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,

Plane and Simple steampunk-style

Last week I had my first go at the steampunk genre and while I wouldn't necessarily say it's my thing, there's no doubt it was great fun! I'd made the card for the Make My Monday challenge - steampunk is the overall theme there this month, with specific challenges set each week. This week we've been challenged to make a monochrome steampunk card - come and see what I came up with:

First I found some elements in my Newsprint designer paper to create a background, sponged it with Bravo Burgundy ink and stamped vertical lines on the bottom right and some of the abstract diamond pattern from Plane and Simple. Another strip of the paper lies across the middle of the background featuring a guy on a printing press who caught my eye - surely he isn't wearing a dress...?! I stamped more images from my beloved Plane and Simple set to layer over the background and cut out tabs of print with my decorative label punch.

My favourite thing in the design is the plane layered onto this sort of ticket I made. I might make another of these and use it on a CAS card. (Yes - I'm a CAS girl at heart!)

I liked the compasses too and thought they'd work nicely as a group - they're surprisingly easy to cut out if you use a small circle punch in the top bit, so no need to worry about my eyesight! This photo also gives you a close-up of the frock-wearing printer...

If you love Plane and Simple as much as I do, don't let it slip through your fingers! It's only available until the end of this month and then it'll be gone forever, and the same goes for the amazingly versatile Newsprint designer paper.

Supplies needed for today's card:

Stamps: Plane and Simple

Ink: Bravo Burgundy

Card stock: Bravo Burgundy

Other: Newsprint designer paper, decorative label punch, silver brad, 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 I have to say some things are sold out already!

I'm afraid it's all gone horribly wrong on reorganising my craft square metre... I bought a large shelving unit from dear old Ikea which I was going to use with a smaller desk but it looked appalling! So I've brought my old (lovely) desk back and am now operating out of boxes and am stuck with a large shelving unit I don't want and that doesn't fit anywhere and my husband is Not Pleased! I can't bear living in chaos - my daughter says I'm obsessed with tidiness and tells me she daren't ever say she's bored because once, when she did, I set her to work clearing out her sock drawer!

I hope you've enjoyed your visit here today. I have loads to show you this week so do come back again soon.

Hugs,

Male teen thank you cards

Just popping in with a real quickie post today. I wanted to show you the thank you cards I made for my teenaged son to use to thank his relatives after his birthday.

They're simple postcard style cards - A4 sheets of Naturals Ivory cut into four pieces.The border image is from Plane and Simple and is so versatile you could use it for almost anything! Come and have a closer look:

This border stamp has a diamond pattern on it but I've cut mine in half and mounted each design separately to make it easier to use - I like my stamps to work really hard as I craft in a square metre so there's not much space to store them in! The image was stamped in two greens and the beautiful sentiment was stamped over the top using my stamp-a-majig for accuracy. Not a very fancy design, but it works!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Plane and Simple, Afterthoughts

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Stamp-a-majig

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 and I'll be happy to help.

My son liked the cards - for which I should be grateful as he's very fussy about his things. He is the only one of the family to be obsessed with branded items (I'm hoping this is just a phase...) In fact, he's an advertiser's dream! One of his favourite birthday gifts was a shockingly expensive sweatshirt from Superdry which he promptly ruined with salad dressing spilled down the front and some nasty oil stuff he sat in on the beach. When I saw the stains I was really upset, but he told me not to worry. "It'll come out with Vanish oxi action!" he told me cheerfully. "Of course it won't!" I said. "Nothing gets rid of oil stains!" He looked at me with those clear blue eyes. "But Vanish oxi action works on even the toughest of stains!" he said. Oh, if only life were as simple as the ads!

Now I must dash as I've had an exciting offer but I'll need to rush about like a mad thing if I want to take advantage of it! Thanks for your company today - will explain tomorrow,

Masculine Monday - Music Notes birthday card

Good morning! Every Monday, I post a masculine card here at Crafting Clare's Paper Moments and today I've been inspired by One Layer Wednesday, where the challenge is to make a card that is personal to the recipient. On Saturday, we went to the 60th birthday party of a friend of ours. He is a talented musician and I thought I'd create a piece for him using the Music Notes wheel. Come and see:

I used my favourite Confetti card stock for this card, masking off a large rectangle with post-it notes to create a layered image in. I inked up the Music Notes wheel with versamark first and clear embossed it, and then wheeled Not Quite Navy music over the top. The background was sponged in using Safari Sand, Wild Wasabi and Not Quite Navy inks. Finally I added black notes and a sentiment using Staz-on ink.

Here's a close up so that you can see the layered effect you get when stamping over a heat embossed background. This is the design I went with for our friend but I did experiment with few others. This one is the best of them:

It has been made in a similar way using Confetti White card stock this time and shades of blue ink. I created the image in a masked off strip this time and scored lines above and below it.

You may recognise this embellishment from last week's card. It looks quite different using a smaller gold eyelet and a knot of gold elastic cord. I stamped the sentiment in Stazon ink on vellum.

Supplies needed for the top card:

Stamps: Plane and Simple, Music Notes wheel

Ink: Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand, Wild Wasabi, Stazon black, versamark

Card stock: Confetti Cream

Other: Clear embossing powder

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.

I hope you've had a good weekend. It's been hectic here as usual and as I haven't done a jot of housework I think it's time I got my pinny on and attempted to 'make order from chaos' as my daughter would say! I'll be back again tomorrow and would love it if you could join me. Hope to see you then,

Clouds with Sail Away and Silhouette Sentiments

Do you remember this card? NOT satisfactory for the LiM challenge! I've not been able to stop thinking about it - aaargh, it's like a sickness! - so today I made a revised version just to prove to Lady and Diva LiM that I am a very dutiful little LiMette! (And a terrible creep!)

But I'm happier now that there's some white space going on and it's also occurred to me that it would make a good entry for this week's One Layer Wednesday - to make a one layer card with clouds!

I mean there's no denying there are clouds! But of course that would be cheating, because it's just a revised version of an earlier card, so naturally I had to make another one for OLW.

It took a while because I dropped my stamp-a-majig in the Early Espresso ink without noticing... but I got there in the end! I started by drawing a frame on my card front with a Crumb Cake marker, then created my cloudy effect with torn scrap paper, some ink and some sponges. The bird is stamped over the top in Early Espresso ink. I wanted it to have a sort of twilight effect, with the bird just settling down to roost.

I sponged the edges to define them but I also added a little shading with a grey watercolour pencil and I think it makes the image really dimensional - as if it was stuck on to the card, but I promise it's not! Just for contrast, here's a picture of the one I ruined by getting ink round the edge:

To rescue it, I DID cut this one out and stuck it onto a card base. And while I was at it, since I'd ruined the one layered-ness of it anyway, I stamped the bird again and popped it up over the first - just for fun! But there's not that much difference is there?

Supplies needed for the bird card:

Stamps: Silhouette Sentiments (hostess set)

Ink: Marina Mist, Perfect Plum, Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Crumb Cake marker, grey watercolour pencil

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.

Thank you for looking at my cards today, I really appreciate your visits and comments. Hope you have a great weekend and look forward to seeing you very soon.

Masculine Monday – Plane and Simple again!

Good morning! I have another masculine card to share with you at the beginning of a new week and this one was inspired by the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays - to make a clean and simple masculine card using kraft card stock.

I love kraft (or Crumb Cake as it's deliciously called in the Stampin' Up world!) and use it quite a lot for both male and female cards. Today I teamed it with Basic Black ink and pewter hardware - come and see:

I stamped some of the images from Plane and Simple over the card front to make a background that reminds me of the brown paper bags you get from those classy gift shops! The edges of the card are sponged with Crumb Cake ink to define the design a little.

The sentiment has been stamped in Poppy Parade ink. I've discovered that this bright, orangey red works brilliantly with kraft card stock - it really pops! (Could this be why it's called Poppy Parade? Hmm. I suspect not!) Do you like the eyelet and twine embellishment? It's easy to set these gorgeous jumbo eyelets with a cropadile. I love the way it turned out and will definitely be using it again.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Plane and Simple

Ink: Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade

Card stock: Crumb Cake

Other: Jumbo Eyelets, linen thread

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.

I hope you've had a good weekend. We've had our usual action-packed couple of days - I kitted my oldest son out with a whole new wardrobe as he seemed to have woke up one morning at least a foot taller; hacked the garden back so that we could actually get down the path; attended our local car boot sale and heroically managed to prevent my youngest son from impulse-buying everything there...

Thank you for dropping in today. I'll be back tomorrow so do pop back then if you have a minute.