Christmas present from a friend. I'm entering this at Luna  Girls challenge

Lunagirlmoonbeams - postcards and letters

fragile papers

Well I have had a very messy afternoon playing about with modpodge,paints and stamps, this is my attempt for the Paperartsy challenge -Fragile Papers. I have been inspired by Astrid McLean and Jenny Atkinsons lovely pages and although I know I can't hope to create something as fantastic  as theirs I have had such a good time trying!  My base is old dictionary pages and I have used serviettes, washi tape, fresco paints, stamps and bottle tops for the rings.  I have a mass of old papers, tickets, tissue, mulberry papers and vellums and its my mission this year to try and use up some of the stuff I have hoarded. I need some transluscent paints as I was afraid to apply too much paint in case I obliterated the text.

Classic

Love this old vintage motorcycle , another new stamp from my Christmas present stash, I grew up in a family of motorcycles fans but I was the only one of the family who never owned my own bike, both my sisters and my brother and Father had them and my brother still rides his occasionally, I was happy to ride pillion at the back of the latest boyfriend.  Think this model is more like the one my Grandfather rode as a dashing young man.Anyhow enough of the waffle, this is my DT card for cardsz4guyz latest challenge which is Birthday, hope to see you there

Thank you kindly

This is a little Thank you card for a very kind person who sent me a set of stamps because she couldn't get me the set I wanted. Its made using the Close To My Heart stamps that she gave me, I love them. especially the bee!  The thank you wording is from some freebies from creative stamping

Fashionable Stamping - something New

Butterfly spot challenge - Thank You

and
NBUS ( never before used schtuff ) - anything goes

Optimism

I saw this Doc Martens Boots stamp on Dots Dabbles blog and had to have it !  It was on my Christmas wish list and duly appeared along with several other goodies, then came the question "what do I do with it ?"  I obviously didn't want to copy Dot's card and  was lost for ideas, while I was surfing around I came across this quote and its sums up everything.  I am the eternal optimist , glass half full type of person, married to a glass half empty, pessimist !  I'm always convinced I can produce something wonderful only to come up with yet another mediocre offering but then maybe next time it will be  wonderful LOL. just have fun trying.  The background is a experimental brusho piece overstamped with gorgeous grunge stamps. The quote by Henry Rollins is stamped with various alphabet stamps. I'm going to pin this on the wall over my desk.

I'm entering this is Alphabet challenge - X for experiment

Simply Come Dancing

A very CAS card from me using a new stamp that was among my Christmas gifts, I'm sure I will be able to do more elaborate cards using this stamp but I loved the simplicity of it just stamped in black. Made this card for Simply Less Is More colour challenge but it fits several other challenges as well. I'm finding it hard to get back into card making mode which is so annoying as I do have quite a lot of new stash to play with !

Simply Less Is More - Black/ metallic and one other colour ( hope the red mirri card counts as metallic & the +one )

The Artistic Stamper - New beginnings

Country View Crafts - something new to you

Flonzcraft Vintage Stamping - new year/new stash

My Time To Craft - All things new

Vintage

This is my first card as a member of the design team for cardz4guyz.  I did a guest designer spot for them last year and I was asked if I would like to join the team and I was happy to accept!  I do have to make a lot of masculine cards for our family and I actually enjoy making them.

This week the challenge is Vintage , another of my favourite things, do hope you will join our challenge

Feeling Blue?

Well I had packed all my Christmas stamps etc away but I haven't seemed to get into doing anything else even though I have quite a lot of new stash; Flicking through some of the challenges I noticed quite a few mentioning blue and frosty. I just had to have this bird stamp last year but seemed to struggle to do anything with it, I kept trying to make him into a Robin even though he really is a Chickadee and whatever I did I couldn't seem to get the colours right, today after I had stamped him on the blue inky background I decided to make him into a bluebird and I really like how he turned out! The background paper is another piece of ink sprayed card,stamped with a snowflake that was free with Craft Stamper ages ago, added a bit of chunky white frantage and some puffy stuff on the branches, glossy accents on the berries and this is my first Christmas card for 2015!  I think I will join in with some of the all year round Christmas challenges this year and then I won't have such a panic making my cards in November !

Rubber Dance Challenge - Silver and Icy Tones of blue
That's Crafty Challenges - Blue is the colour
Allsorts - cold and frosty colours

January Die Cuts for Stamping Sensations

My First Card uses Sizzix rounded tag die to make the arch and Spellbinders Grateful lattice down the side, the flowers are memorybox Honeyblossom sprig, the stamps in the arch are Oxford Impressions and the other stamps on the background are Close To My Heart.

My second card uses memory box tree, bicycle and little birds in the trees. Wording stamp is Woodware (I do like this quote !) and the birds in the sky are Inkylicious. I added a bit of Frantage embossing at the bottom, its supposed to be Taupe but I can't see anything but gold in it, it was very fine and dusty compared to the other Frantage EPs  I have used so maybe its a rogue batch!

Memo to self : must use my dies more !

I seem to buy them, use them a couple of times and then they get put away and forgotten.

Hope you will join us at Stamping Sensations this month

Our Sponsers  are Sizzix and Crafty Ribbons  with this fabulous prize to win