gents ... banner

If you read my title and immediately thought ... loos ... you wouldn't be wrong!

We are organising a party and have decided that we would allocate separate toilets for men and women. No arguments then about the toilet seat being up or down. OMG!! I should warn you now that this blog post is all about toilets, so look away now if this offends you.

So our house is to be transformed into a Marks and Spencers layout. Everyone who has ever been to M&S knows that men cannot walk or even be conveyed on a conveyor belt upstairs. Sooooo, our downstairs loo will be dedicated to the men, whereas the poor women will have to climb the stairs. 

Now, I'm all for making it easy for the men and because I have nothing better to do (uggggg?????) I decided that I should make BANNERS for the loos, just so that no one strays into the wrong one.

 
My immediate thought was to create the men's loo banner first, purely because I knew exactly which paper I would use ... hello Graphic 45 ~ A Proper Gentleman.

Now, I had already informed the OH that I would be making a banner and he said 'ok'.

It later transpires that he has no concept about what a 'banner' actually is.

I used Haberdasher as my background paper and I've embellished it with bits and pieces from the Tags sheet.

The chipboard letters are by Basic Grey. I bought them in a sale yonks ago and never used as they were too big, but are perfect for this. I  first painted the letters with a black paint dabber and then painted them with Tim Holtz: Distress Crackle Paint ~ Antique Linen and hey ho, although the pot had been opened, it wasn't dried up!! Just had to grab a longer paintbrush to reach to the bottom of it.

I've used Tim Holtz sprocket wheels between each piece and other TH embellisments to decorate. I really had fun putting each section together.

OK, so as I finished putting each letter piece together I showed them to OH. BIG MISTAKE!! For the first one I showed him the letter G. 

He said: what is it? 

I said: it will spell out the word 'Gents'.

'ok' he said 'but men won't understand that'.

Ho hum.

So as I finished off each letter piece, I showed him. He said: 'But when a man wants to go to the loo, he wants to go to the loo! He isn't going to stand there looking at that!'

OK, I said, 'but what if there is a queue?'

I won't tell you the response.

Finally, I finished it all off and showed him the finished piece.

'Too busy', he said. 'There is too much going on. What man is going to stand there and work all that out, when all he wants to do is pee? No-one will even notice it'.

OK. He might have a point.

But I am going to have it there and I will let you know how many men, if any, comment on it.

All of the elements are raised up on foam pads and I have used differing heights of 1mm, 2mm and 3mm. This pic might show you better:

Now I need to make one for the ladies, and please don't tell me they won't notice!

I am entering this into the following challenges:

• 'Tim Holtz inspired': Simon Says Stamp & Show.
• 'round & metal': Creative Belli. I've used gold metal eyelets to link each tag which I've had for a good 20 years, long before I started papercrafting. Now that is using up old stash!!
• 'vintage men': Theme Thursday.
• 'sentiment main focus': One Stop Craft Challenge. My sentiment is GENTS.
• 'paint': Gingersnap Creations.

Thank you for looking.

keeley

flower for you

It's Friday again which means another fabulous challenge at Crafts 4 Eternity!

Once again, we have another fabulous sketch to work with and we are to use our favourite image and colours, so how difficult can that be?

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

• 'card for a girl': Stamp with fun;
• 'sparkle & shine': Creative Card Crew;
• '3 of 1 thing, 2 of another, 1 of something else': Papertake Weekly. I have 3 buttons, 2 ribbons and 1 flower;
• 'orange, pink, green, brown & blue': Magnolia Down Under;
• 'buttons &/or beads': Lots to Do;
• 'any Magnolia image or die': All That Scraps.

Here is my entry.

For the c4e challenge I had to use my favourite colours. When I craft I am drawn to ALL colours and therefore I don't think I have a particular favourite  as different colours provide different inspiration for me.  So with this in mind I decided to make something which is more a celebration of colour. As usual click on the pics to get a better view.

Papers: Prima ~ Watercolor Rainbow Collection: Whimsy and Tropical Lagoon.

I've used the Magnolia Lace border die which I love, but also the Vintage tag which is never far from my side and definitely my most used die. I don't think I will ever tire of it!

Image: For the c4e challenge I had to choose my favourite image. Well with so many new images being released each month, I barely get time to pause for breath to choose my favourite let alone use them!! It is very rare for me to get the chance to use the same image twice, the only time it tends to happen is if it is a wedding image. So I decided to choose my favourite range of images which is of course Magnolia and then chose one I hadn't used before: Tilda Brings A Flower.

I coloured her with copics and added some stickles.

Thank you for looking.

Keeley

our great escape

Hello ... another fabulous recipe over at Crafts 4 Eternity this week.

The sketch AND use a holiday theme.

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

'sea, water or boats': Tuesday Taggers.

'stitched': Wednesday Stamper.

'hobbies, entertainment, activity': Just Inspirational.

'a sentiment on your card': Just Magnolia.

'anything goes': Stampin For the Weekend.

Papers: Bo Bunny ~ Gypsy.

The chunky ric rac ribbon I had in my stash.

Image: Magnolia ~ Tilda on rope ladder coloured with copics.

Thank you for looking and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Keeley

hello world

Oops, a bit late with my posting today for the Crafts 4 Eternity challenge. I came home from work and promptly fell asleep on the sofa!

The recipe this week, is the sketch, which I flipped to do a mirror image. 

Use pastel colours.

Make a hello card, gift or layout. 

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

'diecuts': If the Shoe Fits.

'turquoise': Wednesday Stamper.

'cute & girly': Creative Card Crew.

'lace': Cupcake Craft Challenges.

I really fancied using some kraft paper this week, so I teamed that with papers from the Graphic 45 ~ Baby 2 Bride collection.

I decorated a Maya Road pocket with the papers, a Prima flower  a bit of inking on the edges and this Leanne Ellis image A Little Hug, which I coloured with copics.

I created a pull out tag using my Tim Holtz On the Edge ~ Bracket Die and added a little circle and eyelet to match the pocket.

The *hello world* is made from letter stickers, I just inked the edges.

Then I added some of that lacey flower trim from Webster's Pages.

Thank you for looking.

Keeley

happy haunting

As you may have guessed by the title ... I've come over all halloweeny for this week's challenge at Crafts 4 Eternity, which once again has a recipe consisting of:

The sketch.

Use the colours lemon and lime or the fruit.

Not too many halloweeny challenges around at the moment, but I did find one! So I am entering this into:

'Halloween': Theme Thursday.

'Open theme': Cute Card Thursday.

This is what I came up with.

Papers: Rusty Pickle ~ Thriller such a shame that this company is no more.

For the border, I picked out lots of halloween stamps that I had and just embossed different sections onto inchies that I had cut out with my Cricut. Some inchies I left blank, but I embossed the edges of all of them!

I just love this image by Elisabeth Belle. I bought her last year, but this is the first chance I've had to use her.

I coloured her with copics, one sunny afternoon out in the garden! (Don't see too much of that now even though it is August!).

I hope you have a lovely weekend everybody. It would be nice to see some sunshine :)

keeley

in the navy ... wedding

I was asked to make a wedding scrapbook in navy and ivory, easy enough I thought, until I went looking for navy paper that would be suitable for a wedding. After rummaging through my boxes of paper and searching endlessly on-line, I finally had an idea which resulted in this album.

For the base of the album I've used that gorgeously yummy white satin cardstock from the Bazzill ~ Wedding Collection. This one is imprinted with lots of tiny butterflies and I chose this as butterflies were part of the theme of the wedding.

For the navy circles I found ONE sheet of Little Yellow Bicycle paper, in my stash which was navy blue on one side ... hoorar! So I cut out lots of tiny circles with my Fiskars ~ Antique Elegance border punch and spritzed them with Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist, which is my current favourite mist!

The 'A' & 'K' are the couple's initials and I used American craft ~ Thickers for these. They have a nice glittery sparkly effect in real life.

The image, of course is Lily of the Valley ~ Wedding Couple which I think has to be my favourite wedding image at the moment. I coloured it with copics and added lots of stickles.

I've added Tim Holtz film strip and metal corner, which I rubbed with some paint. Added some sheer blue ribbon which I twisted and threaded through some lace.

I used one packet of Prima pearl and crystal swirls which I cut to pieces and dotted them around. I even had a few crystals left over, so they go a long way.

The 'Our Wedding' title is a Teresa Collins stamp and is actually a darker blue that it looks here, as the light got caught by the shimmery paper it was stamped onto.

11 June 11 is the date that the couple are getting married. I made this bit out of a PaperArtsy ~ Postmark Filmstrip die. I cut it once in blue and once in butterfly white and then just stuck them together. Oh, you can see that the blue has been glimmer misted.

The navy blue fabric flowers, which I just happened to have in my stash ... phew! ... are by Bo Bunny and yes, I glimmer misted these too and added a pearl brad to the centre of each.

Uhmm I think that's it!

Here's another view.

Before I forget, I want to enter this into the following challenges:

'Bring on the Bling': Sir Stampalot.

'Celebrations': Challenge Up Your Life.

'Wedding': Just Us Girls.

'Feature text': Cute Card Thursday.

Please click on any photo to see it better close up, it's quite difficult to take pics when it is so large, so I have to take lots of little ones.

Thank you for looking.

Keeley