Need for Speed - and mud!

You may be wondering why there would ever be the need for speed and mud but of course where males are concerned, they are two of the essentials in life! Today's card was made for a small male person who loves construction sites. Come and have a look:

The background is made by masking with scrap paper and sponging with a variety of inks using a scratchy textured sponge. I stamped the birds from Up Up and Away in the sky to add to the illusion of movement.

The quad bike was the nearest thing I had to a construction vehicle and it went down very well! I coloured it with markers, cut it out with my paper snips and attached it to the background with dimensionals. The sentiment is from the ever-useful Happiest Birthday Wishes hostess set.

When the Simply Scored tool came out, I wondered if I'd be particularly fussed about it but I have to say I use it all the time. I love it, not just for the accuracy of its measurements for bags and boxes but also for subtle little frames, grids and other embossed touches to my cards - like this scored edging which reminds me of tyre treads.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Need for Speed, Up up and Away, Happiest Birthday Wishes
Ink: Basic Grey, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Marina Mist, Tangerine Tango
Card stock: Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Other: Markers, 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.

I'm getting plenty of opportunities to study mud at first hand as my older son doesn't seem to understand that shoes are the interface between his socks and the muddy ground!

I have a little gift to show you tomorrow. See you then!

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!

Need for Speed male card

Hi folks - just popping in for Masculine Monday! It was my nephew's birthday recently and he is a big fan of cars, so the Need For Speed set was the obvious choice for his card. Come and have a look:

The first job was to swipe the edge of a Basic Grey ink pad over a piece of Whisper White card stock for 'speed stripes'. I topped it with a strip of textured card stock to represent asphalt and popped the car up on dimensionals - here's a close-up:

The car was stamped in Basic Grey ink, coloured with a Poppy Parade marker and cut out with my sharp paper snips.

I love this sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes and I couldn't resist adding those useful birds from Up, Up and Away!

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

Stamps: Need For Speed, Happiest Birthday Wishes, Up Up and Away

Ink: Basic Grey, Poppy Parade marker

Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Grey textured

Other: 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.

My hubby tells me he enjoyed Father's Day yesterday. He enjoyed a nice lie in before being presented with little edible gifts the children had organised and cards they'd made him. After a swim and a bike ride we took him out for dinner before returning home to watch a spot of football. Oh yes, European Cup fever has hit our house! My youngest son amused us when John Terry made a tackle during the England match on Friday. "Terry gets the ball," said the commentator and my son asked "Which Terry is that? Terry Wogan?" He's not previously been a football kind of guy!

See you tomorrow for something a bit more feminine!

One layer Need for Speed

Susan is hosting One Layer Wednesday this week where the challenge is to make a one layer card for a man - which fits in rather well with the return of my Masculine Monday series! I chose to have a play with my Need For Speed set this week - come and see what I've  made:

I love the way Poppy Parade looks on kraft card stock and it's the perfect colour choice for this plane. It took me several goes to work out how to make a Red Arrows-style trail, but I found Whisper White craft ink and a sponge dauber did the trick.

Here's a close up of that fabulous plane! I added a sentiment from the Happiest of Birthdays hostess set and scored a line to extend it across the width of the card.

Here's a landscape version I tried out with an ordinary trail - after all there are some occasions where a heart trail wouldn't be entirely appropriate!

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

Stamps: Need for Speed, Happiest of Birthdays

Ink: Basic Black, Whisper White craft ink

Card stock: Crumb Cake

Other: Poppy Parade marker, sponge dauber, white gel 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.

Thank you so much to everyone who has left me birthday wishes over the last few days. It's lovely of you and I've felt very touched. On Saturday I told you I was being taken away for the weekend and (after a shaky start where we sat on the motorway with a load of other cars!) we ended up in the beautiful Wye valley - an area I've always wanted to visit and for some reason never have. We all had the most wonderful time and were incredibly lucky with the weather considering a lot of the UK was sat under a very slow-moving band of rain. I'll leave you with a photo that sums up my weekend...

I hope you had a great weekend - and if you're in the UK, are continuing to have a lovely time despite the wet weather that lots of us are having. I'll be back tomorrow with a little patriotic glamour so do join me if you have a minute!

Hugs,

Need for Speed male card

I was delighted to see that the new theme for the month over at Make My Monday is Men and Boys and that this week's challenge is Wheels. I do love a bit of a male card and I like a bit of a scene too - so I've put the two together and come up with this:

The background was very quick and easy: I swiped my Pear Pizzazz and Old Olive ink pads across the card stock to make the shape of the banks - this straight-to-card stock technique gives a lined effect that I thought would give an impression of speed. Once I had the shape of the background I was able to wash in the sky and the road with my thicker aquapainter and some ink and add detail with a bit of sponging.

The car was stamped in Pacific Point and I coloured it with Tempting Turquoise using my thinner aquapainter, adding detail with a Basic Grey marker and blending well. When it was dry, I cut the card out and attached it to the background. I wanted it to look as if the car had zoomed up over the brow of the hill so I glued the back of it and raised the front on dimensionals.

The sentiment is from Happiest Birthday Wishes, an exclusive 'hostess' set which is only available to those placing an order of £150 or more (it can be a group or a single order.) Members of my Stampers 6 club are automatically able to choose these exclusive sets as part of their freebies so it's well worth joining. There'll be a new group starting in May so do send me an email if you're interested.

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

Stamps: Need for Speed, Happiest Birthday Wishes

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Old Olive, Aways Artichoke, Bashful Blue, Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Grey, Basic Black

Card stock: Whisper White, Old Olive

Other: Basic Grey marker, aquapainters, dimensionals, 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. And don't forget to add a free pack of designer paper if your order is £45 or more - click here for details (offer limited to one pack per qualifying order). 

My eldest son noticed this card while bustling through the room on his way to his next social engagement. "I like that!" he said. "Where did you get the car?" I stared at him for a minute. "It's a stamp," I said. " Do you remember? That's what I do - stamp, with Stampin' Up stamps!" He grinned at me. "Oh yeah," he said. "See you later then!"

Thanks for dropping in today. I'll be back tomorrow with something fast but (hopefully!) effective for Three Minute Thursday - do come and see!

Hugs,

Masculine Monday - Need for Speed birthday

Good morning! I have a masculine card to show you this morning as usual on a Monday. I'm using the fantastic new set Need for Speed which has been a lot of fun. Come and see what I've made with it:

You could easily make a sophisticated card for a man with the fabulous, streamlined images in this set, but I was making a card for my nephew who was turning 6 so I turned the headlights of these cars into eyes.

I made this background to cover up a mistake - but I actually quite like the way it echoes the sketched feel of the cars!

Isn't this a gorgeous sentiment?! It's from the wonderful hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes - available when you host a qualifying party or make an order of £150 or more. Don't forget that until 15th December, there are extra goodies available if a group or single order reaches £300! Not only do you get to choose £50 of free goodies from the catalogue, but you also get the wonderful Paisley Petals designer paper pack and coordinating stamp set completely free, as well as any item of your choice from the catalogue at half price! What a bargain!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Need for Speed, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)

Ink: Pacific point, Old Olive, Sahara Sand

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Markers, scoring blade, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

Before I go, I just wanted to show you the card with the present. I wrapped my nephew's lego set in paper cut from a drawing roll which I'd stamped with polka dots in Pacific Point and Old Olive inks. Where did I get the polka dot stamp? I made it (jumps up and down with excitement!) from spare rubber from a new stamp set and my Fun flowers Bigz L die! How's that for quick, easy wrapping paper?!

Okay - I'll stop wittering on now! Enjoy the start of the new week,