Up early ....

... Jonathan has had to go to London this morning for work, and that means getting up really early.  The alarm was set for 5.00am, but my body clock is more efficient and I was awake at 4.55am!!!  I know I didn't have to get up with Jonathan, but I was so wide awake that I thought I'd make good use of the time. 

I've finished my ironing!!!  Yea!  I did the marathon ironing session last week to get it all out of the way, and with all that's going on in the house, I've decided that I really need to keep on top of the housework stuff.  So, the ironing is all done and I've put away some of the clothes.  Kathryn is still sleeping - well, it's only just gone 7.00am, I'll wake her for 7.30am.  She doesn't like it when Jonathan goes away, still we'll chat later.

That's all for now - I do have some cards to share with you - but I haven't taken any pictures yet!  I'll be back later.

OLW67 - Thoughtsgiving ....

... this week's One Layer Wednesday - OLW67 challenge is being hosted by Jennifer at Styles Ink.  When I logged on last Wednesday I couldn't get to Jennifer's blog - it was being hacked, but fortunately Jennifer's husband is a computer whiz and repelled the hackers!  Good man!!!

The theme for OLW67 is to "to make and send/deliver a “Thinking of You” card to someone who is struggling with any kind of battle. I would also like all participants to make a five dollar (or more!) donation to the cancer research/cause of their choice." 

Edited:  I forgot to mention that my chosen cancer charity is Cancer Research UK - and I've donated.  They do really good work.  Jennifer - thanks for the nudge!!  Something I do on a regular basis is give blood, and a few years ago I went that extra stage and got added to the bone marrow donor list.  I've been called twice for additional blood tests - but so far haven't donated anything.  If you can - this is a great way to help. 
I've got a crafty friend in the village who is really having a tough time at the moment.  Last year her Mum died and since then her Dad has not been very good, and recently they've been told that her Dad is really ill.  Not only that, her son has got life threatening problems too.  And the icing on the cake is that my friend also has chronic health issues, which aren't getting better.  Yet, despite all this, she is cheerful, thoughtful of others and caring - so I've made my card for her.

I used one of my favourite stamps, which has not seen much ink lately, for this card.  I started off by using a bit of die cut waste as a stencil for the card.  I sponged several colours on the stencil to create a garden/sky scene.  Using my stamp-a-ma-jig, I positioned the tree in the center of the garden and then added a simple sentiment directly above.  I added some colour to the tree by using Flower Soft which I've had in my room for ages and this is the first time I've used it.  As we're now well into Autumn I decided that my tree would have the golden colours of autumn for the leaves.

Stamps:  Penny Black - Fantasy Tree; HOTP - Sentiments
Inks:  Memento - Tuxedo Black; Distress - Bundled Sage, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire
Spellbinders:  Lotus Pendant (S4-269) - I used the waste left to create the lovely starry shape
Accessories:  Flower Soft - Autumn; Card from stash

I have to tell you guys how impressed I am with my decorators.  They were here bang on time - 8.30am and immediately set to work.  They've almost finished Ben's bedroom - it will need an extra coat on two walls as Ben's drawn on the walls!! Kids!!!  The guys will be back tomorrow morning for more! 

Yesterday I told you that we hope to be off to the States in the New Year.  Several of you commented on the crafty opportunities available to me!!  Now, you must realise that this in no way influences my decision to want to go to America!!!  :) :)  Yes, right!  Even Jonathan realised that I might go mad on crafty purchases - PTI goodies with no shipping charges, Micheal's stores and all sorts of stuff at prices much cheaper than in the UK.  Of course, I want to go to the US.

That's all for now - off to see my friend (above) and deliver her card.  See you all later.

Best laid plans ...

... this is just a quick post - my plan to spend some time in my craft room came to nothing!!!  Instead I spent the day finishing the office.  I've done the filing (must not leave it again) and now have a pile of papers to shred!  But I don't half feel pleased with what we've achieved this weekend.

Tomorrow morning the decorators arrive and, if the weather is good, they'll make a start on the outside.  If it's wet - there's plenty to do inside.  We're in for a fairly disruptive few weeks, but in the end it will be worth it.

The reason that we're suddenly so busy with getting the house sorted is that we hope to going to the States in the New Year.  As you know, Jonathan spent some time in Mumbai this year - but he had to go alone.  However, the new project will be for a few years - and that means Kathryn and I get to go with Jonathan.  We don't have final details yet - but as we're hoping for a New Year move - I'm going to be very busy getting this place ready to rent out, and finding out about moving to the States!!  I'm quite excited by the prospect!!

And on that note - it's almost midnight and we've been working flat out all day, so I'm off to bed now - I think I'm going to sleep well.   See you tomorrow!

CR84FN40 - Merry Christmas ....

... we're well into October now and it's time for our new colour challenge at CR84FN.  Mona does pick the loveliest colours and these are just gorgeous - red, brown and kraft. 

Our inspiration photos are just fantastic - yummy cherries, toffee apple and a bunch of fab flowers - lovely!!  Scott (Mona's husband), like many people, is a big APPLE fan and our quote is in memory of Steve Jobs, a sad loss to the world.  The quote is so true.

Now to my card for this week - it's one for my 2011 Christmas Collection. I started with the red card base and found a really lovely red Christmas tree on the papers that matched. I used my nesties to cut out the tree and to make an ornate mat in kraft. I stitched some rich brown paper onto kraft card - using some red thread I found in my sewing box. Before attached the Christmas tree I added some lovely red ribbon. I made a matching tag and attached that to the card - my bows are definitely improving! I stamped a simple sentiment in red to match the card base and ribbon. Oh yes, I added just a touch of glitter to the tree - after all you have to have bling at Christmas.

Stamps:  Docrafts - Christmas set
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Real Red
Spellbinders: Fleur de Lis Squares (S4-318) #3, Regular Squares Lg (S4-126) #4
Accessories:  Brown grid paper - Bo Bunny;  Christmas Tree Paper - Nancy Watts free with Making Cards; Ribbon - Stampin' Up! - Real Red

We are welcoming Cheryl Lea as our Guest Designer for CR84FN40 and CR84FN41 - do check out her blog - Ink Up - to see Cheryl's card using these lovely colours.  And don't forget that the rest of the Design Team have also made some gorgeous cards - so drop by and leave some love:

Sue

Andrea

Stephanie

Suzanne

Heather

Mona
Lisa

That's all for today.  I had a lovely relaxing evening last night - and today I'm going to make some cards for a few challenges, and I'll share them with you tomorrow.  Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend - bye for now.

Good clean out ....

... boy, time doesn't half fly when you're busy!!!  Jonathan and I have completely finished tidying the garage - we now have space to park two cars!!!!

I've used an organisation called Freecycle to find homes for some unwanted items - namely a three piece suite, an old Dyson, and two TV (both analogue).  We have filled the skip to the top - so will have to call them to collect it on Monday.  And the garage is temporarily playing host to a three piece suite, which is going to a new home tomorrow. 

What has been nice is finding some photos that I thought I'd lost - wedding ones that were framed.  They were in boxes that I hadn't unpacked when we moved (six years ago) - bad me!!

The plus side of all this hard work is that tomorrow I get to play in my craft room all day - well some of the day!  I think I'm going to polish my halo now :)  See you tomorrow for the new CR84FN post!

Playing with spooky colours ....

... so, I did manage to get some more time in my craft room last night and I decided that I had to play along with this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge - PDCC102 - after all they've picked some of my MOST favourite colours - green, fuchsia, purple and black - sigh!!!!  Love them!

And isn't that inspiration photo just wonderful!!  It had to be a Halloween card and I was able to play with my lovely new Waltzingmouse Halloween stamps.  Claire does design some of the prettiest stamps.  When the Hocus Pocus stamps were launched, Anya created this very atmospheric card and I have to credit her with the inspiration for my card.

I started off by shading with Milled Lavender all over the card base.  Next I stamped the Gothic-style gate and fence and added a crow for atmosphere.  Then I stamped the cottage front (using the second impression to give a lighter tone) and added some subtle colour with Promarkers.  Then I found the owl stamp and decided to include him too.  Some more colour was added by shaded with Dusty Concord and a touch of Black Soot at the edges of the card.  I stamped some stars into the night sky and - if you look closely, you will see a few bats flying away from the roof top.  I used my nesties to cut out a bright green scalloped circle and the inverted scalloped nestie on the fuchsia satin mirri - and then layered them up - I like the effect of green beads!!  I stamped the wonderful Hocus Pocus sentiment in Versafine and embossed with clear powder to give a lovely glossy finish.  Finally, Winnie was stamped onto a piece of card, cut out and then turned over and coloured with a black Promarker - she now faces the right direction!!!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Cottage House, Hocus Pocus Midnight Feast, Halloween Party
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress - Milled Lavender, Dusky Concord, Black Soot
Spellbinders:  Classic Scalloped Circles Sm (S4-125) # 5, Classic Inverted Scalloped Circles Lg (S4-194) #5
Promarkers: Black, Canary, Gold, Warm Grey 1, Warm Grey 3
Accessories:  Card, clear embossing powder from stash

Now, I think I have to give a special mention to my daughter Kathryn, this design owes a lot to her.  I had originally planned to have the Gothic window in the centre of the label, with a sentiment in another nestie in the bottom left hand corner.  I told Kathryn what I was planning; she looked at the card and the stamps and then said "Mummy, it would be much better with the sentiment in the middle and the witch on the side!!"   And do you, she was absolutely right.  So, thank you Kathryn - you're my star!  Here's a close up of the sentiment - it has a lovely translucent look on this mirri card!

That's all for now.  Jonathan and I have got a busy morning lined up with finishing off in the garage, we've got some old (cheap) bookcases that are falling apart and need to go into the skip.  Jonathan has just started to sort through some of his old cassette recordings!  If you listen closely you can hear him crying!!!  It's not that I'm evil, it's just that we have to clear out the old stuff that's cluttering up the place.  I don't know when Jonathan last listened to any of the tapes - although we may be listening to some later :)

See you soon!

Christmas in pink ....

... this card is for two challenges - I've used this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC67 and over at Jingle Belles - JB41 - the Jinglettes would like us to make a Christmas card that is pink!  The reason - well, October is breast cancer awareness month "so for every fabulous "pink Christmas" card that gets linked up between now and next Wednesday night, Stephanie and Lauren will each donate a dollar to susan g. komen for the cure!!!"  That's $2 per card! 

I don't think there are many of us who haven't known someone battling with breast cancer - so this is a great way to help raise some funds and boost your Christmas card stock.  Lauren and Stephanie - thanks!

My last submission for WMSC was to make a couple of decorations for my Christmas tree, so this time I've made a card.  And it's PINK!!  I used distress inks to add some colour to the edge of a white card, then I added a couple of layers - deep pink satin mirri with a pretty snowflake paper on top.  I used my nesties to cut out a large ornament - with three layers.  On the top layer I stamped the coordinating ornament from Waltzingmouse and embossed it with clear powder.  I cut an oval and added colour with distress inks.  I stamped the sentiment in dark pink and added some glitter to the word "merry".   I attached the ornament to the card and added some die cut snowflakes - the one in the top right was a present from Gay (thanks!).  I'm really pleased with the way this turned out!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Seasons of Love, Vintage Ornaments
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress - Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick
Spellbinders: Plain Ovals Sm (S4-112) #3, 2010 Heirloom Ornaments (S4-283) #4 & 5, Create-a-Flake Three (S4-340)
Accessories:  DCWV - The Rose-tinted Christmas Stack; Card, ribbon, gems from Stash

After all the hard work yesterday, I didn't half ache this morning.  But I got on with some more sorting out and actually I'm feeling much better now.  I spent the morning sorting through our office - so much paper work that I've allowed to build up and not filed.  Well, I've shredded the stuff that's old and will finish the filing this evening.  I was really pleased to get into my craft room this afternoon and hopefully I'll manage to have a quick play this evening too.  That's all for now.  See you tomorrow!

No card today ....

... but I've really made huge progress cleaning out and tidy our garage!!  We hired a skip, delivered yesterday, so that I can go through our house and get rid of the accumulated rubbish and stuff.  I've made a start in my craft room - not too much to get rid of in there, more a case of tidying up! 

But our garage has been used as a dumping ground for the last few years and was full of boxes - it looked really awful.  But once I started, I found it wasn't as bad as initially thought.  Mostly it was empty cardboard boxes that had not been collapsed and disposed of before.  I started clearing out at 1.00pm and had most of the stuff in the skip by 4.00pm.  Jonathan was home from work early and he joined in and between us we've just about finished.  There are a couple of boxes to empty tomorrow, but it's taken a lot less time than I expected.  However, I'm totally shattered and haven't been in my craft room at all. 

In fact, I'm not even going to play this evening - I think I'll fall asleep on my desk :)  Instead, I'm off for a glass of wine and some TV!  See you guys tomorrow.

A one for three .....

... I've been playing in my nice clean craft room, making a card for three challenges.  I'm trying to get as many challenges into one card as possible - as I'm going to have a lot less time in my craft room soon.  Sob!!  We're having the house decorated starting next week, so I'm going to be spending a lot of time getting rooms ready for the decorators and then tidying up afterwards!!  Still, it'll be worth it in the end.

This card has been made for the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays - CFC22 - feeling loopy












Clean and Simple - FTL160 - sketch






Less is More - LIM35 - colour challenge - THE COLOUR OF YOUR EYES

Earlier this week I got Jonathan to take a photo of my eyes - just so that I could check the colour.  I've got green eyes, not brilliant emerald green (although I'd like that), but a softer, more subtle green.  And since looking closely at Jonathan's photo, I realise that I have a dark grey edge to my iris and  subtle yellow/gold flecks at the pupil edge.  I guess, I should say I've got hazel eyes!!

I really like the idea of basing the colour on our eyes - and I have the perfect stamp too!  I stamped the image twice - one I cut out using my nestie and then added shading around the edge, the other I coloured some of the flowers and cut them out to layer.  Once I'd assembled the image and mat, I added some very sticky tape to the bottom edge on the back and attached loops of ribbon - all in shades of green and gold/yellow.  I've adapted the sketch by turning it through 90° and I've opted for a smaller sentiment as I didn't want to over power the image.

Stamps: Funstamps - Flower Face (FM216); My Paper World - Borders and Motifs
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Basic Grey, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, So Saffron; Versamark
Spellbinders:  Classic Rectangles Lg (S4-132) #5, Classic Rectangles Sm (S4-130) #5
Accessories:  Card, sentiment and ribbons from stash

Now, I'm going to finish my craft room - just got a bit more sorting and tidying to do and then it done.  For now!!!  I'm having a very large skip delivered shortly so that I can start to sort out our rooms.  It's amazing just how much stuff you accumulate over the years, and our garage is full of empty cardboard boxes, and stuff that's broken and I've not removed.  So, I'm going to be very, very busy over the next few weeks!  That said, I'm still going to find time to play!  See you tomorrow!

One layer Wednesday ....

.... I'm running late with my submission for this week's One Layer Wednesday - OLW66 challenge, but I'm here.  The challenge is being hosted by Susan at Simplicity and the theme this week is to "get inspired by Janelle". 

Janelle's blog - Show and Tell - is an inspirational place to visit.  Janelle has always shared great cards and how to make them with us, as well as a joyful description of life, family and her deep faith in God.  And I've dropped in from time to time to check it all out.  Sadly, Janelle was diagnosed with a brain tumour in August and she's facing some tough challenges ahead, but Janelle continues to share her cards, her faith and her progress with us - do visit.  Janelle really is an inspiration.
I spent quite some time reading Janelle's blog - and a couple of coffees later I'd decided to use this card as the inspiration for my OLW66 card.

Janelle's card - I really like the wood grain finish to the hearts!

Janelle is making lots of thank you cards at the moment to give to all her friends, so I thought I'd make a thank you card too.  Here's my take on Janelle's card.

As I had to keep to one layer, I stamped the sentiment directly onto the card and then used one stamp in three shade of pink to stamp a random pattern - very roughly following the layout of Janelle's card. 

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! - Circle Circus; Waltzingmouse - Join Us
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Melon Mambo; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories:  Card from stash


I've been really busy today - I've been tidying and reorganising my craft room.  I'd reached the point where I could hardly see the floor for all the stash on it, and I couldn't find stuff easily anymore - I should tidy as I go along, but......  Anyway, I decided to attack it all today.  And I'm really pleased with my progress.  I can now see my floor again and I rearranged where everything is stored - I think it's going to be a bit easier to find stuff now.   It's been a good day - but I'm shattered, so I'm off to bed now.  See you all tomorrow!

Peace to all ...

... this is just a quick post and my Christmas ornament has been inspired by two challenges - the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC67 - I like the plain bauble and may use it again to make a few more for the tree!!  The second is this week's Jingle Belles - JB40 challenge where the Jinglettes would like us to "incorporate a Peace Symbol or the word Peace into your design ... or create a card that evokes Peace for you (snow, forest, etc.)"  Check out the blog - Stephanie has made the most beautiful card with snowflakes to create the peace symbol!

I think that one of the most peaceful things in the winter is newly fallen snow - there's a special kind of quiet and a lovely light at that time.  So I made another snowflake ornament and this time I decorated it with some blue sparkly snowflakes and the word "Peace" - simple, but lovely!

I cut out two of these gorgeous snowflakes in silver mirri card - I attached silver thread to the inside of one die and then glued them both together - making sure that all the pretty spikes were properly stuck together!!  Next I stamped two pretty snowflakes in blue onto some plain card and used a circle punch to cut them out.  I used my glue pen to outline the main snowflake and added lots of glitter.  I attached one to the front and back of the ornament.  Finally, I stamped the word "Peace" - don't you love that font - onto some card in a darker shade of blue, and then glittered the word.  I cut closely around the word and then attached it to the front of the ornament. 

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Around Christmastime, Say It Loud - Winter Holiday
Inks:  Distress - Broken China, Tumbled Glass
Spellbinders:  2010 Snowflake Pendant (S4-286)
Accessories:  Thread and glitter from stash

I've taken a shot of the back - the snowflake is so pretty - and a close up of the front showing the detail more clearly.


I think I might make a few more ornaments for our tree - the sketch gives us so many options - and I still have the lovely Bauble nesties to play with :)

And that's all for this morning.  It's Monday and that means it craft class today.  I've got some more stamps to catalogue - ones that came free with one of the craft magazines.  I like to make the reference sheets at class as it's easy to do and allows me to chat.  And I'm taking my new Stampin' Up! catalogue with me - the ladies like to have a browse.  See you all later.

It's getting to feel like Christmas ....

... well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration!!  But I was busy in my craft room yesterday afternoon making some Christmas ornaments for the tree.  This week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC67 is great - a plain bauble shape - so many possibilities. 

I decided to be quite literal in my interpretation of the sketch - no card - just an ornament for this year's Christmas tree.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make. 

I cut two copper snowflakes using the 2011 snowflake pendant.  On the inside of one die cut I attached some thread and then I glued both dies together.  Then I stamped two sets of holly leaves and berries.  I cut them all out and used my glue pen to go over them and added lots of glitter.  Then I attached a set of leaves and berries to each side of the ornament.  Simple but really beautiful.  The photo does not do it justice - I'll try to get a better one tomorrow - in natural light!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage
Inks:  Distress - Pine Needles, Barn Door
Spellbinders: 2011 Snowflake Pendant (S5-054)
Accessories:  Thread and glitter

On my CR84FN post - which was prepared yesterday - I commented on the wonderful weather.  Well, it's been a bit different today!!  It's still very warm but we've lost the sunshine - in fact it's actually been raining.  The weather forecast is for fine weather today and tomorrow - so here's hoping!!  That's all for now.  I'll be back later - I'm off to craft class this morning.

CR84FN39 ....

... it's week two for our rich warm autumnal colours of yellow, orange and brown at CR84FN39.  We've already had some wonderful entries - and there's still plenty of time to join the fun.

This week my card is tiny - 3" × 3".  The background is a really pretty pale brown flowered vellum.  The stamp came free with Craft Stamper - a couple of years ago and this is the first time I've inked it!!  I stamped the image three times and used Promarkers to colour the images.  This stamp has lovely simple shapes making it ideal to cut out and layer.  Finally, I added a simple sentiment.

Stamps:  Leaf stamp - free with Craft Stamper; Waltzingmouse - Say It Loud
Ink: Stampin' Up! - Early Espresso
Promarkers: Tulip Yellow, Burnt Orange, Sunflower, Orange
Accessories:  Vellum and card from stash

Some of the Design Team have made cards to share with you - check them out!

Sue
Andrea

Suzanne
Stephanie

Mona

Our Guest Designer Marie Oberg of Ink'd Wings will be leaving us this week - but she has made a lovely card to share with you, do drop by and leave some love!

I hope you're all having a super weekend - the weather here has been fabulous (so far) - so nice to enjoy some very hot sunshine at this late stage of the year.  See you tomorrow.

World Card Making Day .....

... so I guess there's a special day for just about everything!!  Not that I'm complaining mind - I've had a really fun crafting day. 

I finally got to attend a Promarkers Workshop held at Purple Butterfly (my local craft shop) - lead by Dawn.  We were a small group - six people in all.  Kathryn came with me and was as good as gold reading her book, as well as doing a bit of crafty shopping!!

I got my Promarkers last year as part of my 50th birthday present and I've been happily learning how to use them - just by playing.  However, I've been trying to get a place at the workshop since last year (the course has been full up to now) as I thought it would be a good idea to check out different ideas and techniques, and hopefully pick up some tips.

Dawn provided a work pack to make up two cards.  The first image we coloured was a sweet penguin using different shades of grey and I was really pleased with my test image.  Sadly, it's gone to a new home in Kathryn's craft stash, and I haven't yet used the other image to make up that card.

The second image to colour was a sweet baby fairy - can't remember the name of the company who makes this stamp - but it's really cute.  Edited:  stamp is made by hÄnglar & stÄnglar (Thanks Paula, that was the name Dawn said, but I couldn't remember it!)  Overall, I'm reasonably pleased with my colouring of the test image - except I was a bit heavy handed colouring the skin and while I've tried to lift some of the colour with the blending pen, it's not worked very well.  I'm going to try to life a bit more colour tomorrow and see if I can rescue the image.

I decided to stamp a different image and have another go at colouring - and this time I'm really pleased with the result.

I think this is the first time I've used this image of Gorjuss - I know I've seen it used on lots of other cards, and she's really lovely. I used slightly lighter shades to colour the skin on this image than I did on the baby angel - and I think I prefer the slightly softer look.  I picked green and purple as they are two of my all time favourite colours and work so well together.  I used my nestie to cut out the image, and tried out the "out-of-the -box" technique, where the image hangs over the edge of the die.  I really like this effect. 

Edited:  Thanks for all the lovely comments about my colouring - all very much appreciated.  But credit, where credit's due, I got some excellent blending tips from Dawn and the colours here were ones we used in class - so I knew they worked really well together.  I also found some super lessons on colouring at Passion for Promarkers - that's where I learnt how to do the hair!!

I made the backing papers to coordinate with the green in her tights.  Dawn showed us how to make a lovely striped and sparkly paper using easy-lift double-sided sticky tape. It's so pretty.  I used the darker shade of green to colour the stripes on this sheet and to make the backing mat I used the lighter shade of green.  I also used the Promarkers to colour the organza ribbon and flower to match.  And thanks again to Becca for sharing her tips on making bows - mine are so much better now - I even managed a double bow on this card.

Stamp:  Sugar Nellie - Gorjuss Sitting
Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
Spellbinders:  Regular Squares Sm (S4-128) #6, Regular Squares Lg (S4-126) #6
Promarkers: Apple, Meadow Green, Lilac, Lavender, Amethyst
Accessories:  Organza ribbon and punched square mat - from Dawn; Flower from stash

Today has been amazingly hot.  Hawarden, where I was attending the workshop, recorded a temperature of 28.2°C - a new record for October in North Wales.  For those still using Fahrenheit that's 83°F!!!  And it's the first day of October.  We should have been having temperatures like this in August.  I'm going to make the most of it though - it looks like it's going to stay nice for another few days.

I hope everyone has had a super day.  I'm off to try and sleep now - it's about 16°C now - so very warm and sultry!  See you tomorrow.

Let's hear it for the boys .....

... and the theme for this month's challenge at St Luke's Charity Card challenge is - masculine cards!  What fun!  Now, I know that some people find it hard to make cards for guys - so this is the perfect opportunity to have a play!  I like making masculine style cards - and I usually make them for my teenage son, Ben, so my cards are usually grungy, modern teen type cards.  Ben lives with his Dad so I try to send him a card each week to keep in touch and let him know that I love him.

I decided to do something different - so I found my Joanna Sheen Victorian CDs and had a look through the images and found this super image and coordinating papers too.  I printed the images and the plaid paper onto some satin finish photo paper; the shadow dog paper was printed onto plain paper for a softer look.  The layout of my card is based on an old sketch (see below) which I found at Sketch N Stash - I think it's perfect for this card.  The sentiment label has been attached with dimensional tape and I added a little straw boater - just because it's so cute!  I'd send this to my Opah (Dutch for Grandad) if he was still with us, but this is going to Tara for the next sale.

Image & Papers: Joanna Sheen Victorian Animals CD
Sentiment:  Dawn Bibby from a QVC set that I purchased years ago!

We have a super prize for the winner of October's challenge - donated by Craftie Charlie.  Such a lot of lovely goodies - good luck!

For more inspirational masculine cards - please check out the DT blogs :

Lynne Atkinson

Tara Cardwell

Anne Forrest 

Jenny Mullens

Don't forget if you can spare your card you can send it to St Luke's Hospice to go into the next sale that Tara organises.  For full details check the side bar here.



And before I go - did you know that today is NATIONAL CARD MAKING DAY!! As if I needed an excuse to play in my craft room!!   Actually, I'm going to my local craft shop to a Promarker class - should be great fun!  See you later.