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

Another Christmas Card

I made this card during the week but now it's getting dark early there hasn't been enough light to get a decent photo until today.

Ingredients: brown craft paper from stash, patterned paper - Basic Grey Wassail, mini clipboard made from scrap card and a Paperchase mini bulldog clip, mini calendar designed in Photoshop, Sizzix stocking die, recycled coffee cup liner punched with Fiskars scalloped lace punch, brads and ribbon from stash, inking and pen stitching.

Thanks for looking,

Ruthie x

A Week of Cards

I spent last Saturday tidying my craft room and it's obviously had the desired effect as I have managed to make a few cards this week:

A Get Well Card:

Ingredients: Paper -Daisy D's (I think!); chipboard frame cut from scrap mountboard using nestabilities dies; lace from local market;  fabric flowers - WH Smiths; flower with pearl centre from local market; satin ribbon - The Range; Pearl brads - Papermania; greeting designed in PhotoShop;  pen stitching.

A couple of Christmas cards (yes I am scared that a I made Chritsmas cards in October):

Ingredients: Paper - Basic Grey and K& Co; Fiskars scalloped lace punch; chipboard frame cut from mountboard using Nestabilities dies and painted with white acrylic paint; chipboard snowflake cut from mountboard using a Sizziz die and triple embossed with holographic powder; flower with pearl spray from local market; ribbon - hobbycraft; pin from local market; sentiment designed in Photoshop; pen stitching.

Ingredients: Paper - Basic Grey; chipboard trees cut from scrap cardboard using a Cuttlebug die: ribbons and button from stash; Fiskars scalloped lace punch; inking and pen stitching.

An autumnal birthday card:

Ingredients: Paper - My Mind's Eye; Flowers and button from stash; Stamp - Papermania; assorted die cut shapes (Cuttlebug, Nestabilities and Sizzix); Brads - Dovecraft; Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder; Fiskars scalloped lace punch; inking and pen stitching.

And last but not least, Mr Crafty Blogger celebrated a big birthday this week:

Ingredients: Paper - American Crafts, Chipboard letters cut from mountboard using Cuttlebug dies; Brads - Dovecraft; Alphabet - Quickutz Metro; Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder; inking and pen stitching.

Thanks for looking,

Cheers,

Ruthie x

Summer Crafting

I haven't really done much crafting over the summer but here's a quick round-up of a few bits I did:

Eighth wedding anniversary card from Mr Crafty blogger:

Vegas/Casino themed 21st card:

Birthday card for my Dad:

Bridesmaid's hairclip and matching necklace:

 

Cheers,

Ruthie x

Tomorrow never happened - so here's a summer catch-up!

Well, on my last post, which I think I wrote sometime in the Ice Age I promised to come back with photos from my holiday to San Francisco which was way back in May/June!

In place of the post which never happened here are the pics, along with a few more which comprise my summer catch-up

Warning, lots of photos, not of crafting. Navigate away now if you want craft pics - perhaps to HERE my new favourite card blog.

First up, a few from San Francisco.

We had a fantastic time which included, biking across here and around the Marin Headlands:

When we had enough of cycling we caught the ferry back (along with quite a few other cyclists):

Of course you can't go to San Franciso without visiting 'The Rock':

and having your photo taken in a cell:

(here I am modelling my Bagladee custom camera strap)

We also saw the sealions at Pier 39:

and stopped and shopped here (Union Square):

Spent a lot of time riding around town on these:

and spent a day exploring the Yosemite National Park:

We did tons of other stuff too, but that was the edited highlights.

Now onto June and the 2009 Blackpool Mini Run:

Over 200 cars made the journey from Liverpool, Penrith,and Skipton via Preston to Blackpool's South Pier raising money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer:

Here's a couple of my car  parked up (I am second from the right on the 1st pic):

We left Preston in lovely sunshine, but by the time we returned later in the day we we confronted by this:

In July, Mr Crafty Blogger and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary at the Midland Hotel in Morecambe (subject of many a previous blog posts).  As I've always wanted to stop at the Midland I splashed out on one of the roof-top suites and wasn't disapointed:

View from the front of the balcony:

View from inside the room, looking out over Morecambe Bay:

The biggest bathroom I have ever seen:

and finally, we even got a rainbow:

At the end of August we went down to Cornwall for a week and camped in a Yurt:

We did some walking and cycling which quite often involved battling with the elements.  Fortunately the stove came in very handy for drying trainers:

We did get some sunshine and it managed to stay (mostly) fine when we visited one of my favourite places, The Lost Gardens of Helligan:

Well I am exhausted now, it has taken ages to get this post done due to mainly wrestling with blogger and uploading pics.  (I still don't know why some of them are not centred!)

Thanks for looking.  I hope you didn't fall asleep!

Ruthie x