Up, Up and Away male cards

My husband asked me for several male birthday cards last week which gave me the perfect opportunity to make a few scenes... No, not THOSE kind of scenes (although it WAS rather short notice!) - I mean scenes using the fabulous Up, Up and Away stamp set and my Watercolour Wonder crayons! Come and have a look:

The backgrounds are all scribbled in using the Watercolour Wonder crayons and then washed over with an aquapainter to blend. I've sponged round the edges with ink to add a bit of depth. The trees, from Lovely as a Tree, were all stamped in Soft Suede ink, given Watercolour Wonder leaves and blended with a blender pen for a more intense colour. I then added dots of colour with markers and blended again - the creaminess of the crayons makes it SO easy to blend the markers. Did I mention that I love these gorgeous crayons!

The balloons are from Up Up and Away which is the perfect set for male cards, female cards, children's cards, ANYBODYcards! I am obsessed with scoring frames around things at the moment - it's so easy with my Simply Scored. TIP: If you want an embossed frame around a picture, score an indent round it from the front first and then flip it over and go over it from the back - that way there's no measuring and you can see exactly where you're scoring.

The last card is for a very special American man called Charles, who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is celebrating his 70th birthday this month. He has worked with my husband for many years and is a true gentleman. A few years ago, he came over to the UK to spend a week or so with us here in Buckingham and we told the children a little bit about him and where he comes from. My youngest son, who was then six, listened with great interest but obviously got the wrong end of the stick because when Charles greeted him in his rich Southern accent, my son congratulated him on his excellent English. "You would hardly know you were foreign!" he told him kindly.

Here's what you'll need to make today's cards:

Stamps: Up Up and Away, Lovely as a Tree, Happiest Birthday Wishes

Ink: Basic Grey, Soft Suede, Marina Mist, Garden Green or Old Olive, Riding Hood Red

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Whisper White

Other: Markers, Subtles water colour crayons, aquapainter, blender pen, Simply Scored, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

I shall be cheering my son on at sports day later on today... either that or I'll be thinking what a shame it is that it was rained off! Have a happy Monday, whatever you have planned, and I'll see you tomorrow.