little moments ...big memories

 

Wooohoooo!! I am very pleased and excited to tell you that the very sweet Faye has asked me to join her design team at Cupcake Craft Challenges, so here I am, stood here in my best clothes and newly polished shoes, as a shiny new cupcake. LOL!

So for my first challenge as a fully fledged cupcake, the theme this week is teenage boys and we are sponsored this week by Lili of the Valley who are offering a £10 gift voucher to the lucky winner, so it's worth joining in, isn't it?

It's been ages since I made an Edwin card, but these papers called for it.

 

Papers: Bo Bunny ~ Et Cetera. Just love these papers.

The image is Magnolia ~ Tennis Edwin, coloured with copics and not an ounce of glitter in sight!

I am going to enter this in at the following challenges:

• boy oh boy - Stamptacular Sunday
• clean and simple - Quirky crafts

Thank you for looking.

keeley

birthday boy

 

WOW! Can't believe that another week has rolled by. Today at Crafts 4 Eternity we have a 3-2-1 challenge.

I have used 3 stamps (cowboy, boy, birthday), 2 designer papers and 1 die cut (for the tab).

Here is my card.

 

Papers: My Mind's Eye: Natural and Lost & Found papers.

Image: Tim Holtz - Cowboy.

Short & sweet from me again today.

I am going to pop this in at the following challenges:

• free & easy July - Allsorts Challenge
• wild West - Cards For Men
• no flowers allowed - Creative Inspirations 
• anything goes - Simon Says
• boyz to men - Crafty Creations 
• a card with bling - Stampin B's Design Team

Thank you for looking.

keeley

 

man's 50th birthday

Hello all! I hope that everyone is ok. It's been quite a while since I last blogged. I went away on holiday to the very lovely Spain for a few weeks. Took the rain with me and then brought it back home again it seems! 

We stayed here for a few days at the start of the holiday, with a friend who lives there.

6km from the nearest town, surrounded by olive and almond groves. Some just planted!

So peaceful and quiet. Bliss!! And the sun shone the whole time we were here!

After our stay here, we headed south to civilisation (and rain). Fortunately, I had my ipad with me so was able to have a quick surf of the net whilst topping up my non-existant tan! LOL! 

So, on to my card. I wasn't going to blog this, as I don't think it is as exciting as I wanted it to be! But as I've been quiet for a while and my mojo is scrabbling around for some inspiration, I thought I'd show this, as an example of how NOT to do a man card! LOL!

I've used papers from the Tim Holtz ~ Vintage Shabby pad.

The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment was stamped from individual letter stamps by Paperartsy, which I embossed.

The metal '50' numerals are Tim's of course. I enjoyed hammering those brads into place :-)

The birdcage stamp and die is also by Paperartsy. I embossed the image and added some of Tim's ball chain.

I just love birdcages and when we were on holiday we kept passing this shop which had a really old vintage brass birdcage in the window and I stopped and drooled down the window looking at it every day. I wanted it! It had no price tag on it though and I didn't dare ask! 

Then one day, we were in my favourite jewellery shop and I saw my OH buy a little charm. He said it was a Christmas present, but then on the last day of  our holiday he gave it to me! Woohoo!

It's a birdcage charm for my Thomas Sabo charm bracelet. The bottom opens up to reveal a little bird. So cute!

Whilst I'm here, I will enter the following competitions with my card:

'numbers': Simon Says Stamp & Show and Creative Belli.
'something to celebrate': Stamp Something.
'neutrals plus one colour': Gingersnap Creations.


Thank you for looking!


keeley

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

happy father's day

It's time for another challenge over at Crafts 4 Eternity, where we have:

The Sketch

Plus: use a sport image/theme and add an arrow.

I am also entering this into the following challenges:

• 'dad's treat': Double Dutch.
• 'one for the boys': Cupcake Craft Challenge and Creative Inspirations.

Whenever I make a man's card I always want to distress it, but none of the men I make cards for like distressing!! They like nice smooth lines. I can never quite get me head round this! So that fact, together with the fact that it was a sport theme and I was under a bit of pressure last night to make a father's day card to send off today, managed to kill my mojo stone dead. So what follows is a very rushed card which to me I don't like for three reasons.

The three things I don't like are the UK flag paper, the white border strip and the fact that my little sticker letters didn't have a single apostrophe in the set and I am finding that the most hardest to live with! LOL!

The Lili of the Valley image is cute though.

And it was quick to make.

And I used up some of my scraps.

Thank you for looking.

keeley

I tip my hat to you

This is the card that I made for my Dad for his birthday.

The sketch: The Sweet Stop.

Other challenges:

'male card': Cute Card Thursday, Stampin' for the Weekend.

'birthday': Stamp Something.

'use a hole punch': Creative Belli.

Papers: My Mind's Eye ~ Natural and old range which I've had forever!

The holes were made with a Fiskars border punch.

A bit of ric rac ribbon, some machine stitching, Prima flowers and that's it! Although of course it took ages to do!

I can't seem to make the photo larger and I've given up trying! Too tired.

Image: Kraftin' Kimmie ~ Chester, coloured with copics.

Thank you for looking.

keeley

about a boy

Another lovely rainy bank holiday weekend!

The sketch: The Sweet Stop.

Other challenges:

'favourite book': Stampin' for the Weekend. I love ALL books. This is 'About a boy' by Nick Hornby.

'summer': Sweet Stampin'.

'card for a child': Oh, Alice!.

Papers & ribbon: Fancy Pants ~ Rough & Tough collection.

Image: Kars ~ Ollyfant coloured with copics.

My other half is offering to take me out for lunch, so I'd best go and glam myself up a bit!

Thank you for looking.

Keeley.

for the two of us

                 

This is the card that I have made for my Valentine and there is no shortage of challenges that I can enter this one into, so here goes:

'Valentine': Double Dutch Challenge, The Pink Elephant, Creative Card Crew, Everybody Art Challenge, Created By Hand Challenge and Dutch Dare.

'Romance': Mixed Media Monday, Gingersnap Creations.

'Love': Simon Says Stamp Challenge, By The Cute & Girly.

'Include one or more flowers': Theme Thursday.

'Hearts & Flowers': Polka Doodles.

'Have a heart': Daring Card Makers.

'Multifold': Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge (in the ribbons).

'Love is in the air': Lots To Do.

This is one of the quickest cards that I ever made I think! It just fell out of my head and onto the paper.

Because of the black paper this card was quite difficult to photograph, so I will include some close ups here. Now I am wondering whether it is too girly.

Papers: Graphic 45 ~ Le Romantique: Sweetheart of Mine and Daydreams.

There is lots of gold embossing going on and it is quite sparkly, you might want to click on the photos for a closer look.

The crumpled up ribbon came out of my scrap box looking like that, so I left it. Added some old buttons which I partly embossed with gold and then added some stickles.

The flower has been spritzed with glimmer mist.

                                

The word 'Love' is a Prima stamp which I embossed with gold and the music is a Tim Holtz stamp also embossed with gold.

I hope he likes it!

Thank you for looking.

Keeley

having a {me} day ~ well I'm not I'm actually being taken out to lunch by my Valentine, so we're having an {us} day :-)

cool skateboarder

My entry today was fun and simple to make and is for just two challenges.

I used the sketch at Anyone For Anya? and spun it on it's side.

I am also entering this into the Papertake Weekly Challenge which is 'spots and stripes'.

All papers used, as well as the ribbon, are from the Cosmo Cricket ~ Get Happy range. I used a combination of the 12 x 12 and 8 x 8 papers.

The image is Skater Ian from The Greeting Farm. I coloured him with my copics.

Thank you for looking.

Keeley

having a {me} day

dinosaur boy

My entry today is for TWO challenges.

I used this week's sketch at Sketch Saturday.

I am also entering this into the challenge at No Time to Stamp where the challenge is to use polka dots on your project.

All of the papers that I used are from the Basic Grey ~ Archaic collection and I used a mixture of the 12 x 12 sheets and the 6 x 6 pad.

Here is what I came up with (click on photo):

The dinosaur is a sticker from the same paper range and I stuck it to grunge paper before cutting out.

My image is Manga Boy by Sugar Nellie and I coloured him with my copics.

I've added brown suede ribbon and a We R Memory Keepers brad.

Thank you for looking.

kat - keeley

having a {me} day.

boys will be boys ...

Yet another man card to do, this time a birthday card for my other half. I am entering this into FIVE challenges:

I used this week's fabulous sketch at Just Magnolia although I had to change the oval to a rectangle, as I couldn't cut an oval to the size I wanted.

I am also entering this card into this week's recipe challenge at Use It! where the recipe is: add texture (plenty of that), use at least two punches (I used three), use paper from your favourite manufacturer (I used BG). Unfortunately I had to draw the line at the bonus challenge of adding some pearls - it is a man card after all!!

At Creative Card Crew the challenge is to use ribbons.

Raspberry Ribbons has a challenge of 'circles & ribbon'.

Finally, Belli Challenge has a challenge of 'texture'.

Here is my card:

All patterned papers are from the Basic Grey ~ Marrakech 6x6 pad. I used a grey Bazzill card for making the card and backing the BG papers.

I used a Fiskars corner punch for creating and embossing the decorative corners.

The 'boys will be boys' ribbon is by Around the Block.

For the layered circle in the top right hand of the card I used pre-cut grunge board circles in two sizes. I used a circle punch to cut the BG card for the smaller circle and stuck it to the grunge board. I used the grey bazzill for the larger circle and I cut that with my Cricut then glued it on. Distressing was a definite 'no-no' for this card, :-( so I contented myself with sanding the edges of the circles before layering them together. Sanding is a bloke thing after all.

The image I used is Magnolia's ~ Jungle Edwin. I had real problems with this stamp, trying to get a decent image and one of his eyes has a splodge on it. This is the way my stamp has been cut, so I must have a dud. Never mind, he's cute enough and I coloured him with my copics.

The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is by Making Memories.

For the bottom right hand corner, I made some branches using my Martha Stewart branch punch and sewed on some buttons. This is supposed to resemble rocks/boulders and clumps of greenery!

The buttons and brad are also from the BG Marrakech collection.

I hope he likes it!

Thank you for looking.

kat - keeley

having a {me} day

happy father's day

This is the second of the two Father's Day cards that I needed and I am entering it into FOUR challenges.

I used this fabulous sketch over at Sketch Saturday.

Stamp with Fun has a theme of 'dots' - there are lots of dots in my patterned papers.

At Stamp with Stampavie the theme is 'numbers'. You will see numbers in the patterned papers below Edwin's feet.

Finally, Created By Hand Challenge has a 'your choice' of theme.

Here is the card I created:

All plain carstock is Bazzill Bling. Patterned papers are from the Pink Paislee ~ Fetching collection - I just love the colours they use in this line.

I made a little bench for Edwin to sit on by cutting a piece of scallop edged cardstock and sticking it to a scrap of chipboard and cutting it to shape. Just tidy up the curves with a piece of sandpaper.

The backing papers for Edwin have also been mounted onto chipboard to give some definition.

The image is Magnolia's ~ Lucky Edwin from the Fortune Collection. I coloured him with my copics and raised him up on foam pads so that he can sit comfy on his bench.

I made the corners using my photo corner punch and layered them up again with chipboard.

Don't forget to pop by on Friday when I will be posting my entry for the Sugar Nellie - Duda Daze blog hop. By following the hop you will see lots of creations made using the new range of stamps by Diane Duda created for Sugar Nellie.
More details on Friday! See you there!

Thank you for looking.

kat - keeley

having a {me} day