Be Fearless tag for CVC

Hi everyone, it's my turn to share a design on the Country View Crafts project blog and I have a masculine tag today. I would love it if you could pop over to take a look at the huge crackles that appeared on this one.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have you had a chance to join in the crackle challenge yet? Do pop over if you think it's something you would like to do and remember you could even use a crackle stamp it doesn't have to be a crackle medium.

Have a fabulous weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Masculine cogs card

I had a play recently with bister sprays on embossing folders and came out with a couple of backgrounds suitable for cards. You can see one of them - Celebrate Spring' here.

This one has been dipped in a little frayed burlap distress ink as well to create some additional interest.

I die cut the birthday wishes using two different sets of Tim's thinlits and I had these wooden cogs I had rusted up ages ago.
 

The stamped vintage man was in my box of bits and with some distress ink painting ......

 
..... so it all came together.

Another card for my box and a great one for some of those men I have to buy for.

Thanks for stopping by and thank you also if you leave a comment for me, I so appreciate them and read every one.

hugs Brenda xxx

The Stamp Man - Father's Day / For a man

My card today shows the Frantage Encrusted Jewel technique (EJT) which I used for the sea on this nautical card for a Dad.

Stamps used are Aspects of Design Nautical and Distressed Corners and Borders - both from The Stamp Man on-line shop. The corner stamp is Tim Holt's Urban Tapestry.

I stamped the main image with embossing ink and used blue and lava black EPs and then added some silver EP by using an embossing pen. I stamped a swirly border underneath and added some silver glitter EP and then did the EJT using Stampendous aged silver and shabby white embossing enamels as well as some pure white, clear and some shimmery flakes my sister gave me. Whilst this was hot and sticky I added an anchor charm and it stuck right in, no glue needed.

The prize as always is a generous £10 voucher for The Stamp Man on-line store, so I hope we see you over at our Stamp Man Challenge Blog for this popular challenge.

So have you joined in Tuesday Treasures this week? Please pop by and link whatever you have made or photographed that is special to you. It is just for fun and to share special creations with one another.

I have another special post coming up in a minute.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend.

hugs {brenda} xox

FSC - It's a guy thing

Another challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges and this week it's gotta be something for the guys.

It's a special year for Ken and I this year, we both reach a milestone age bracket and if I tell you I retire next month then you'll easily guess what that is. His birthday is in July and we share our wedding anniversary on that day too. So I made this for him as a special little gift - it's ok he never looks on here to see what I am doing, I usually show him everything before I blog it but this time I will have to find a little place to hide it for a while.

I really enjoyed making this collage hanging piece and it all started with an experiment. I wanted to see how I could get a bleached image and what card would work well enough with this technique. I actually achieved several good stamped images and you will recognise it as T!m's old jalopy. Once it had cured, I cut out the rectangle and masked the image to stamp the crackle background, ink around the edges and then sprayed glimmer mist over it. 

I gessoed and painted the cardboard and stamped over that when it was dry then collected some bits and pieces together to make up the collage. 

The flower is T!m's tattered floral die and I used an old AA road atlas book and again inked and glimmer misted the parts before putting it together.

So for my Prince Charming, with warm kisses and many more years together where we can cherish the moments. (I know you are all saying ahhhhhh - but it will be 38 years married this year!!!!)

Do come on over and take a look at what my fabulous teamies have made to inspire you and have a go yourself as you could win a great stamp from our sponsor, Marina at Cottage Crafts.

Have a wonderful day whatever you have planned and thanks for stopping by to see my work.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Song Title - Cherish by Madonna
Gingersnap Creations - Spicy Supply Challenge - Ribbon
Anything Goes - To the one I love
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Simply Create too - Love is in the air
The butterfly effect - making layers
Bloggers Challenge - Texturize it
The Artistic Stamper - Vintage

Vintage male card

Welcome to Sunday morning.

This is a scheduled post because when I get up and the grandchildren have been collected by their Mum and Dad, I am off to Alexandra Palace to the craft show. There's not alot I really want but I do love catching up with people and seeing what is new. There are usually some great people demoing as well.

So today the fabulous Stampettes at Fashionable Stamping Challenges want you to create something 'vintage' and this is my DT card.

The stamp is from Crafty Individuals. I used chalks to colour it and then covered it in crackle accents. The map is a page from an old AA book, the flourish is chipboard (thanks Suzanne - I won this in her candy recently) - it has been inked, stamped and heat embossed with one of my button moulds on the top. The sentiment is PC generated and the lock is another of my moulds.

Please go take a look at my amazing teamies contributions - I tell you we have one of the most talented group of people together on this challenge blog. Their creations are just fabulous and well worth you going to take a look. Don't forget there is a prize of a stamp for the winner chosen by the design team, so let's see what vintage project you can wow us with. I hope to see you there.

Enjoy your day whatever you have planned.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox
 Challenges to have fun with -
Simon says Stamp - Dies/punches (does the chipboard piece count?)
Gingerloft - Vintage or distressed
Bloggers challenge - Travel
Polka Doodles - Distress it

Bird's Nest - hybrid card

There are times when I really get stuck for men's cards - like many people they are not my first choice card to make. But this one was fairly quick and easy.

Look on sites like Dezinaworld, Graphics Fairy and Bumble Buttons for free downloads. Print them as they are or use PSE and layer some of the images together. Add a sentiment, maybe some stickles and distress inks; some simple embellishments like buttons and a sticker and another card finished fairly quickly and easily.

Have a great day.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Nautical themed tag - Textures

Hi Everyone

I’ve had the dentist today and after having had about 3 years with an allergy that affects my mouth and gums, at last things are improving. My gums are now healthy again, but I still have the allergy effects – but hey ho that’s nothing to worry about.


Well I am so pleased to sat that my Milliners Catalogue won at Delicious Doodles last week and I got to choose 5 of their digi images. Now most people know I am moving right away from digis but Teri has some great ones in her store and I have used one on my tag today.  

I am so into texture at the moment and Neil demoed a great scrumpled paper technique on Sunday at The Craft Barn, I thought I would use it straight away.
My inspiration came from the digi itself, but also these challenges and of course the amazing Tim Holtz.

Delicious Doodles – Texture
Simon Says Stamp and Show – A tag
Grungy Monday 10 – Distress Inks – Colours used are barn door, stormy sky, victorian velvet and walnut stain.
The Kraft Outlet – It’s a guy thing  


The scrumpled paper technique includes distress stains, distress inks, Inca Gold in pink.

The image I coloured with Promarkers and I downloaded the fish from the Graphics Fairy, cutting some of them out to use as embellishments and a piece of it I covered with gesso and stamped the ‘coming home’ over it.
The ship’s compass is from the TH salvage stickers and I added more texture with some little stones and micro beads which look a bit like sand.


To complete it all I added the TH spinner, threaded up the fish to look as they had been caught with a fishing line and a little piece of net in the top.

I am really pleased with this and I am going to ‘collect’ tags with a variety of different textured backgrounds and see if people would like a class learning how to do them.

Thanks for stopping by.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Other challenges to have fun with -
Creative Inspirations – Father’s day or Dad
One Stop Craft Challenges – Texture
Samuel Taylors – Male
Stampin’ Vacation – What a Guy - Fishing

Father’s Day or one for the men at The Stamp Man

The new challenge at The Stamp Man is to create a card for Father’s Day which is coming up very soon in the UK.

My piece has been made with a downloaded map from Vintage Catnip, alcohol inks and a stamped image and some TH ephemera, plus a lighthouse button.

The map has been distressed with gesso and AI and stamped over with the clock face. The main image was made by dabbing AIs on glossy paper, sprinkling with blending solution. The clock is a fragment wit AI on it stuck onto the image from the TH paper stash.

Supplies include -
AIs – sail boat blue, denim, stream, meadow, pearl
DIs – walnut stain, weathered wood
Gesso
Stamps – Aspects of Design 2 Nautical, TH The Journey
Paper stash by TH – Lost and Found
TH die – ticket strip
TH journaling ticket
Small alphabet stamps

Challenges to have fun with -
Lexi’s Creations – Father’s day / Male themed cards
Stamping Scrapping Challenge – males
Here Come the Boys – Father’s day / Male
Craft Your Days Away – Father’s day / Special Man
Easy Craft Projects – For Dad
Simon Says Stamp - Father's Day
Sweet Stamps - Masculine

I hope you have had a good week and have some lovely things planned for the weekend.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda}

OSATT Challenge 40 - Any season or event

It's Sunday and do you know that in 5 weeks time it will be Boxing Day - WHAT you ask? Can't be! But it is and I have so much to do.

So on to my challenge card this week for the OSAAT -  anything goes for any season or event. I chose this racing car by Hope Jacare, (which can be found at Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps) as my image this week, knowing I have men's birthdays coming up and I still don't have enough cards in my collection to cope with them all.

When making this card I had several challenges in mind particularly the sketch and birthday card from Truly Scrumptious.

The image has been coloured using promarkers and everything edged with faded jeans and/or vintage photo.

and stickles. The papers are from my box of bits and the sentiment is from Lynne at Sentiments 4 You. The little hinges are Sissix die cuts and I used the TH on the edge scallops die.

A fairly simple card - but one that will be great for several birthdays coming up.

Other challenges to have fun with -
Creative Belli - Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
Stampavie - Monochrome
Something completely different - Numbers

Enjoy the rest of the day and the week ahead.

luv {brenda} xox

OSAAT challenge 30 - Autism charity challenge

Here are two cards from me today for this very special charity challenge. The purpose is to raise awareness of how autism can affect people and what special people they are. When I was a headteacher I had a special unit for children with speech and language difficulties and many of these children were on the autistic spectrum. Each of them had their own problems to overcome but what was so wonderful was seeing them learn and make progress and be part of the mainstream classes. Stitchy, the organisers at OSAAT and DT members want to support the autism charity and raise awareness of it. This is particularly for a special little boy called Cameron. We are challenging you to make a special "Rainbow Themed" card - Anything goes type of challenge, but must have a rainbow or the colors of a rainbow in your creation. The reason for this Rainbow challenge is in honor of a very special little guy named Cameron.  If you click on his name, you can read his story...Go over to the main OSAAT blog and see more of what it is about and check out everyone's gorgeous creations. The creators have all made a special digi for us to use just for today's challenge. Thank you in advance to all that take part in this very special challenge - have fun & good luck!!!




We have 10 GREAT PRIZES FOR 10 equally great WINNERS...and that is only at the main blog...

Prize #1 is all 5 of Stitchy Stamps New Release Stamps

Prize #2 is all 5 of Beary Dust's New Release Stamps

Prize #3 is a package from Craftbrulee

Prize #4 is a package from Rod & Carol At Hobbyhabitat

Prize #5 is a package from I Am Roses

Prize #6 is 3 New Release Stamps

Prize #7 is 3 New Release Stamps

Prize #8 is 3 New Release Stamps

Prize #9 is 3 New Release Stamps

Prize #10 is 2 New Release Paper Packs and A Sentiment Sheet

We will also have ONE child winner....who will win ONE PRIZE of THE 3 NEW KIDS KORNER RELEASE STAMPS
 
 

Here is my card and this one was fun to colour up and was created by Sally - go check out the store and see what is available. I kept to rainbow colours which you can see are reflected in the shell, I love the sentiment that goes with it. The flowers I made by stamping on some red paper, cutting out some crinkly circles that I drew roughly on the back, crumpling the paper into small balls, then opening each layer and fixing them together with a brad. The papers are from the Shabby Princess.

This image is by Robyns Fetish and I thought lent itself to being a male card. I make so few of them and need to have some in my box, so this was a good opportunity. It was difficult to photo and folds back on itself. I used only two DIs and found some rainbow paper in a card stack. I added lots of ephemera and bits that fitted in with the bicycle theme and even used a download of the music and words of that famous song.

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do,

I'm half crazy all for the love of you.

It won't be a stylish marriage,

I can't afford a carriage.

But you'll look sweet, on the seat

Of a bicycle made for two.

I have left a space to put in a message and/or sentiment.

Hope you enjoy our special challenge today.

Luv B xxx

Challenges to have fun with -

Our Creative Corner - Fun with folds (second card)

Totally Papercrafts - Lets go dotty (first card)

A spoonful of sugar - Animal (first card)

Digital Tuesday - Spots and stripes (first card)

Pear Tree Designs - Animals (first card)

Oooh La La - Stripes (first card)

Crafty Creations - Transportation (second card)