I'm finding the gorgeous Up Up and Away stamp set so useful for male cards as well as pretty much any occasion you might care to mention! It's Masculine Monday as always at the start of the week and today I have a birthday card to show you - come and have a look:

I scored a frame on my Crumb Cake card base before attaching my framed balloon to the card front. Let's zoom in and have a closer look:

You get two frames in the Designer Frames embossing folder pack and this is one of them. I cut it out with my sharp paper snips and painted in a sky with Pool Party ink and my aquapainter, then sponged a little Crumb Cake ink round the frame. The sentiment and the birds were stamped into the frame and I popped the balloon up on dimensionals and added the streamer.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Up Up and Away
Ink: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Real Red, Crumb Cake
Card stock: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Other: Markers, Designer Frames embossing folder, Simply Scored, paper snips, 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. If you are placing an order of £60 or more, you will receive a free Reason to Smile stamp set in your choice of wood or clear mount. The set is also available to buy for £18.95 wood mount or £14.95 clear mount.

Balloons can be very male can't they - last week I was talking to my daughter about a piece of poetry, while surrounded by males making a racket. "I am trying to appreciate the beauty of the language," she said. " But unfortunately my brothers are making noises like a balloon going down!"

Thanks for popping in today - I'll be back tomorrow!

Need for Speed in the water

So the olympic games are over for another four years but I don't suppose I'm the only lady who will cherish the memory of David Beckham whizzing up the Thames in a speed boat to get to the opening ceremony! Today's card is my tribute to dear old Becks and I made it for One Layer Wednesday which celebrates its 100th birthday this week. This week's challenge is hosted by Cheryl and the theme is 'Transportation'.

I've not previously inked up the speed boat from Need for Speed but I'm really glad I did - it was great fun to make this scene! I masked and sponged a sea onto my card base before stamping the boat. It's coloured with ink and a blender pen and highlighted with markers -  and I found the white Watercolour Wonder crayon that comes in the neutrals tin was perfect for creating a bit of spray! Then came the exciting part...

... I used the Colour Spritzer tool to add a bit more spray-style colour. I've not used this tool before and it was brilliant fun! It's really easy too - you just put a marker into the holder so the brush end is over the hole, tighten the screw that holds it in place and squeeze the bulb.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:
Stamps: Need for Speed, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Baja Breeze, Marina Mist, Pool Party, Poppy Parade
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: Markers, Watercolour Wonder crayons, Simply Scored, Colour Spritzer tool, 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. If you are placing an order of £60 or more, you will receive a free Reason to Smile stamp set in your choice of wood or clear mount. The set is also available to buy for £18.95 wood mount or £14.95 clear mount.

What a fabulous olympic closing ceremony last night - and what a wonderful games! I only managed to catch highlights of each day's action but one of the best bits was watching Charlotte Dujardin win a gold medal in the dressage. She used to live in a village just outside Buckingham, although she now lives in Gloucestershire so we won't be getting a local post box painted gold just yet - although I have high hopes they might bring in olympic Talking in which my youngest son would sweep the board!

I'll have more Need for Speed to show you tomorrow, so do pop back to see!

Sporty Pedal Presents

The wonderful St Lukes Charity Card Challenge has a new challenge for the month of August and very topical it is too: the theme is Sport. Please don't forget that challenge founder Tara works very hard to sell cards to raise money for the St Luke Hospice in Sheffield, so if you wish to send in your entry or any other spares you have, they will be gratefully received. The hospice cares for terminally ill patients and their families, so it really is a worthwhile cause.

Here's my take on this for my Masculine Monday slot today:

I drew 'speed stripes' on a panel with a versamark pen and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder before sponging a quick background.

The sentiment is from Little Princess - oddly enough, I like this simple upper case font for male cards. Can you see the green texture on the background? It's done with the oak tree image from Lovely as a Tree and is intended to be a hint of bushes as the bike whizzes by!

The bike was inked up with Chocolate Chip ink and stamped off a couple of times before 'shuffling' the stamp onto the background. It was then overstamped with Basic Black ink.

What you'll need to make this card:
Stamps: Pedal Presents, Lovely as a Tree, Little Princess
Ink: Basic Grey, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Versamark pen, clear embossing powder, heat tool, 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. If you are placing an order of £60 or more, you will receive a free Reason to Smile stamp set in your choice of wood or clear mount. If you prefer, you can buy the set for £18.95 wood mount or £14.95 clear mount.


I've had a lovely weekend visiting friends in London but am pleased to be back with my family. You'll be glad to hear that my journey back did not feature any trains being bricked up in a tunnel! The children took a tepid interest in my trip at first but when I mentioned that passengers on Virgin train services were being offered free strawberry iced lollies (presumably as an Olympics thing?) they became much more attentive!

A dotty Reason to Smile for a male

Last week I mentioned a new stamp set, Reason to Smile, which is going to be available in August only (and you can get it for free too - scroll down to find out how!) I've been putting my set through its paces for the last couple of posts and this week I'll be showing you more of what it can do. Today, I've taken the 'flower centre' image and made this card with it:

I used my extra large oval punch to make a mask for the sentiment and then stamped the dots fairly randomly. I love these colours together and they're just right for summer - hmmm, well we WERE having a summer!

Here's a close up to show you how well this sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes fits into the large oval. (By the way, Happiest Birthday Wishes is a hostess set, meaning that it's available to those placing an order of £150 or more or hosting a qualifying party, but if you prefer not to spend £150 at a time and don't want to host a party you can get it by joining my Stampers 6 club instead! Click here to find out more.)

Can you see the lovely texture of the spots in the photo above? All the solid stamps in the set have the same gorgeous texture - and the reason it's called Reason to Smile is that you can get it FREE with any order of £60 or more in August, OR you can buy it in wood mount (£18.95) or clear mount ( £14.95).

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

Stamps: Reasons to Smile (available during August only), Happiest Birthday Wishes

Ink: Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Extra large oval punch, 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 DURING JULY ONLY so you have just two more days left to get your hands on one!

In a raffle at a school fair recently we won a family meal out at a local hotel and yesterday we went for it. If I'm honest, the food wasn't ragingly brilliant, but the company certainly made up for that and we had a wonderful time laughing and chatting together. I was so pleased when our waitress complimented me on the lovely manners of my children but reflected that if she'd arrived at the table a few minutes earlier she'd have been in time to see my youngest son flick his sister with his napkin. "We never flick our fellow diners with a napkin!" I said reprovingly. "She pinched my bottom!" he said indignantly. "And we never, ever pinch the bottom of a gentleman!" I added.


Tomorrow, I have one of my favourite Reason to Smile cards to show you so do come and see if you have a minute.


Hugs,

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.

Everyday Enchantment for a man!

Did you see the announcement yesterday? Yes! There are gorgeous freebies on offer during July when you spend £45 or more and also the Everyday Enchantment designer paper range is back and is now available to buy at £9.95 a pack. I'm certainly not the only person that is delighted with this news! I wanted to get creating with the range straight away and, since I always start the week with Masculine Monday, set myself the challenge of making a male card using the papers. Here's what happened:

I cut one of these gorgeous floral medallions out of one of the papers, mounted it onto some Early Espresso card stock and cut round it. It was decorated with some mini brads before being attached to a ribbon tailed card stock strip. Florals can be okay for males in small doses and there's a touch of the William Morris about this I thought.

Before attaching the strip to the Crumb Cake card base, I stamped the gorgeous ships inventory background stamp from The Open Sea and stamped a sentiment...

... and made this little tab with a piece of card stock and the label stamp from Tea Shoppe to balance out the design.

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

Stamps: The Open Sea, Tea Shoppe, sentiment (retired)

Ink: Early Espresso, Poppy Parade

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Other: Square punch (to make ribbon tail), Simply Scored, mini brads, paper snips, 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.

One of the many events I attended last week was a fund-raising fashion show at which my youngest son was modelling (there is no end to his talents!) He threw himself into it with his usual enthusiasm and came out buzzing. After congratulating him on a great job, I suggested that he consider joining the drama club when he moves to senior school in September as he loves performing in public. I warned him that he might have to take minor parts at first and work his way up. He nodded. "Like a bush," he said. "I'd be quite happy being a bush but I'd want to be the best bush ever! I'd want people to come out saying 'that was a great play but did you see the amazing bush in the third scene? Man that bush rustled!'" If you ever see an oscar nominated bush, that'll be my son!

I'm continuing to receive lovely messages to wish him well after his cycling accident at the weekend. Thank you so much - he and I really do appreciate it. I shall be taking him to the dentist today and we'll see if anything can be done to save that tooth.

Have a happy Monday!