Yikes. It's the FIRST of SEPTEMBER 2013 already.. Christmas is upon is boys and girls.

In better news though.. the first of the month means a brand new challenge over at My Mum's Craft Shop! This month it's ALL ABOUT THE BOYS!!

I always get comments on the male cards I post on my blog, asking me how I do them?! LOL!! I think a lot of people are intimidated by them, so through out this post I'll try and share a couple tips.

TIP ONE - always use bold, masculine papers. There are tonnes of paper packs out there now that make our job as paper crafters a hell of a lot easier when it comes to boy cards. I think male cards, as opposed to boy cards, are a little different. Choosing a more mature colour palette is important. This time round I went with brown and red, with blue and yellow to accent stuff. For this card I used some delicious My Minds Eye Collectable Remarkable collection! I matted some of this onto Papermania Kraft cardstock from Docrafts. I absolutely love that deep blue patterned paper!! I have added some die cut Postage Stamp borders to the top and bottom using what's becoming a staple in my crafting from My Favorite Things. 

I chose a motorbike and a background from MIC for my main event, and matted it onto some deep red cardstock (Cherry Cobbler from SU!). TIP TWO - keep the embellishments structured and angular. Avoid flowers! LOL! That's a given. Unless you know they love flowers. I have layered up a bunch of squares, rectangles, pinking circles and die cut letters to create some interest in two corners of the image layer. TIP THREE - buttons. Make use of that button stash. They're the perfect 3D embellishment to create a little extra interest on a masculine card. I also added a few Hobby House Rhinestones in Jubilee Red to match the main colour from my project and to finish up the two embellishment clusters. If you don't fancy buttons or rhinestones, STARS are also another winner!

So that's it from me for today! I do hope you spare some time to join in with us this month! There is plenty of inspiration over at the My Mum's Craft Shop BLOG to help you out!! xo

 A little bit late with this card! Better late than never, right?

I had a BLAST last week when me and my boyfriend were away in Scotland. It's taking a lot more energy than I thought, to get back into the swing of things. I need to give my head a serious shake!

So it's a free week over at My Mum's Craft Shop this week. I decided to create some Some Odd Girl goodness. I have missed these stamps a LOT!

I used the clear stamp sets:

Hey Kaylee

Foxy

Have no hesitation in contacting Kitty if you would like her to order any specific stamp sets in. She is very accommodating if you'd like something which isn't listed in the shop!

I have also used a bunch of papers from My Minds Eye Collectable Noteable. Gorgeous, bright and summery colours.

I'm gonna try and wrap this up here and let you have a gander at the card! :) 

As well as Some Odd Girl stamps, I used a sentiment stamp from My Favorite Things - Birthday Greetings to add a large greeting. I needed something large so it wouldn't get lost in all of the wildlife along the grass verge! ;)

Be sure to stop by the MMCS Blog and see what other gorgeous creations the girls have been posting this week. You don't wanna miss them. 

There are lots of new arrivals in the shop too. Including NEW STAMPING BELLA UPTOWN GIRLS and MARTHA STEWART SILICONE MOULDS. 

Tomorrow, it's JUNE! Half way through 2013 by the end of the month. Seeeerious.

Onwards.

Here's a little card I thought I'd share with you guys before the month is through.. I used some delicious Wild Orchid Craft Goodness, some papers from.. you guessed it.. My Minds Eye (can't get enough of their stuff lately..) and some alpha stamps from Lawn Fawn, some die cut numbers from my Slice and a gorgeous South African Elephant postage stamp I found on Google! :)

So down to why I'm really here..

Have you guys seen Kairens 'Blogging every day in June' shindig. It's all about crafting, and there will be two daily prompts to spur you into blogging each day for the month of June. What can possibly be bad about that?! 

NOTHING!! So join in. Head over to Kairen's blog Karoove to set yourself up with the full list. I cannot wait for this to commence.

See you all tomorrow for DAY ONE! xo

I literally have zero concept of time. Seriously. WHERE has this year GONE?! It's actually pretty scary.

Since I took time out to visit my sisters over the weekend, I am totally behind with everything, not to mention knackered. So last night I was up LATE tryna catch up, and I'm still not quite there.

Today is *hopefully* going to be a busy day on my blog if all goes well. There is a new challenge over at Passion for ProMarkers, day TWO of a new digi release over at Some Odd Girl and I'm a guest at Yumi and Fumi Handmade as they have a new release happening too. So let's roll.

This post is gonna be for my Passion for ProMarkers project, where we have a brand new challenge set by our very own Lisa. 

She want's to see all of those moons and stars! We're gonna be pretty linient with this one, it can be moons and/ or stars. We wanna see those entires piled in and this sorta criteria is perfect for an array of cards, from new beginnings, birthdays and even Christmas. So get your thinking caps on if you want a gold star of Miss Mac! ;) LOL!!

I went down the stars route and created a cute little Christmas card using an image that isn't traditionally for Christmas from The Greeting Farm. This was the first time I had coloured this girl up - I love that hair of hers!

Gonna keep this a quick and simple post as I have to head off for work. I'll fill you in on the details when I'm finished.

Head over to the Passion for ProMarkers blog now and see what the other ladies have come up with this week! xo

Here I am to show you another commissioned card I whipped up rather quickly for a friend. It's her Dad's 50th this weekend, and he loves Star Trek, so putting this card together was easy peasy..

Just as soon as I found a relevant Star Trek 'picture' as it were!! I decided to use the Star Trek colours, with the mustard yellow, red and turquoise-y blue. Here's me thinking I don't like Star Trek - I seem to know a bit about it though! LOL!!

So here's what I came up with. I found the b+w Star Trek image on Google, I've probably crossed all sorts of lines and committed a million violations by using it on my card, but I did try my best to find Copyright info so I could link.. there was none to be had.

 So I printed that off onto Neenah cardstock and distressed the edges using my TH tool. I then layed some vellum over the top to take away from the harsh black. I kinda like how it turned out. All of the base layers have been adhered at jaunty angles. The main area of the card has all been pieced together on top a PTI die cut which I have stamped with Real Red ink from SU! I used another PTI stamp for the 'Happy Birthday' and cut the '50' and 'DAD' using my MM Slice. :) The stars have been cut and punched from the same Lime Twist paper as the letters. To finish, I added a few red rhinestones in strategic places to keep my vellum in place. :) 

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges:

Dream Valley Challenge - For that Special Guy 

Simply Create Too - Father's Day or For a Male 

Charisma Cardz - Male Cards

While I'm here, just this one time. Thought I'd share a stoopid picture with you all!! Messing about with my new photo editing software seeing as Picasa and all of it's other components have been given the cold shoulder from me. Big style! Hope you likey.

Yoohoo there, Happy Tuesday!! Here to share my Passion for ProMarkers card this morning - thank you for stopping by. :) This is a pretty special card right here, in the sense that it's HUGE. Well, not huge to you seasoned card makers, but for a girl who sticks to 4.25x5.5" cards like.. religiously.. this was HARD. You know what? I had a blast making it, and once I got over the huge space I had to cover.. I couldn't stop. :)

Okay, nothing like making a mountain out of molehill now, is there? This is only 5.75x5.75", LOL!! Relax.

This week over at Passion for ProMarkers, Denise wants to see..

Lots of Layers

Very fun! :) Do you know the best thing about this type of challenge? It makes you step up your card, and that means.. using up scraps. For me anyway. :) All of those little bits you would probably just chuck away.. you find yourself picking up and experimenting with different shapes and positions on your card to try and make it look better.. and more layered. Yum.

 Oh, and our sponsor this week is DigiStamp Boutique who are offering up 6 digi images to the winner! ;)

Here's my take on this using the ever so cute Rosie with Cake from Lili of the Valley. I'm afraid I didn't write down the colours I used this time round - my head wasn't concentrating! Sorry. :( 

I've die cut the image using a Labels Eighteen and inked the edges using Victorian Velvet DI - I've then added doodles to my die cut and the edges of my card and patterned paper using a Regal Rose SU! marker. My most fave thing. Ever. I just think it ties everything together - and it's kinda OCD on my part. HA!

I've used some delicious papers from My Minds Eye Follow Your Heart - Be Happy collection. I could just buy up the WHOLE lot from My Minds Eye. Every collection they release just rocks my socks. Unfortunately my bank balance, nor my room would appriciate it! Anyway.. A pink, grey and subtle lemon colour is the combo here. I've created a gorgeous double bow with some pink twill stripe ribbon from The Ribbon Girl using my bow-easy and tied a little natural bakers twine around the knot to secure my little bear charm.

Arguably there are NINE layers on this card. See them all? I've used my little Slice to create the scalloped hearts and the '1' - using the scraps I was talking about earlier. See. :) Anyway, you guys can see everything that's going on, right? Click on the picture to make it larger. If you've got any questions just leave me a comment and I'll do my best to get back to ya! :)

I'd like to enter this card into these challenges:

- Robyn's Fetish - Add some Lace

- Let's Ink it Up - Your Favourite Embellishments
LOADS - Wild Orchid Craft flowers, twill stripe ribbon, Doodlebug brads, liquid pearls

- Pixie Dust Studios - Patterned Papers
- Paper Crafting Journey - Colour it Up
-Sassy Studio Designs - "Add a Splash"
I've used a bunch of Stickles and liquid pearls
- Really Reasonable Ribbon - Flowers and Ribbon
- Pretty Little Ribbon Shop - Lots of Layers

Head over to the Passion for ProMarkers Blog NOW and join in!! See how many layers the other awesome ladies have squeezed into their creations! 

May? Already? I know. Time is FLYING, and guess what? This is my last month as a LLLC designer! *boooo* So I'm planning on making the most of these adorable images. This week we've got some brand new inspiration for ya in, in the form of.. wires. 

ALL WIRED UP

Now, it may be a surprise to some of you.. but wire is probably the one thing I don't have in my stash. SO. I improvised. You can use any sort of metal, chain... wire.. LOL.. on your creation, so I've made what can only be called faux chain. :) Stroke of genius, if I do say so myself.. although it didn't quite turn out how I wanted. Grr.

This is Sitting Luka. Love this guy, don't ask what happened with his pants.. or his hat - musta been colouring in the dark. Or with my eyes shut. Or maybe I just need to practice more! Shame on me for thinking outside the box and tryna come up with some new colour combos! :/ 

Skin - Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Coral, Cinnamon
Greens - Grass, Emerald, Lush Green, Pink
Blues - Turquoise, Marine, Petrol Blue, Midnight Blue
Greys - Cool Grey 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Trousers - Mustard, Soft Khaki, Warm Grey 4

As usual I've coloured this guy with ProMarkers to match my patterned paper from My Minds Eye. I tried to create a little scene with my scraps. A wall with the chain hanging, the sky, the grass. You get the idea. I've added a sentiment from SU! and some vellum clouds cut with some PTI dies to break up that busy chevron.

Talking about DIES have you seen the BRAND NEW Exclusive Steel DIES!? If not, take a look - YOU'RE missing out if you haven't. 

Pop over to the LLLC Inspiration Blog and see what the other teamies have made for ya to drool over on this miserable, grey Friday morning.

Happy Friday!! :) I'm pre-scheduling (if that's even a word?) this post, so I'll keep it short and sweet. Getting up to anything exciting this weekend?! I have no plans as of yet.. but I fancy a walk somewhere. Get some colour in my cheeks. :)

Anywho, thought I'd share another commission with you guys today. I was hoping to have at least a post a day this year, keep you all entertained and wanting to return and stuff. Want to get my comments up this year. Show me some love, please!! Check me, begging!! LOL.

Request - purple and floral. I decided to make this a shaped card - a little more special and all that, although by using my nesties is doesn't leave a whole lot of 'card' space to play with. Never the less I manage to fit everything on, and it doesn't look too squidged together. Does it?!

The gorgeous swirly thingy, is a piece of MiC Chipboard. LOVE how delicate and intricate these pieces are! I found a whole bunch I'd forgotten about the other day. These, gears and dragonflies, oh and some Christmas ornaments and stuff!! Don't you love that?! :) Finding stuff you'd forgotten about, I mean.

I tried to colour it using some Milled Lavender DI, but the chipboard was totally drinking it. It has a slightly purple hue, but I think it still matches the card pretty well. I've pieced the sentiment together using some Jenni Bowlin alpha stickers, a PTI stamp and some letters I cut using my Slice. Love that little machine. :)

So much for keeping this short and sweet!! LOL!!

Hope you enjoy your weekend. Blink and you'll miss it mind! Isn't that always the case?! The week totally drags and then the weekend fly by in a flash. Mad. Who's up for a three day weekend?! I'll be back tomorrow with my Mams birthday card. It is her birthday after all. :)

Nothing wrong with tying in my commissions with DT work, right? Well, so the crafters I've asked have said. I still feel a little cheeky doing it, but that phrase "two birds with one stone" springs to mind!! :)

On with the show. Did you miss my Pollycraft post last week?! Don't worry, you weren't going crazy.. I actually just forgot to type up the post.. like ten times. 

Okay, so I'ma try and keep this short and sweet as it is LATE here right now and I wanna try and get this typed before my eyes shut permanently.

Over at Pollycraft this week.. we've got a little BINGO for ya!!

I've gone with ribbon, buttons and die cuts. :) Easy peasy.

Luna Bitterfrost - Vampires Rock. Cool, grungy gothic type card. Purple, red and black. :)

That's all I got for ya today. Take it easy.