Male Room Trees

     There is a new challenge over at The Male Room today. The theme is trees and leaves and it will run for the next two weeks.
     My tree is a Chocolate Baroque stamp from the Tall Trees set, stamped in Olive Green Archival ink and clear embossed on white card. I have then used various shades of green distress ink to colour my card, then spritzed and flicked water over the card to get the mottled effect. I have also spritzed another tree from the set with water and stamped with it, this lifts some of the ink off and leaves a ghost type effect.
     The image panel is mounted on a thin layer of gold paper and then a wider layer of dark green before being mounted on the card blank.  It was a white card blank before it was coloured with distress inks and water stamped with a tree stamp to give it a pattern. This means that the background colours will always match the image panel because the same inks have been used, no more hunting for the right shade of card which never seems to be there!
     I like to make my cards with no greeting, unless I have a specific occasion in mind, as it can always be added later and sometimes not at all, like this one.
     Our challenge will be running for two weeks at The Male Room so please come and join us with your tree or leaf creations. Remember it doesn't have to be a card, we also accept scrapbook pages, tags, gift boxes, anything related to our theme as long as it's for a man or boy.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Ladybug Crafts Ink - Make It Monochrome

Top Tip Tuesday - Monochrome  (tip in italics)

Cardz 4 Guyz - 1,2,3   (1 tree, 2 mat layers, 3 shades of green)

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge - One For The Guys Big or Small

Deer Cracker

     It's time for some mid month inspiration over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra. I like to make projects other than cards, especially for Christmas, so I have used a Bugaboo digi to make some card for a gift box.
     The Bugaboo stamp used is Snowflake Silhouette Reindeer in png form. I have created a backing paper on my word function by filling the page with the digi many times. The png file allows for a clear background which can be changed to a colour of your choice, for this I chose red and then printed on gloss photo paper.
     I have used a triangular cracker template that has been adapted from a king box, the ends are tied with some gold curling ribbon. It's a very simple box to make which will hold a small gift or some sweets.
     I hope you join us at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra with your seasonal creations, it's an anything goes as long as it's Christmas challenge.

Card In A Block

      This fortnight at The Male Room we are looking for a masculine project made with a moving part, it could be a card or a gift as long as it's for a man or boy.
      My son has a birthday this month and he's an avid Minecraft player, I must say out of all the games I've seen so far this one actually has me interested too. The whole world is cubed so when I saw a card in a box I thought of Minecarft.
     I have used a tutorial I found here, it's very easy to follow. With a few adjustments I made my green card cube ready to decorate. Then came the lucky find, a Minecraft annual in a charity shop, we have our own already but this lucky find was one I would be allowed to cut up without the threat of being banished to the Nether (Minecraft underworld).

      At this point I would like to point out that this card is for my son, not for profit but maybe a little gain. I have no intention of breaking any rules by making this, it's for him because he'll love it and I love him!!
     The green backing paper used on the cube under the flaps was made by colouring individual cells on a spreadsheet in various shades of green, once you have a few done you can copy them to fill up the page.
     You have two weeks to make something with a moving part for a man or boy, so please pop over to The Male Room and take a look at the DT inspiration.

I would like to enter this cube in the following challenges:

Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes

Through The Purple Haze - Anything Goes (For A Male)

UnstampaBelles Challenge - A Special Person

Left Of Centre Challenges - Masculine 

Bird On A Branch

     This month at House Of Cards we have a photo inspiration challenge, for the first two weeks of the month we would like to see a Shabby/Vintage or Cute/Fun style card and for the last two weeks CAS or Classic/Elegant style.
     Pink is not my usual colour choice so this pushed me slightly, but thanks to my collection of Distress Inks I was able to come up with this card. I have used Spun Sugar, Scattered Straw and Picked Raspberry on white card with blending foam, then spritzed with water and dabbed off.
     The bird on a branch stamp was a freebie with a magazine, sorry but I can't remember which one, stamped in Watering Can Archival Ink. There are little glittery pink dots on the flowers along the branch made with a Stardust Glitter pen.I have used a postcard stamp my Mum gave me and drawn a line down the middle with a fine pen.
     The edges are distressed with Iced Spruce, so are the blotches using a Crafters Workshop Stencil. The script writing is stamped in Archival using a clear stamp that has been parted from it's packaging, so again I don't know where it came from but it's very useful.
      I have coloured the edges of a 5x7 white card with Spun Sugar and then layered it with some grey patterned paper, set the postcard at an angle on foam pads and added some pink pearls. The pearls weren't the right shade so I coloured them with an alcohol marker to try and match the raspberry ink.
     With four card styles to choose from it would be nice to see you at House Of Cards this month, pop over and see all the lovely DT inspiration to get you started.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafty hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Anything goes

Addicted to Stamps - Things With Wings
Sunflowerfield - Vintage/Shabby  Chic/Rustic

Sweet and Sour Dragon

      As you can probably tell I'm having great fun altering jars. This one began life as a Sharwoods Sweet and Sour Sauce jar, so it seems fitting that it should be decorated with oriental motifs as suggested by Tracy.
     I don't have many dies that seemed right for this so I have used peel offs. The image isn't as prominent as a die cut as peel offs are quite thin, but it does still work. So if you have any peel offs sitting around feeling a little unloved then this could be another way of using them, it also means that you don't have to have a die cutting machine.
     I put the peel offs on the clean jar and then covered them with my trusty aluminium tape, I have done lots of similar projects with this tape and I love it. I bought my tape locally, it's used for temporary exhaust pipe repairs, sealing heating duct joints and car panel repairs.....oh, and crafting!!
     As before I have used some cereal packet card to cover the thread on the rim before adding the tape in small random patches.

     Once the whole jar was covered I used black acrylic paint to cover the jar, left it for a few minutes and then rubbed some off to give me that worn look.
     The beauty of using a glass jar is it can still be used for flowers, paint brushes, etc. and the water will not damage the tape. This jar will look just right with some origami flowers in it.

I would like to enter this jar in the following challenges:

As You Like It - Favourite recycled item and why.

Crafty Creations - Anything But A Card

Allsorts Challenge - Oriental

For You, Cupcake

      This months contribution to Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra is a small carton that will hold a Christmas cupcake.
    I wanted to use the digi stamp Christmas Cupcake Mistletoe from Bugaboo to make more than a card. I decided to play around with the digi on my computer and make myself a backing paper. I'm sure there is a much easier and faster way than the one I used but it kept me occupied for the best part of an hour, in which time I learnt quite a bit about my new program, so not such a bad thing after all.
    I used a PNG file so my background was transparent, this gave me the chance to change the background colour to pale green leaving the image white. I then copied and pasted all over my A4 page until it was full up.
     Then I printed two sheets to make a milk carton using the Sweet Treats board from Crafters Companion. I used the larger carton template but shortened it by about 2 1/2 inches, this way it has the width without the excessive height, plenty of room for a cupcake. I did think about cutting a window in one side but had no cupcake to photograph inside so opted for a picture panel instead.

     The picture panels on front and back are printed on white card and coloured with alcohol markers. The berries were then coloured over with a red Stardust gel pen and the icing was filled in with a Glistening Snow Writer from DecoArt, this dries clear with a great sparkle to it as well as giving dimension.
     The pictures are cut out with a Spellbinder die and then layered on a matching mat that was drawn using the outside of the die as a guide, this was because the next die up looked too big, then hand cut. It was white card but I used the same red marker as the berries so that it was a perfect match to colour the edge that would be seen.
     The tag is a small cupcake image printed on a larger piece of card then die cut with a tag shape. The edges have been coloured with the same red pen as the berries and then attached to the top of the carton with gold curling ribbon.
     Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra is open all month with Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas, so please pop over and link up your Christmas creations.

I would like to enter this carton in the following challenges:

Digi Galore - Anything But A Card

Completely Christmas - Anything Goes

Christmas Card Challenges - Anything Goes

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Food or Drink

52 Christmas Card Challenge - Stash-Glitter

Jingle Belles - All Bundled Up-Three Layers