Cards For Small Boys...

This is an area I struggle with - I'm just not into robots or trucks or super heroes or anything else that small boys love. For today's card I thankfully had a theme to work on. My friend's son plays for one of the kids teams at a local football club and she gave me a picture of the team badge to work from...

 

I made the badge in Publisher, added a football and traced the viper from the picture she had given me... I hope he likes it.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

One Stop Craft Challenge  -  One for the boys

Totally Papercrafts  -  A card featuring an animal

Happy Retirement

Today's card has a bit of a vintage feel to it. The image was a freebie from TLC, a fab digi website that has daily freebies. I've decoupaged the image and coloured it with promarkers. The mustard yellow backing paper is coredinations embossed with swiss dots.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

The Play Date Cafe - Colour Challenge

Although I've used more of a puddle than a splash!!

Moving Along With The Times - Keep It Real (use a real life figure)

Paper Crafting Journey - Use black and one other colour

Anything Goes - Use black and one other colour

Happy Bird-Day

I'm continuing with my clean and simple bird theme with today's card. I bought a lovely Pebbles baby girl scrapbook set some time ago which has been gathering dust - there's some very cute papers and chipboard shapes in it. I've used one of the bird shapes on this card with matted nesties and coordinating patterned paper. 

 

I've finished it off with a couple of card candi brads coloured pink and a brown diamante. In hindsight I wish I'd used ribbon aswell but I didn't want to over embellish.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays  -   Feathered Friends

PaperPlay Challenges  -  use chipboard

Emmy's Birthday

Today's card is for a young girl called Emmy. I have no idea who she is as it is for a work colleague - my only instruction was to put her name on it!

I've cut the name using my favourite XCut Abracadabra alphabet die. The pastel papers are from Dovecraft's Back to Basics II pad, gorgeous papers in pale green, lilac and yellow colour mixtures. The yellow flower is from a paper blossoms pack in the same range and I've added a further lilac punched flower and a diamante. The die-cut leaf is from a Marianne's set.

I've entered this card into this week's challenge at The Sisterhood of Crafters - the challenge is to create a card using at least one flower.

Mellow Yellow

Another colour challenge - YELLOW -  this time from Mandi and Chrissie at Less Is More. Another colour that I'm not really keen on! 

The cute digi image is by Birdie Brown who gives away some gorgeous digi freebies - check out the link for a lovely stitched rose freebie. The image is coloured with the wonderful Spectrum Noir pens that my other half bought for my birthday, matted on yellow paper with an embossed layer under that. I've finished it off with a paper 'ribbon' and a digi daisy.

Nothing Rhymes With Orange!

Orange - a very difficult colour to wear and it is widely claimed that the word orange has no true rhyme. This is the colour that is the theme at  ABC Challenge this week. It's not a colour I use often in my cards but I managed to find these lovely 3D flowers from the Anita's Dimensions range.

The paper is from Dovecraft - Kate Knight's Wild Blossom paper pad - it matches the shape of the flowers perfectly. I've also used a dark orange ribbon, some diamantes and finished off with some fine-line doodling. Another addition for the birthday box!

A New Baby Boy

I've had 'a bit of a sort out' and came across some seriously cute baby boy collage images by Ruth Watkins for Craft Creations that I haven't used for a while. They are already coloured and ready just to cut out.

 

The blue gingham paper came in a free Sweet Wishes paper pad from Papercraft Essentials and Ive matted the image and greeting using buttermilk yellow paper. Faux stitching and a blue ribbon have also been added.

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Let's Craft and Create  -  Special Occasion

Cute Card Thursday  -  One for the boys

Geordie Pride

I'm always being asked to make football related cards for men - the North East of England is a hotbed of passion when it comes to footie! Usually the cards are Sunderland or Newcastle related and today's card is for the brother of my best friend - a mad Newcastle fan who lives in Sunderland ( I think he was dropped on his head as a child!!!)

The main image is made by carefully cutting out sections of the badge and decoupaging and matting it. I've kept the lines very clean so that the badge really stands out.

I've entered this card into the challenge at Daring Cardmakers who want a 'masculine card with a sporting theme'.

Dad in the Garden

The challenge at My Time To Craft this week is 'Gardening Gems' - make a card with a gardening theme. This prompted me to use a digi I've been looking forward to using for a while - a freebie from Paper Printables

This was lovely to colour - the trickiest part was decoupaging the flowers on the trellis. I've chalked the base card under the image in a pale green colour to make the image stand out.

Wild Thing...

Needing a birthday card for a teenage girl who loves animal prints, I  got my inspiration for this card from a blogger and designer whose work I greatly admire - Katina Killey at Katina's Cards and Chat - I do hope she doesn't mind and takes this as a compliment as intended. She made a couple of gorgeous cards using some delightful images from Pink Petticoat.

I've used the same image layout that I've used many times in the past and I've combined the shoes from Katina's card with a different handbag from the Diva Doodles range of images. The patterned paper is some zebra print paper that came some time ago with a magazine. The actual card is huge for me - it's 8 x 8 - I could get used to working on this size of card.

Pinks and Oranges

Bright cerise pink and orange is one of my favourite colour combinations and this week's challenge at The Play Date Cafe asks us to use these very colours...

I love that tie! The card I've made was at the request of a friend who wanted something pink with bees on it. I've had this image for a while - I don't know where it's from as the file is just named 'bees and flowers' and no clue to the author. I've coloured it with promarkers, decoupaged the flowers and enlarged and cut out some more of the bee images to use to fly about the card. The stripey paper is very old Doodlebug stock.

                                        

A Touch of Doodling

This week's challenge at Less is More was a combination of two things way left of my comfort zone - one layer AND doodling. Now I've done one layer cards before and I've added doodling in it's basic form - as faux stitching but the two things made me nervous!


First I found a digi that lent itself to adding a bit of pattern - it was a freebie from Wendymade blog some time ago and I've used it decoupaged on a number of occasions. I kept the whole thing simple, coloured one heart with a lilac promarker and then just criss-crossed the heart in a patchwork effect. I'm not sure whether it is TOO clean and simple but I really kept myself in check even though I was itching to add some bling!

Paper Pieced Man's Card (well...nearly a man!)

I've been up with the larks today - I have so much to do. While the house was quiet I've managed to get a card made for a young man who is 17 next week. This is probably the age I find most difficult for the men - cards for small boys can be cute monsters etc and grown up male cards usually involve beer or sport.

As Jack is the kind of lad who loves his music and is always seen in scruffy jeans and hoodies I thought this paper pieced image was ideal. I don't know where the image is from - it was a freebie I found through a freebie blog. The background is just random sheet music downloaded fron the internet - it's probably classical and totally unsuitable!

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Secret Crafter - Make a man's card.
Crafty Emma's - Paper piece it

Pink Spring Flowers

The challenge at Cute Card Thursday this week is to use spring flowers on your card and needing a card for a colleague's sister I decided to use this lovely tulips image which is a colouring page I found some time ago. It's coloured using promarkers and I've decoupaged the front leaves and the flower heads. I got the backing paper a couple of years ago in Making Cards magazine and it matches perfectly.


I've added some punched butterflies which I thought would add extra texture and interest but now wish I hadn't cos they don't look right! I'm not feeling any love for my cards at the moment!

I've also entered this card into the challenge at Polka Doodles - Pretty in Pink. It's soooo easy to use pink on cards!

First Christmas Card...

The challenge at Less Is More this week is a colour challenge - to use three different shades of green on your card. I've missed the last couple of challenges through being on holiday so this is a lovely way to get back into the swing of things - green is probably my favourite colour. And there's no better colour to use for making a start on Christmas cards!


The image used is a freebie I've had for a while from Paper Squirrel's blog. I love the image and the way it decoupaged very easily but I'm left thinking there's something missing from the card.

Three In A Row

Great to see the three in a row challenge at the Allsorts Challenge Blog this morning as it fits perfectly the Mother's Day card I have made for my partner's mam. As usual he left it to the last minute to ask me for it so I've just finished adding the diamantes to it 10 minutes ago!


I've kept it very simple as last minute cards usually are!. The butterflies are punched in various shades of purple, mounted on a circle then added to a long A5 card blank. Not the most exciting card I've ever made but because it's made on very white linen effect card it has an 'expensive' feel to it!

Special Lady

The challenge at Moving Along With the Times this week is to make a card for a 'Special Lady' - my Nanna! She loves roses so this decoupaged rose was the perfect topper.

I mounted it on an oval nestie but not having a scallopped oval nestie for a border, I used lots of punched yellow circles and carefully stuck them round the edge. I'm pleased with the effect. The patterned papers came from a magazine and I've added some yellow coloured card candy for extra texture.

Another card for Mother's Day

Here's another clean and simple card for Mother's Day, again using the flower die that has sat in a box unloved for over a year - it's now my new favourite die. If I have a good sort out who knows what other goodies I would find!


The striped paper is also very old - it came free with a Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine about 5 years ago - I hoard EVERYTHING! It matches the colours used in the flower perfectly.

I've enterd this card into the following challenges...

Papertake Weekly Challenge - For The Girls....Or Mum

Oldie But A Goodie Challenge - Mum's the word

Mother's Day Paper Piecing

The current challenge over at the Corrosive Challenge Blog is to make a card using the paper piecing technique. This is one of my favourite techniques - I love the effect of images coloured in with patterned papers.


The bag and shoe images are both from Pink Petticoat, a great place for cute girly images and sentiments. Using Microsoft Publisher, I arranged the images slightly overlapping and added the greeting with a text box (Worstveld Sling font). I then reprinted the bag image only onto some pretty floral Pink Petticoat paper and pieced this over the original image. The shoes are also decoupaged and are coloured with promarkers. I've finished the card by adding a cute pink bow.

I'm going to try and develop this style of card with other images as I'm really pleased with the result.

Colour Challenge at The Play Date Cafe

I love The Play Date Cafe Challenge blog - it always has such interesting colour combinations in it's challenges - this week it's a lovely combination of CHARCOAL, ASH and BUTTER. As I still need to do loads of Mother's Day cards I used these colours for a handbag card. This image from the Digistamp Boutique is one of my favourites.

I've matted the image onto a scallopped square, then onto an embossed background. I've decoupaged the flowers on the handbag and used diamantes in the middle of them. A matching buttercup yellow ribbon finishes the clean and simple look. I didn't have any paper of the right shade of yellow so for the matted edging, I coloured some white scraps with the same promarker that I used on the flowers so everything matched.