Men's cards!

This is another of the 'Acid drops & Whatnots' stamp set I bought at Newbury. They do make me chuckle!

This one was made on a 5" square card blank, using a leftover bit of stripey paper & some blue snippets. When I mounted the stamped panel & sentiment on the blue card I was left with 2 straight cutoff pieces, so I had to use them too!! I think they work quite well with the card candi :-)

Off to link this to Pixies Snippets Playground, where I heard a whisper that it might be Miss's birthday, so I'll have to pick her a bunch of dandelions on my way thru the gate! If you're wondering what I'm blathering about, click on the link in my sidebar & see what's going on in the playground this week

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Men's cards

I found this great stamp set at Newbury, from a company new to me 'Acid Drops & Whatnots'

They specialise in stamps & decoupage with a witty, humorous twist - great for those tricky men's cards! 

This one is made with snippets from LOTV 'Country Gentleman' pad & HOTP 'Red Velvet', plus a bunch of black snippets for the die cut back layers ( I have a HUGE folder each of black & white snippets!)

My checks & stripes didn't quite meet in the middle on my A5 card blank, so I had to get creative with a long skinny snippet to join them up!

Shamelessly copied from the stamp co's samples on display at Newbury! Added red card candi to finish it off

Linking this one to Pixies Snippets Playground - off to climb the treehouse! 

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

WOYWW 142 - an almost clear desk!

This is my desk today, almost clear! (For me lol!!)  A pile of paper ready to be sorted for my next class, at the back my little box of WOW! Stamps - an old washing tablet box covered in pretty paper and awaiting embellishments! 

(The WOW! Feb embossing challenge is still open til 29/2, with a nice prize for the winner or 12 embossing powders of your choice in a carry case - still time to enter!!)

 And this was my work table on Monday - lots of Pro Markers, finishing off my paper weaving projects, and with a special Helper!

My husband is keen on clocks and pocket watches, and is also a good photographer, so I asked him to take some pics of them last year, and set about turning them into toppers, backing papers and borders.  Not really done anything with them, but thought I would share them. My hubby isn't into the 'traditional' men's stuff of football/rugby etc (although if it has an engine and wheels he will watch it lol!) so I have to stretch the brain cells to come up with ideas for cards for him, and using his own photos was great.  I have also created sets of papers and toppers from pics of CD's, music tapes (!), fountain pens, DIY tools, beer, wine  etc - it's fun creating my own papers, so I really should get around to doing something more with them.

For those who are wondering why I am blathering on, take a look at Julia's blog where Weds is the day for world travel!  We get the chance to check out crafter's work across the world, and share pics of our work desks, tidy or messy, empty or full!

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Mens cards - and recovered mojo!

 Thought I would share a couple of men's cards that were a recent DT project. The first one is a birthday cake made out of tools and bits of wood.  The birthday candles are screws with little flames added to the top, and the background paper with hammers is from a Joanna Sheen Messy Rabbit CD.

I stamped the image several times (you can see the full stamped image in the next photo) and coloured with Pro Markers, then I set about cutting it into pieces and assembling into a 'cake' - I was quite pleased with the end result - something fun and a bit different.

This second card uses the whole stamp (Personal Impressions - from Hobbycraft) as a background frame for my birthday message. Again, I stamped it out a couple of times and cut out individual pieces to decoupage on the main pic. Added a DIY guy from another Personal Impressions set - Cute Characters 1 - and used a cut out saw to create a stop for my easel card. Background paper from Messy Rabbit cd again (great papers on there!)

My DH is always pottering in the garage, and in our house it's known as 'the man's room!' so thought this was quite appropriate!

Been a strange week in our house, brother in law took a turn for the worse, then rallied, still in ICU, but slight improvement.  I had the lurgy - one of those strange ones where only one side of your nose is runny, and your head feels like it's full of soggy cotton wool, but to the outside world you appear 'normal' (well, as normal as I ever look lol!) - and I blame this (and my pathetic attempt at batch Christmas cards) for my loss of mojo.

However, after my last post, I decided to set myself a challenge - to take my multiple stamped images that look oh so samey, and to use each one to create a card that was different from the last. Going well so far! Will share some pics later in the week.

Off for my late morning cuppa and choccy biccie (Remember people, biccies are for life, not just for missing mojo!!)

Thanks for stopping by

Debs x

Birthday surprises!

It was Hubby's birthday this weekend, so I made cards from me and the cat (of course!!) Can you tell what his hobby is from the cards????????????? I've kept them simple and entered them in the Challenge at Allsorts

This one is a twisted stacker matted and layered on red card and silver mirri. The fabulous rubber tyre embellishment was a gift from a friend in the States, and I've just been itching to use it!

This black and gold creation was inspired by a Kanban topper I found at a show, based on an illustration from a Haynes Motor Manual - the car is a Capri, one of Hubby's earlier cars! Again, the rubber 'Hit the Road' embellishment was part of the stash from my friend Donna (thanks D!!!)

So on to the birthday surprise........



I wanted to do something different for Andy's birthday, and he loves American Muscle cars (he graduated from the Capri many years ago lol lol) He currently owns a Thunderbird which he uses every day, and until recently had a Firebird (think Knight Rider, if you're old enough to remember, but in white!) So I found this fantastic company that hires out classic American muscle cars by the day!  He's always lusted after a 1965 Mustang convertible, and you guessed it, they had one!!!

This is Andy standing next to the Mustang at the start of our day. We were very lucky and had a dry day, so we were able to put the top down for the day - got a bit chilly when the sun went in!!  I also found out that wearing lip gloss when you're hair is being whipped about in the wind is NOT a good idea - sticky hair and constantly peeling it off my lips - eeuk!!

We spent the day driving around Dorset and Somerset, down the coast to Lyme Regis (which was packed - did everybody take the day off yesterday and not tell me??). We met and overcame a range of obstacles on our quest for the perfect drive - ambulances flying out in front of us, learner drivers on single country lanes, lunatics racing on quad bikes, unexpected road closures and we finished up at a fantastic country pub in the middle of nowhere, where we ate ourselves stupid! Yummy!

Just about managed to stay awake for the long drive home, and fell into bed with a wind-burned face and hair tangled like I'd been through the proverbial hedge backwards, frontwards and sideways!  These movie stars who wore scarves when riding in convertibles knew a thing or two!

It was a great day out, and think Hubby was suitably surprised :-0

bye for now

Debs xx

Welcome to my Blog!

My first post - welcome!  I love sharing crafting ideas and inspiration, and I thought I would post a few pics of recent creations as a starting point.

Garden Gate

 The Garden Gate is a welcome home card for a friend who has had a long stay in hospital and is thrilled to be coming home at last.  It was made by inking the stamps directly with Whispers watercolour pens, and uses a mix of Flower Soft stamps, Martha Stewart corner punch and core-dinations card

Blue Music was published in Making Cards a few months ago, and is stamped using Versafine and a Musical Collage Set from Butterfly Kisses

Get Well Ted is coloured with Pro Markers and uses Spellbinders Dies with the layers coloured with Pro Markers to match the main pic exactly

Wine Lovers Happy Birthday uses Distress inks and a Fiskars clear stamp set, with the background stamped with Distress inks, and then using them again to watercolour the stamped images

Enjoy!

Debs