Simply Surfing

I like many of us struggle with male cards. I often get my children to critique my cards before I post them or use them in classes. I wanted to create some male orientated cards to have on hand so thought why not go to the demographic I am trying to appeal to - my husband.

He like me likes simple, uncluttered images so this is the first of a set I have created using the Seaworthy set from page 88. Although I like simple, to me this is a little too simple but the boys all gave it the thumbs up.

Colours are Sahara Sand (which I have never used before and have discovered that I like it), Ballet Blue and VeryVanilla. I used the Spiral Punch and some tearing. I stamped the image twice and cut out the surfer and mounted the image with Dimensional.

Class Photo's Week 2

We got to play with the Sweet Treat Cups last week. I had a bowl of Smarties and Jelly Beans on my table all week and my youngest son drove me mad wanting to eat them. He pounced on them on Friday when he got home from school, very glad the week was over.

The cardstock was Tempting Turquise and Gable Green. The DSP is from Kaleidoscope in the Summer Mini.

The 1 3/4" punch and Sweet Treat Cups are also from the Summer Mini. The words and the gift stamp behind the sweets are from Happy Moments which is a Sale-A-Bration set.

Don't forget that until the end of March you get the opportunity to earn bonus FREE sets! Take a look at my earlier Sale-A-Bration post or contact me to find out how.

This card is a great hit with the kids. They simply pull on the little tag and get easy access to the goodies you have included.

The second card was using the "flower pot" theme I used for Hubbies Valentines card. We also used my favourite set A Rose Is A Rose to fill the flower pot.

The colours used were Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red and Pink Pirouette. The rim of the pot has been punched with the Scallop Border punch and the ribbon is the Riding Hood Red Taffeta. The pot has been rubbed with Versamark to give it a weathered look.

This week we are doing Easy Watercolouring with reinkers and a male orientated card. Hope you can make it to one of the classes!

Sweet Treat Star

There are so many options for the Sweet Treat Cups from the Summer Mini but not enough hours in the day to keep playing.

I had a boys birthday card in mind when I created this card. Whenever I think boys card I always seem to reach for the Star Punches. I also used the Starring You set from Page 141 which is a great little set and of course the 1 3/4" circle punch.

The colours are Brilliant Blue and Gable Green. I have added a couple of Silver Brads and some metalic stars I had laying around. I added some punched out stars to the insert but forgot to take photo's.

First Week Back

Last week was the beginning of classes this term.
The first card we made was using the Masking Technique. Over the Christmas break I did a little bit of tidying of my craft area and came across my Autumn Flair set which shock, horror, I hadn't used yet. It is a Level 2 Hostess Set and I am not sure how I let it slip by. It wouldn't have anything to do with having too many sets to choose from!
The colours for this card are Rose Red, Old Olive and Very Vanilla. The ribbon is Rose Red and I used the Eyelet Border and Word Window punch.
Masking allows you to create the effect of images disappearing behind another image. You will notice it looks like the leaves are sitting behind the flower. One of the flower images has also been layered for dimension.

The second card was an "Easel Fold Card". I have seen these around for awhile now but hadn't tried them myself so thought I would learn with everyone else.
The colours used are Not Quite Navy, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze and Whisper White. I added the Kiwi Kiss ribbon and the punches used were 1", 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches and the Designer Label punch. I didn't photograph it but on the bottom we used a square of Whisper White stamped with one of the flowers as an area for you to write on.
This can be adapted to any size card and would make a great photo frame to send to a friend or relative. I iwill try and make one over the next week or so and post a photo so you can see the variation.

Happy Valentines

My husband and I are not hugely into Valentines Day. I am happy to get breakfast in bed and well he is happy to not have to stress out about flowers, chocolates or getting the right gift. I think it is important to do the little things for each other every day rather than focus on one day.

Saying that, it did give me an occassion to make a card though which is always a good thing. I didn't want to give him a flowery card but wanted something that would express my love.

I incorporated a flower pot card with my new Full Heart Punch. I used Riding Hood Red (to replace the red roses) and Whisper White card stock. I rubbed over the flower pot with Versamark to give it a 'weathered" look and used the Scallop Edge punch to lift the rim of the flower pot. The words are from Short and Sweet and the flourish on the heart and rim of the pot is from Frames with a Flourish. I have had this set for awhile and haven't used it but have discovered why I had to have it recently so you will see quite a bit of it coming up. I found the heart shaped chocolate at my local chemist of all places and it was a perfect size.

You can tell this was a card for a man as it is the day after Valentines and the chocolate is still there. Now if he had given that to me.........................

I hope you all had a lovely day yesterday and were at least a little spoilt.