I would love if this ....

.... was the last birthday card I'll have to make for this nephew!!  I've moaned and groaned before about my husband's nephews and how difficult it is to make their cards.  Husband was wondering aloud the other day if we're done with marking the oldest guy's birthday now he's hit 21?  Could I be that lucky?  Probably not!! 

Last year's card was a corker, I used an image of a heavy-metal drummer and he just loved it.  This year, I couldn't get into it at all.  Coloured up another image and hate, hate, hated what I was doing, was as close as I've been in years to actually ..... eeeek ..... buying a card! In the end, I dumped the image and made this:

I used the sketch from this weeks' Deconstructing Sketches (loving these!) and I'm also entering this into Crafty Cardmakers ("More than one punch/die cut").  Here's a side-shot of the dimension on this card:

Recipe:

Papers: Basic Grey "Skate Shoppe"

Other: MM letter stickers, Doodlebug brads, crackle accents

Thanks for looking!

No stitching ....

.... on a card?  Haven't done that in a long, long time.  I've been really inspired lately by some new challenges and some new blogs.  One crafter whose work I'm absolutely loving is Amy Sheffer - I adore her shabby, layered yet not over-embellished style.  I was sitting down to make my husband's birthday card, and I was inspired by the layout on one of Amy's recent creations.  Here's what I ended up with:

I'm entering this into the following challenges: Papertake Weekly and Basic Grey Challenges both have "Anything Goes", Shopping our Stash ("Best Deal Ever" - mine is the hairy string, my husband "rescued" a huge ball of it from his work - it was being thrown out - I reckon free has to be the best deal of all!), Crafts and Me ("Reds"), Crafty Creations ("No flowers"), Cupcake Craft Challenges ("Get Krafty") and Cutie Pie Challenge ("Distress your cards").

I love the papers I used.  The BG "Little Black Dress" line has a great combination of lacy feminine designs and the lovely masculine patterned papers I've used on this card. 

I know there are punches and die cuts for doing pennant banners all in one go.  I don't have one, so I made the red pennant banner by chopping some cardstock into sections, using a square punch to do the pennant bits, and then sticking the hidden ends equidistant on a slim bit of cardstock.  That's me, if there's a fiddly and time-consuming way to do something, I'm there!!  I added some scrabble letters that I've had in my stash for ages, some shiny red circles and lots of BG buttons.  Here's a side-shot of the layers:

 

Recipe:



Papers: Basic Grey "Little Black Dress" and "Granola"

Sentiment: Computer-generated

Other: Basic Grey "Ambrosia", scrabble letters from stash, hairy string

 

Thanks for looking!

 

More adventures ....

.... with boxes.  Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while will remember my son's self-made costume, "box-head", from last Hallowe'en!!  Well, this year, the box went upmarket with a coat of gold spraypaint.  Jed, ever the innovator with his obscure ideas for costumes, declared that he was going to be "the gold robot head dancing guy from the video for Party Rock Anthem"!  Riiiiiiiiiggght - we all know that guy, don't we?!!! 

Having decided that "the guy's" gold lamé tracksuit wasn't necessary for the finished look (phew, I dodged a bullet there!), here he is about to head off out trick or treating:

I've had a bad back for the last week or so, hence no crafting, but I'm glad it had improved enough to be able to tackle the pumpkins, as I love carving them. Here's what we did this year.  Jed made the "Scream" movie character, and I did an oozing skull.  Here they are finished and ready for display and the following pics are them lit up:

My back is definitely on the mend, so with husband's birthday coming up shortly, I hope to get up to the craftroom very soon.

Thanks for looking!