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.