The Male Room Surprise

     The new challenge at The Male Room is to use something unexpected on your masculine project.

     I chose to use a bottle top, once put through the die cut machine it comes out flatter and with a rather nice almost cog like edge to it.
     This one is going to be used to frame my sentiment, printed and die cut the card was stuck to what would have been the inside of the bottle top. Then I stuck a glass cabochon over the top, which gives a great magnifying effect.

     The card used is a very dark blue, it is stamped and embossed in clear, now this was a mistake as I had planned on using white embossing powder but picked up the wrong pot. I decided I liked the effect as it was more subtle, I then used a white pen to add some more dots just to lift it a little.
     The blue card was mounted on a white card blank before I stuck the bottle top on. This is not really a postal card as the glass makes it a bit thick, next time I will use some glossy accents to keep it thinner but still get that shine over the sentiment.
     Please come and join us at The Male Room with your masculine creations, don't forget to add something unexpected, there's lots of inspiration over on the challenge blog to help get you started.

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

Crafty Sentiments - Add A Sentiment   (W)
Use Your Stuff - Birthday   (W)
Pile It On - Vintage/Retro   (M)

Birthday Fishes In The Male Room

     Fish or fishing is the new theme at The Male Room this fortnight, any masculine project following this theme is eligible for our new challenge.

     As luck would have it I found these stamps in a charity shop, just what I was looking for, not only were there stamps but a couple of dies too.
     Using Stazon I stamped the jar and fish on acetate, then coloured the reverse with marker pens.
    To stick the acetate on the card without any glue showing meant I added double sided sticky sheet before die cutting them, all over sticky doesn't show as much as a small blob would.
     I wanted the fish to look at each other so one has the colouring underneath and one on top.

     I stuck the jars on to a white card blank and then spritzed it with blue iridescent ink spray, making sure to carefully wipe the excess off the acetate.
     The greeting was generated on the computer and die cut, I coloured the inside area with the same marker used to colour the water in the jars, then mounted it on foam pads on the card.
     It all looked a bit bare so I found a fine tip marker and drew the wavy lines around the edges, it made all the difference.
     We have some new DT members at The Male Room so please pop over and see all their fishy inspiration, then come and join us with your project.

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

Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes   (W)

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes   (W)

Ice Cream Invitation To The House Of Cards

     We have a summer theme this month at the House Of Cards, we would like to see a card featuring ice lollies or ice creams, but if you'd rather you can just use the colour swatch to create any summer food card.

      This project is an invitation with a difference, I found the idea on Pinterest.
     It started with a large die cut circle of thin kraft type card, something that looks a bit like an ice cream cone. To make it more realistic I embossed it with a weave type pattern.
     The circle is folded in eight segments with a string added across one quarter. this will form the tie seal for the invite.
     There are four die cut circles needed for the ice cream to go into the cones. Each one was glued in place before gluing the cones shut.

     Once everything is glued together there are four cones formed to create a small book type card.
     To add the wording to the cones I chose a die that looked like a label, the printing was done using my word processor, then die cut and inked before being added to each cone.
     It's a novel way of making an invitation, great for a small summer gathering. The size of your circle at the beginning will determine the finished cone size, if you don't have a large die then think about using a plate to draw around.

 
      Please come and join us at the House Of Cards with your summer food creations, we don't have many rules, just stick to the theme or colours and the rest is up to you.

Ice lolly/Food image and /or Colours

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

Send a Smile 4 Kids - Anything Goes   (F)
Cardz 4 Galz - Summer Sunny Days   (F)

Make My Monday - Ice Cream   (F)   (top 3)

Magazine Straw Dragonfly

     I went to a country fair last year and saw some huge willow dragonflies, it set the cogs in motion and after playing about with some magazine straws this is what I came up with. Sadly he's not waterproof like the willow ones but for Altered Eclectics new challenge I think he fits the bill.

     It took less than 50 straws of approximately 12 inches in length to make the body, leaving the spare lengths sticking out as the tail made finishing off much easier too.
     I gave it a light spray with some white primer to knock the colours back a little, I did try adding some sparkle but the paint dried very quickly in this heat so it's what yo would call 'very subtle'. If I make another I might but some of the glitter spray to finish it off.

     For the wings I tried several different ideas, but the best one came to me late one night last week. A crafting friend told me ages ago about using a laminating pouch, flakes and glitters, so I tried it.
     In the pouch I put gilding flakes, mica fragments, glitter and mica powders, pretty much anything flat and sparkly I could find.
     It all went through the machine without any fuss and came out looking gorgeous, thankfully.
     To make sure the wings were going to look right I used paper to make a pattern, after a few tweaks here and there I cut around the paper to make my acetate wings. All that remained was to use some hot glue to attach the wings to the body. For display, at the moment, he is on a photo stand but I may use some fishing line to hang him from the ceiling.
      Altered Eclectics challenge is for anything mixed media, altered art or a recycled project so please come and join us with your creations, anything but cards and ATC's.

I would like to enter my dragonfly in the following challenges:

Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes  (W)    (Top 3)

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes   (M)

The Other Cat's Out Of The Bag

     Another cat card, again safely delivered and free to be blogged. I made this one at the same time as the Happy Birthday one but this does differ slightly.

      I started by placing the media plate on the stamp press and inking it up with Izink dye inks, three colours all blended with the brayer.
     I stamped the white card, used the brayer again, no more ink, and stamped again just to get a good covering. 
     With just a little more ink dabbed on around the edge of the media plate, using a blending egg, inking the oval was finished. The media plate was cleaned off gently with a soft cloth to remove excess ink.
 

      For this next technique the image panel must be completely dry. Using a different stencil I used Versamark to make the pattern on the media plate  and stamped this sticky pattern on to the inked oval.
     The next step was to cover the Versamark with pearl mica powder to create a pattern that will change depending on the angle of the light hitting the card.
     Using the same cat but a different greeting I stamped them onto the image panel as before and again added a purple layer between the black and white layers. Just to fix the mica I gave it a light spray of inexpensive hairspray, which doesn't seem to affect the ink or stamping.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Crazy 4 Challenges - Ombre   (W)

My Time To Craft - Stamped Background   (F)

Seize The Birthday - Birthday   (F)

Show Us Your Pussies - Cats Only   (M)

The Cat's Out Of The Bag

    This card has been delivered so now I can blog it. It was made using John Nextdoor's media plates which I absolutely love playing with.

     I started by placing the media plate on the stamp press and inking it up with Izink dye inks, three colours all blended with the brayer.
     I stamped the white card, used the brayer again, no more ink, and stamped again just to get a good covering.   
     With just a little more ink dabbed on around the edge of the media plate, using a blending egg, inking the oval was finished. The media plate was cleaned off gently with a soft cloth to remove excess ink.

      Then using a stencil over the media plate I used a blending egg to add colour to it.
     The stencil was removed and the pattern on the plate was then stamped onto the previously inked oval.
     Once dry I used a cat silhouette stamp by Lavinia Stamps  and a greeting from Woodware to finish off the image panel. A stamp press is a must for silhouettes, it rarely works well the first time so being able to stamp more than once in exactly the same spot is fantastic.
     Once the image panel was dry I matted and layered it with a hint of purple between the black and white before mounting it on a white card blank.

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

Crazy 4 Challenges - Ombre   (W)

My Time To Craft - Stamped Background   (F)

Seize The Birthday - Birthday   (F)

Show Us Your Pussies - Cats Only   (M)

Jake and Elwood Play The Male Room

     The new theme at The Male Room is 'Inspired by a film title'. This was made with a friend in mind, his birthday isn't until October but there's nothing wrong with getting ahead, or two.
     I had a stamp for the glasses, although I did have to colour in the lenses to make them sunglasses, but I had no stamp for the hat. A quick look in the stash and I found some thin foam sheet, I drew a hat and cut it out. With a glue stick and my stamp press I put the cut foam on the lid and stamped my card, the best thing I have found with a stamp press is I can go over the image again in exactly the same place, perfect for silhouettes as they don't always come out first time.
     After stamping the hats and glasses I changed over to using a media plate to get the rectangle. Using red, yellow and blue inks I brayered the media plate and stamped on my card, twice to get the best coverage. To add a little interest to the edges I stamped a few music notes around in black.
     I wanted to mount this image panel on a black card, so I used a white one and covered it with thin black card, wrapping the black over the folded edge by about half an inch to give a better finish.
     Before sticking the panel down I stamped over the black with a music stamp and white ink, just to lift the colour and draw attention to the plain black of the hats. A little touch to the glasses with a white pen and a small die cut greeting in black and white finished it off. Now all I have to do is put it somewhere safe until October when The Blues Brothers will play again.
     Please come and join us at The Male Room, any masculine project that follows our theme of film title inspiration.

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

Everybody Art Challenge - Birthdays   (M)
Try It On Tuesday - For The Boys   (F)
Unicorn Challenges - Masculine   (M)