…it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness…

Sharing a fun card I made for my manager featuring a long-retired image from Simply B Stamps called Weight Lifting Scott.

My card layout follows the sketch over at Sunday Stamps, I just split the base fold to make a gatefold card.  I then doubled the sketch design on the inside of the larger flap to complete my sentiment, which I teamed with a digi from Sandra Caldwell Babycakes DnD called the Birthday Cake.  I coloured the cake up to look like red velvet, my manager’s favourite.

The sentiment is a nod to how my manager likes to relax, he works out.  No kidding, really, he even recently went on “holidays” to Thailand to go to a 10-day boot camp because apparently holding heavy weights over your head and doing thousands of swats and other hard stuff is “fun and relaxing”!  Guess it must be for him because he did come back with the same sort of holiday glow people have when they come back from what most of us would call a relaxing holiday lying on a beach.  But to each their own, especially as we have a deal, he does my exercise and I do his creative time so we both have twice as much time to relax in our own way.  And as ‘relax’ is the current prompt at Cardz 4 Guys I’m linking my card there.

Over at The Male Room they are celebrating their fifth birthday and looking for birthday projects so I’m entering my card in their challenge.

Gave my manager his card yesterday and he loved it, or perhaps that was the sweetness from the red velvet cupcakes I made talking!

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 (E11 cheeks)

Hair E23, E25, E27, E29

Outfit B18, B21, B23, W6, W8, W10

Barbell C0, C2, C4, E08, E09, E97

Fitness Tracker C4, C6, C8

Cake C0, C2, C4, E15, E18, N0, N1, N4, N6, N8, N10, R35, R59, Y15, YR0000, YR09, YR15, YR20, YR30, 0

Papers

Bazzill Fourz Cardstock ~ Dusk

Bazzill Card Shoppe Cardstock ~ Marshmallow

Bazzill Orange Peel Cardstock ~ Classic Orange

Bazzill Smoothie Cardstock ~ Huckleberry Pie

Stamps

Sandra Caldwell Babycakes DnD ~ Birthday Cake #139

Simply B Stamps ~ Weight Lifting Scott

Challenges

Cardz 4 Guys #200 ~ Relax

Thanks for stopping by!

“My” Christmas is filled with laughter, and joy…

Sharing a fun and rather late Christmas card featuring Betty Mistletoe Rag Doll from Simply B Stamps.

This card is going out to a crafty friend with whom I had a challenge for our 2017 Christmas cards.  I made shaker mixes for Hallowe’en and sent her some bags then challenged her to make my Christmas card with them and I’d do the same for hers.  So, I knew I had to use shaker mixes that were filled with bats or spiders, I went with the bats from my Battylicious mix and the regular round sequins and stars from my Arachnophobia mix.

What better image and theme to go with that sort of embellie than one from A Nightmare Before Christmas?  I love the Teen Scene series from Simply B Stamps and this Sally inspired image is no different.  I had a lot of fun colouring her up with my Copics.  Given the unusual image and colours of my Christmas card I thought it was perfect to play in Edna’s naughty Christmas challenge.  To see the snarkiness you have to look inside where I’ve revealed my friend is on Sandy Claws’ naughty list.

To make up my card I’ve followed the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, where I’m right down to the wire in entering.  It’s been hotter than Hades here in Sydney over the last few days, was the hottest place on the planet yesterday, so crafting has been unbearable, well, anything more than sucking on an ice block has been unbearable.  But it’s cooled down a bit today and let me finally get my image on a card.  I used the shaker bits to add in the thin strip behind the image.

I’ve put my image on a marbled background I’ve made with Tim’s alcohol inks and Yupo paper.  I was trying to capture some of the cloudy and hazy backgrounds of the movie and also wanted to play in the current Inkspirational challenge where you are only allowed to use stamps and ink layers.  Love how this turned out (thanks to Jennifer McGuire who featured marbling on her blog today and reminded me of this fun technique) so will definitely be breaking out the alcohol inks and water bath more in the future.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin B000, C0, C1, C3, C5

Eyes B00, B02, B06, 0

Lips R05, R24, R46

Hair E57, R59, YR23, YR27

Outfit E09, E13, E15, E33, E35, E40, E41, E42, E43, E57, E70, E71, E74, G24, G28, G29, N4, N6, N8, Y21, Y23, YR21, YR24, 100

Embellishments

Miss Emily Shroom’s Shaker Mixes ~ Arachnophobia & Battylicious

Inks & Paints etc

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Ink ~ Pearl Mixative, Pitch Black & Sailboat Blue

Papers

Bazzill Card Shoppe Cardstock ~ Marshmallow

Bazzill Smoothie Cardstock ~ Majestic

Bazzill Prismatic Cardstock ~ Black

Yupo Paper ~ 200gsm White

Stamps

Simply B Stamps ~ Betty Mistletoe Rag Doll (retired)

Challenges

Freshly Made Sketches ~ Sketch #318

Inkspirational #151 ~ Stamping Only

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #100 ~ N is for Naughty Christmas

Thanks for stopping by!

So just dance, dance, dance, come on

I’m sharing a birthday card I did up using Feel the Music Rio from Simply B Stamps.

My card design follows the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I ended up going with the circles in the sketch as I couldn’t size a music note to fit, mostly because I wanted them to be a shaker element and you need a somewhat reasonable sized object to create one.

It was still a bit of a struggle to get the shaker element in and I almost gave up on the sketch to do it but I don’t step away from a challenge.  It just wouldn’t be a challenge otherwise, right?  I mean I could have just scattered the sequins around and still linked this up over at City Crafter for their confetti challenge but I wanted those shakers.  We just won’t talk about how long it took to add foam tape round those small circles or indeed get the backing off said foam tape!

For my colour scheme I’ve gone with the palette from Paper Craft Crew, where I’ve used all four colours.  Love to layer my cardstock, the weight it gives a card is part of what says to me it is handmade (worth every cent of the extra $5 it cost to post!), and it’s a great way to bring in colour without adding designer paper.  This card is going out to a grungy girlie girl (hence the pink eye shadow and Frankenstein shirt) and the colours worked really well for that.

Ingredients:

Copics

Skin E000, E00, E11, E21 (E02 cheeks)

Lips & Mouth E04, R01, R02, R56, R59

Hair E42, E44, E47, E49

Eye shadow RV00, RV11, RV32

Outfit FYG1, N6, N8, N10, V91, V93, V95, V99, YG01, YG03, YG05

Music Player BG000

Dies, SVGs & Templates etc

Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies ~ S4-116 Standard Circles Small & S4-114 Standard Circles Large

Embellishments

Little Things from Lucy’s Cards Shaker Mix ~ Rose Gold

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Stickers ~ Small Talk Occasions

Inks & Paints etc

Ranger Archival Ink Dina Wakley Media ~ Ruby

Tim Holtz Distress Marker ~ Wilted Violet

Papers

Bazzill Criss Cross Cardstock ~ Lily White

Core’dinations Tim Holtz Collection Kraft-Core Metallic ~ Silver

Stampin’ Up! Cardstock ~ Cherry Cobbler & Perfect Plum

Stamps

Darkroom Door ~ DDTS023 Sheet Music

Simply B Stamps ~ Feel the Music Rio

Challenges

City Crafter #346 ~ Celebrate with Confetti

Freshly Made Sketches #272 ~ A Sketch by Cécile

Paper Craft Crew #228 ~ Colour

Thanks for stopping by!