International Art and Soul - Flowers

Come and join us at International Art and Soul and join in with our theme of 'Flowers'. 

My card is an 8x8 by Craft UK and I've used my new stencil on it. I bought the Folkart stencil at Hobbycraft a few weeks ago and this is the first opportunity I've had to use it. I stencilled the base pattern in Distress Inks in varying shades of green and then matted it on to Papermill red card. The elephants were done in Barn Door coloured Distress Ink on a separate piece of white card before being matted on to red card. I set it at an angle across the base mat. The same red card was used for the curved dies which I think were by Sue Wilson. I set one at the top of the elephants and the other at the bottom left so that I could add the flowers and swirly leaves to the right hand corner. The flowers were made for me a good few years ago by a blogging friend, Nataliya Simpson. The green swirly leaves were made with Spellbinder dies.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes

Crafty Animals - Anything Goes with animals

Petal Lu - Anything Goes with Red

Crafting by Designs - Animals

Stampotique Designers - Stencil It

Thank you all for visiting and leaving me comments, they are all much appreciated.

International Art and Soul - For Men

This challenge is all about the men so join us at International Art and Soul and show us what you can come up with for our theme of 'For Men'.

I'm showing an altered Craftbox that I receive full of craft items on a regular basis. I emptied the craft items into my usual storage spots and started on decorating the box for my friend who lives a couple of doors away.

The box is really sturdy and has a magnetic fastener so I thought, when he emptied it of his birthday goodies, he could use it for bits and pieces of his hobbies. I used Craftbox papers as the base. They are of old seed packets and I tore the edges and then used Distress Inks on them. I then started to add items that I knew would have some meaning to him - the little Snipart garden gate and watering can, the wooden flowers, bird and sun from Create and Craft - he's a very keen gardener. I added a little Hobbycraft wooden frame and then centred in it a little guitar charm. He's also a keen guitarist. Cogs made me think of cars - not sure whether they are relevant to cars - but he likes driving so I reckoned they would tie in. A gnarled branch from Craftbox was placed almost mid centre and then I added Hobbycraft wooden letters making up his name. I'd used bronze acrylic paint on the letters and then added a little arrow pointing to the name. Final additions were a brown gem and brown checked button, both from Mei Flower. He now has the box which had inside a half bottle of whisky, snazzy jar of chutney, sweets, etc. and he loved it.

I'm entering my box into the following challenges:
A Inky Mess - Anything Goes Mixed Media
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes Mixed Media
Connie Can Crop - It's a Guy Thing
Cards Galore Encore - Anything Goes
Craft Rocket - For the Men/Boys
Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
Shopping our Stash - Dude
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

MAWTT Embossing wet/dry

The challenge this time is Embossing - wet or dry. The theme was set by Sue B over at Moving Along with the Times. Do come and join us and see the super cards made by Team B.

I decided to use both wet and dry for my card. It's a 7x7 card blank by Craft UK. The paws embossing folder came into use for only the second time - I've had it for ages! I embossed right and left sides of the card blank, leaving the middle blank. The embossing folder is a long narrow one and I cannot for the life of me remember who made it. I stamped a Tim Holtz crazy dog and after colouring with my Promarkers I cut him out leaving a narrow white border round him. I set him in the bottom corner and then stamped his feeding bowl and bone in the blank space next to him, both coloured with my Promarkers. The sentiment is by Visible Image and I stamped and embossed with Sparkle N Sprinkle embossing powder in Blueberry. After heat embossing it I cut with a Spellbinder wonky square die and then cut the larger size in metallic blue card as the mat. I set this to the top of the blank panel and that's my card finished.

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
Lemon Shortbread - Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Crafting From the Heart - Anything Goes
Simon Says Monday - Masculine
Addicted to Stamps - Animals

Thanks for visiting, call again soon.