Masculine Monday - Plane and Simple birthday

Good morning! It's Monday and time for another male card from me. Today I'm using the fabulous Plane and Simple set again - it's just so perfect for the men! PLEASE don't let this set get away! It's only available until the end of this month and it would be awful if you'd been planning to get it, only to find that it was gone forever. Come and see what I've been up to with it:

It's so much fun to make these kind of cards! You just gather together a variety of elements and layer them onto a card base. It's best not to over-do it - in fact it's definitely a time for 'less is more'. And talking of Less is More, the lovely LiM ladies are going for the record and aiming to get a whopping 1000 entries for their challenge this week - to make any clean and simple card. This card is going into the challenge and I hope you'll join in the fun with one or more of your own.

I adore this vintage-style aeroplane, which is surprisingly easy to cut out and pop up on dimensionals as I did here. I think it looks great with papers from the Newsprint designer range.

Staples continue to be a favourite embellishment of mine when it comes to male cards. I rather like the effect of the random placement. Another detail is the corrugated texture on the card base - to create this I slipped the card front halfway into my crimper, locked it in place and turned the handle a couple of times.

And look at this label! This has to be one of my current favourite things (along with kittens with whiskers and brown paper packages tied up with strings of course...!) It's actually a Christmas sentiment in the Welcome Christmas set but it's easy to adapt to anything you please - watch this space for more ideas on that! The sentiment is from the retiring set Occasional Greetings, a bargain at 40% off - now only £18.57!

Supplies needed for today's card:

Stamps: Plane and Simple, Welcome Christmas, Occasional Greetings

Ink: Basic Black, Poppy Parade

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, scrap of Basic Black

Other: Newsprint designer paper, cropadile, stamp-a-majig, staples

You can buy any of these supplies from me (except the staples!) and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Click here to view the Last Chance List - full of stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% off! These items are available only while stocks last - and some have sold out already!

No-one laughs at my jokes like my children - which probably says something about my level of humour! While I was typing this, my son came to say goodbye to me on his way out to see friends. He went to kiss my cheek, missed and caught my Turbo Glasses instead! I said "I didn't know you felt that way about my glasses!" and was astonished to find that this throw-away line had him rolling on the floor, holding his sides and gasping with laughter. A gratifying reaction but I think Michael MacIntyre's position in the world of comedy is secure for the moment!

I hope you had a great weekend. It's great to see you back here and I hope you've enjoyed today's offering. As usual I find myself with heaps to show you this week so I do hope you'll find a minute to pop back.

See you soon,

Gift set using my small heart punch

The starting point for today's post was this beautiful solid perfume-in-a tin that my daughter bought from the Body Shop for a friend. I loved the packaging which gave me an idea for a box. Here's what I did:

I wondered whether the perfume would fit in a hole made by the large heart punch and, with a little bit of tweaking at the top, it did! So I made an insert to fit it into and then made a box base to fit around that.

Here it is - snug and happy in its new home!

The Melon Mambo and white colour scheme is so summery and the rainbow of hearts on the tin inspired this heart design on the lid of my box. It was easy to cut the hearts out of scraps of card stock using my small heart punch.

I made them more dimensional by folding them in half and piercing five holes along the fold with my paper piercer. They're attached to the box lid with glue dots.

I was on a bit of roll by now, so naturally I made a card to match the box!

And here they are together! By the way, you might be interested in this box tutorial  I put together a little while ago. It's so easy to make boxes any size you like with your Fiskars trimmer and a scoring blade.

Supplies needed for this project:

Stamps: Occasional Greetings

Ink: Melon Mambo 

Card stock: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, scraps for the hearts

Other: Large and small heart punches, Fiskars trimmer and scoring blade

You can buy any of these supplies from me and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

It was Grand Prix day at Silverstone on Sunday and every year we all walk up to a high point near us to get a great view of the Red Arrows performing over there. They really are phenomenal and it is such a treat to see them! At one stage, while the jets zoomed in together, trailing their red, white and blue lines of smoke, my youngest son said: "The Red Arrows - sponsored by Aquafresh!" Both boys have me in stitches with their versions of adverts and their teamwork is impressive!

Thanks for your visit today - I'm always so pleased that anyone wants to come and spend time here and if I've inspired you to make something, I'm over the moon! I shall be having another vintage moment tomorrow so do pop back if you have a minute.

Fathers' day cards

I had a bit of a late night last night as I had some lovely girlfriends round to eat, drink and be merry! So this morning I got up early, to clear away before my long-suffering family got up, and checked out the Less is More challenge site while drinking a cup of revitalising coffee. This week, Chrissie and Mandi are asking for cards using a square in either the centre or one of the four corners of a square card.

Hmmm. I had a think while cleaning up - nothing like a mop and bucket to focus the mind! Here's what I thought of while wearing the Marigolds:

What with fathers' day coming up on the 19th June, this graphic stamp came to mind. It's just the simplest card ever - as all my cards are, let's face it! - a Crumb Cake card base with the stamp in the middle.

I inked the image up first with versamark then with Old Olive ink, then embossed it with clear embossing powder. This is very old embossing powder and has gone quite bitty, but I think that just adds to the manly effect! After embossing I coloured in the text with a Daffodil Delight marker (not quite so manly but he won't know that it's Daffodil Delight - he'll think it's yellow!)

Did I stop there? Of course not! I needed to see what it would look like in other colours!

Oh yum! I love Pacific Point with Tempting Turquoise text...

... and Real Red with Pumpkin Pie text is quite delicious too! I would have carried on but people started coming downstairs talking wistfully about breakfast! (Come to think of it, I seem a little peckish too!)

Here's how to make this card:

• Cut an 18cm x 9cm piece of Crumb Cake card stock. Score and fold in half to make a card base.
• Use a sponge dauber to sponge a little Whisper White craft ink round the edges of the card front.
• You'll need a stamp-a-majig to centre your image, so stamp it on the imaging sheet now with using any dark classic ink.
• Clean the stamp and dry it, then ink it up first with versamark then with coloured classic ink and stamp it in the centre of the card front using the stamp-a-majig to make sure it's in the centre and straight. TIP: When using a block-style image like this one, really press hard all over the stamp to make sure the image comes out evenly.
• Sprinkle the stamped image with clear embossing powder and heat with your heat tool until the image turns shiny.
• Colour inside the text with a marker.

Supplies
Stamps: Occasional Greetings
Ink: Pacific Point or Real Red or Old Olive, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Crumb Cake
Other: Tempting Turquoise or Pumpkin Pie or Daffodil Delight markers, clear embossing powder

Thanks Mandi and Chrissie for giving us LiMettes hours of fun! I know there are many other crafters beavering away at this challenge as I type - and I'm looking forward to seeing them all!

Don't forget to check out my weekly series Masculine Monday for more male card inspiration.
See you soon,