Cheers & Beers

It's another inking for the beer bottle this week for a 60th birthday card, I love 

trawling through my alphabet stamps and dies to make up these typography style cards..

Keeping all your alpha stamps and die sets together makes this job a lot easier 

then it's just a case of playing around on scrap paper. Having an image helps as a 

starting point for sizing and layout.

I'm quite pleased how this card turned out :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Bubble Over - Stampin Up

Cheers Die, Mini Well Connected - MFT

Count on it dies- Avery Elle

Jet Alphabet - Heffy Doodle

Journalling Alphas - Neat & Tangled

Lots of Letters - Mama Elephant

Birthday Shout Out!

A break from Christmas cards today to share this card I made for a family birthday,

this Town Cryer is great for a guys card and fun to colour too..

I paired him up with the buildings from a Mama Elephant set and left them uncoloured 

so he would take centre stage... with a booming voice I think he already has centre stage!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Oyez Oyez - Waffleflower

City Sidewalks - Mama Elephant

Stitch Arch Stax dienamics - MFT

Birthday Beer

This is the first time this stamp set has seen ink... and oh boy was it fun to use!

Thanks to the MISTI stamping tool, inking these bottles was a dream, 

I love starting with a light shade and then adding deeper colour on certain areas

 of the stamp to create shape and shadow..

The other small touch that made me so happy is cutting the bottle tops in 

Mirri card... my Dad was quite impressed with them too 😊

I borrowed a sentiment from a different stamp set by the 

Colorado Craft Company because I just love that font. Now that's my

 idea of a clean and simple guys card 😉

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Bubble Over - Stampin Up

 His birthday - Colorado Craft Company

Father's Day Legs

 Father's Day is approaching and I had to colour up these Colorado Craft Company stamps..

I tried the loose watercolour style of laying different shades of blue for the golfers trousers.. this involves waiting for colours to dry which is something I struggle with!! I'm pleased with how it turned out though. The background plaid is made using a plaid builder set from Concord & 9th... why have I waited so long to get this set inked up??

This image is perfect for all those BBQ kings out there.... I've used Polychrome pencils to 

colour and then held my breath as I used distress inks to give a poloroid style colour 

cast around the edges of the image..... I think it worked quite well 😊

You get a mix of sentiments in each set and of course you can change it up with other 

sentiment sets you have which makes these images usable for any occasion.

Colorado Crafts stamps are available in the UK at Seven Hills Crafts and my 

DT blog post for these cards can be found HERE

 Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Stash Used:

Tee-Rific, Chillin & Grillin - Colorado Craft Company

Happy Plaid - Concord & 9th

Be Him Sentiments - Waffleflower Crafts

Hippo Birthday

I love the variety of animal images in the new Safari sets from Hero Arts... perfect for family members who have travelled and worked in Africa quite a bit and even better for a guys card...

I played around with the solid images to make a pattern with an equal border around them and picked all the images up on my MISTI door which makes stamping them easier. I re-stamped the sentiment in darker ink and then stamped the hippo on a separate piece of card in shades of pink and grey before adding extra details with a coloured pencil.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and happy to find another way to use the silhouette images from these sets :)

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x


Stamps used:
Safari Huge Thanks, Safari Wild about You and Safari Huge Thanks dies - Hero Arts

Playing with Plaid and Vegtables

Hi there, sticking my head up above the summer holidays again (said whilst waving hand!)

Yep, I have a couple of cards to share again today and funnily enough both would be suitable for guys again.... I seem to subconsciously gravitate towards this genre!!

I have at least three plaid builder stamp sets but it took until Waffleflowers latest release to have a go a stamping out my own pattern... I say my own but its actually heavily influenced by this photo on Pinterest.  To give that white fleck in the solid stripes, I first stamped the Scattered Surface background from MFT in Versamark on the card panel .... I did it twice with a 90° turn in between.

The versamark ink sort of resists the dye ink and gives the impression of a material texture, I also used the diagonal striped stamp in the set to add more pattern detail. I didn't use the Misti for this stamping... I found it easier to use acrylic blocks...

 Now for the veggie card... in honour of National Allotment week (14 - 20th August)

I had fun stamping out this pattern, its a cute Lawn Fawn set which takes on a different feel if you don't use the little faces on the veggies...

I did use the Misti for this one... it makes re-stamping the solid images easier so you can add extra shading with darker ink colours. I just love all those bright colours :)

Who wouldn't love a card full of veggies... it's almost one of your 5-a-day :)

Stash used:

Plaid Play - Wafflerflower

Scattered Surface Background - MFT

Across the Card -Neat & Tangled

Rooting for You - Lawn Fawn

Quote Tag Dies - Paper Smooches

Thanks for stopping by

Jenny x

I'll Be Brief!

That's the name of the stamp set but yes, this is a short blog post too 😏

It's time for a new challenge over at Seven Hills Crafts blog and this month is a sketch..

This one had me pondering for a while until I came across the new set from Lil'inkers called I'll Be Brief, I rotated the sketch and those bars became washing lines 😉

It doesn't look a particularly sunny day to dry the washing though does it??!!

Does the sketch inspire you to play along too?... I hope so, we'd love to see you in the gallery :)

Hop over to the blog here for all the challenge details and link up gallery 😊

 I've used red, white and blue so it fits with this weeks challenge over at Less is More too which is the colours of your countries flag so I'll pop it in over there 😄

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

Supplies used:

(I'll Be Brief) Lil'inkers

(Cloud Stencil) MFT

(A Birdie Told Me) Lawn Fawn

Double Cut for Dads

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far here in the UK although I think today is going to knock it off that top spot.... phew 😲😩... I don't cope with the heat that well!!!

It was also Fathers day and my cards this year were quite simple, I say 'cards' as I have to make one on behalf of James for his Dad 😊, he's really not into crafting at all!!

I know what you're thinking.... yep they're very similar!! I've used Concord & 9th's double cut alpha with the background blocks stamp set to make my colourful focal sentiment, and because it's double cut you can swap the pieces around if you cut at least two of each letter and get two different looks.
I started with stamping out the blocks...

Then once the letters had been cut you can start to mix them up.... you can even use the negative piece to help form your letter.... I think the scribbled block looks great when you trim around it as I have for the S in this design...

A simple design which is always a safe bet for a guys card but I do love the punch of colour.
More details and links can be found on the Seven Hills Crafts blog here.

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Supplies used:
(Doublecut Alpha) Concord&9th

(Background Blocks) Concord&9th
(Smitty's Alpha, Dad's Day) Lawn Fawn
(Circle Scribble Flowers) MFT

(Pointed Out Stencil) Reverse Confetti

A Chef and a Llama!!!

Hehe... well that could be a scene from The Muppet Show or the opening line to a joke I suppose but it's actually the characters on a couple of DT cards I have to share with you today....

I couldn't resist this scenario with a flipped pancake on the floor and this chef looking a little embarrassed and surprised!! I tucked the pan and spatula behind his back and set him with a brick wall backdrop, the pancake is an oval die-cut coloured with Copics. I mixed and matched the sentiment from different stamp sets so it's easier to leave it chopped up on the card ;)

Next card, and this funny llama has the best expression .... it goes so well with the clever sentiment..

I was channelling the Inca style (I think!!) with the bright stepped up border and stencilling on the Kraft card. Perfect card for a guy, in fact both cards are..... got to love stamp sets that are unisex :)

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

Supplies used:

Stamps: (Llama Love, Recipe for Happiness) MFT, (Super Kids) Lil' Inkers
Dies: (Stepped Up Border, Oval Shadow Dies) MFT
Stencils: (Wonky Chevron, English Brick Wall) MFT

Two Masculine Cards

Hi there :)
Not the most original title but I'm playing catch-up with my DT cards... I have to say that these cards are not exclusively for a guy but it's always nice to find stamps that will cover those 'hard to make' cards :)

The beginning of November is awash with birthdays in this neck of the woods and this is one of the cards I made....

I fancied doing something different and colouring those piggies as rare breed piglets... great for having fun with Copics. Love how they're parading across the card... just what the sentiment calls for :)

This second card is pretty gender neutral too and you could easily leave it open inside until you know the occasion you're sending it for :)

This TV looks not too dissimilar to our set when we were growing up ;) I love the 'fuzzy screen' stamp to go with these MFT dies.... I can certainly remember having to move the aerial around to make the picture clearer!! To add a bit of colour to the scene I added a small leafy plant.... the leaves are oval shadow dies cut in green card and arranged in the planter :)

Stamps used:
Hog Heaven, Stay Tuned - MFT

Dies Used:
Television, Oval Shadows and planter - MFT

Thanks for stopping by :)
Jenny x

A Geometry Challenge

Hello again :)

It's challenge time again over at Seven Hills Crafts and this month we have a simple theme... Geometric

I love geometric patterns although they never seem to make it to my card making style which is probably why I had to rummage through my stamps to find the stamp shape I had in mind! 

I found these two diamonds in a Sugar pea Designs stamp set and chose a masculine group of colours then set about stamping. I have a Misti Tool but it's actually easier to draw pencil guide lines and use an acrylic block to make the pattern. I finished off with a die-cut sentiment over some vellum and then a scattering of shimmery stars :)

All the details for the challenge and the linky gallery can be found here... hope you can play along.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Jenny x

All the Young Dudes

Hi there,

I'm over on the Seven Hills Crafts blog today with a couple of cards for the young dudes in our lives :) I'm using another of the stamp sets from Avery Elle's recent release, this set is Stoked and it's all about sports and hobbies...

I love that these guys are simple figures to colour and add your own pattern detail to if you want too. I made a simple scene using some Paper Smooches dies and hand cut a snow ramp for his high flying antics. Hehehe... love how his tongue is sticking out :)

I also used the drummer in the stamp set and used the dies with some funky foam to make him into a shaker element...

The dies were a great help, I used a circle die to cut an aperture in the bass drum in the top and foam layer...

I used black seed beads inside the drum and a layer of vellum with the sentiment embossed onto it for a realistic looking drum skin. Ahhh this is such a fun set to colour and create with :)

More details and links to supplies can be found over on the shop blog here.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great day :)

Jenny x

"Read All About It" at CASology!!

Yay!! today I'm joining the lovely ladies at CASology as guest designer thanks to my one layer 'dessert' card winning me the chance last week... thanks Gillian :0) The cue word this week is a good one, open for so much interpretation.... *insert drum roll*.... it's PAPER.

Almost too many options to go with but I plumped for this old stamp by Judikins for a 'manly' card... 

I was totally inspired by this brilliant card by Laura Bassen... isn't that shaped edge just an amazing detail??

I had to try it with this fella after carefully paper piecing him. I've added dimension again with Promarkers which is a fave technique of mine.. I had planned on paper piecing the newspaper twice to get the text going in the right direction but that idea obviously went out of my head as quick as it went in!!!.... oops :0)

Here's how he looks when the card is shut... took me a while to shuffle a piece of stamped acetate about to decide on the best place for the sentiment!!

Thanks again to Melissa and the team for letting me join them today and don't forget to go and check out their 'Paper' themed cards too at the CASology blog :0)

Thanks for stopping by
Jenny x

Father's Chair

I was excited to see a different style of challenge at Less is More this week.... CASE-ing Jen or Chrissie's card, or both if you choose to!! Well Chrissie has used a technique I have wanted to try for a while so I didn't need to think twice....

It seems that you need a solid image for this technique, something that's easy to replicate on a second piece of card so I had a rummage through my stamps to find I don't have an extensive choice of designs which made deciding on a theme easier!!
This armchair is from a small Lawn Fawn set called Dad's Day stamped in SU More Mustard and over stamped with Hero Arts Envelope background using SU Soft Suede. I thought matching up would be tricky but the criss-cross pattern is quite forgiving.... shading is added using a prisma pencil for some depth :0)
I'm pretty pleased with it... not sure if the lettering should be more raised but I don't think it's too camouflaged at that depth!!
Here's another view...

Here are the two inspiration cards this week... how do they inspire you??

 

Thanks for stopping by :0)
Jenny x