A bit of a departure.......to decoupage

Mr Crafty Blogger's God son is 7 this week so my card making skills have been tested.  A bit of a double whammy for me a male child card!  As you know I struggle with male cards;  but I also find children's cards challenging.

After spending ages looking through my stash for male and child friendly papers and embellishments I was begining to think that buying a card would be a favourable option.  However, last night I remembered watching the birthday boy playing on his DS and inspiration struck. I came up with this:

I was originally going to use the Mario picture as a flat embellishment but then I looked at it and thought it would work layered up in decoupage style.  (That idea also had the added bonus that I did not have to try and match suitable papers and embellishments to match the picture.)

Ingredients: Mario image from here; assorted coloured card from stash;  Cuttlebug (number), Sizzix (star) and Quickutz (alphabet dies); lots of foam pads!

Sorry for the poor photos, I had to take them under a daylight lamp.

Cheers,

Ruthie x

3rd Week of DCM Dares!

I think this must be some kind of record for me, completing DCM dares 3 weeks in a row.

This week is was Jo's turn to Dare:

Using Kraft cardstock :) Either as a card base or somewhere on the card - if you don't have any you could use some card board such as corrugated or even a brown kraft envelope...


Well, this dare was right up my street as I have been using a lot of kraft card and paper on my cards recently.  So much so I came up with two cards:

First up is another addition to my Christmas pile:

Ingredients:

Brown kraft (parcel) paper; Basic Grey Fruitcake and Wassail papers; coffee cup liner cut with a Nestabilities die; burgundy twill ribbon from local habadashery; tree cut from felt using a Sizzix die; string and brads from stash; calendar designed in Photoshop; Fiskars scalloped lace punch; inking and stitching.

The second card is one of the always difficult 'Man' cards:

Ingredients:
Kraft card base; patterned paper downloaded from SummerTime Designs (fathers and fedoras kit), coffee cup liner; lettering cut from my old jeans using Cuttlebug alphabet and Sizzix Star dies; screw head brad from stash; stramped greeting and inking and pen stitching.
 
Thanks for looking,
 
Ruthie x

A Quick Card from Yesterday

I haven't bought a card/craft mag in ages as I was finding them all a bit samey and  I was getting more inspiration from designer's/contributers own blogs.  However last month I stumbled across 'Cards' in WHSmiths.  I have to say it's not cheap (nearly £6!!) but it's more of a design resource rather than your usual card mag as it's just full of  beautifully photographed  3/4 page pictures of cards and minimal descriptions.  I promised myself last month I would not buy it every month but somehow I seem to have this month's edition too!  I think it's a newish UK version of a US mag.

As the weather was rubbish yesterday I spent some time flicking through the afforementioned magazine.  I was inspired in particular by a couple of cards and as a result I came up with this birthday card:

(Sorry for the poor pic - it was very dark here yesterday)

Ingredients: Paper - My Mind's Eye (Bloom and Grow) and lined paper from a notebook; buttons from Paper and String;  eyelets - Making Memories; string from a local hardware shop, die cuts - Nestabilities labels, Sizzix butterfly and Quickutz metro alphabet; inking and pen stitching to finish!

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

Getting Punched at DCM!

This week Keryn set the dare over on DCM:

I love punches and use them on almost every card I make. This week I want you to join with me and make a card, any type, any theme but it needs to use your latest craft punch purchase. If you haven't bought any punches for a while or don't own any at all your latest craft purchase will be quite acceptable.

Well I don't really buy many punches, I tend to opt for basic shape dies as I like to cut heavier card and mount board.  I did however recently buy the Fiskars Scalloped Lace/Threading Water punch and I seem to be using it on every card I make! 

For dare I used the Scalloped Lace punch (obviously) but also added my most recent die purchases (Sizzix Snowflake and Nestabilities Labels):

Other ingredients: Paper - Basic Grey Wassail (another recent purchase), twill ribbon from Abakan fabrics,  Calendar designed in photoshop, snowflake and mini brads from stash, coffee cup liner, brown parcel/kraft paper, inking and pen stitching (of course!)

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street (for Hallowe'en)

As a child of the 70s I thought I would imoratilise one of my favourite children's TV characters in a Hallowe'en pumpkin.  

Zombie Pumpkins did the honours pattern wise and on Wednesday night I set to work with an ice cream scoop and scalpel to create my Count Von Count 2009 pumpkin:

and here's one in the dark for the full effect:

For those of you who are little younger than me here's the man himself in action :-)

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

DCM Dare - Favourite Things

This weekend I managed to catch up with the goings on at Daring Card Makers and I even joined in with the dare set by Kathy:

"These are a Few of My Favourite Things"

This is a chance to go mad with the papers, embellishments, tools and styles you really love to use.

I'd like you to use at least 5 of your own personal favourite things on your card this week - if you can make it 10 then you can claim our DCM Gold Star - virtual, of course lol.

If you can't bear to give it away when it's full of all those treasured goodies, then make the card for yourself - you can always stick it up on your wall and enjoy seeing it every day!

So I took my five favourite ingredients:  felt;  my cuttlebug machine (to cut nestabilities and quickutz dies);  buttons; coffee cup liner and  a bit of pen stitching and came up with this:

Other credits: paper - My Mind's Eye, stamp - papermania, pom pom trim - Making Memories.

Cheers

Ruthie x

An Autumn Walk

I have been neglecting my camera a bit recently so I decided I needed to get out today and get a few photos. Here's a sample of them:

I had a little play in photoshop to a fake lomo effect on this one:

It makes me realise how lucky I am to have such beautiful countryside right on my doorstep.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x