Manly Cards... so tricky!

Hello again,
I've not much time but I wanted to stick this non-girly card up... just because!
Here it is:

I like it. Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie, and Crumb Cake make up the colours!

Thanks for looking,
Mandy

I'm in the Stamper's Showcase!!!

Wow!  After only doing two or three challenges, I've been chosen (one of the five) as the operators' favourite for this week over at Stamping 411!!!
For those of you who don't know what that means, it's just an honour essentially.  I don't get a prize or anything, I just get to know that these 8 SU! Demo's and veteran stampers admired my card!  Wait til I tell Aunt Dorothy after she gets it in the mail for her birthday!
You can see the other showcase winners here.

Thanks for looking,
Mandy

SSC197

Hi!!
Yeah, it's been a while I know, but I've been super busy!  Haven't stopped crafting (mostly making birthday cards) but was slacking on the posts, Sorry!

However, I have a new card to show off here.  It's for the Saturday Sketch Challenge #197, but I also used the latest Color Inspiration (#153)  from Stamping 411 as well!  Here is the Color Inspiration:

And the Sketch:

And my Card:

Isn't it pretty?  I'm quite happy with it.  And hopefully so will my Aunt be, as she will be getting it very late for her birthday!  (I made it ON her birthday and I live across an ocean from her so mail isn't exactly a day or two!)  But anyway, better late than never, right?  Here's what I used to make the card:

Whisper White CS: 8.5" x 5.5"                                             Scallop Trim Border Punch
Pretty in Pink CS: 5.25" x 4"                                                 Vintage Vogue Stamp Set
Night of Navy CS: 5.25" x 2.5"                                             Well Scripted Stamp Set
Old Olive 5/8" Satin Ribbon                                                  S-A-B Bliss Stamp Set
Vintage Brad                                                                        Filigree Brad
Whisper White Craft Ink                                                      Night of Navy Classic Ink
Pretty in Pink Classic Ink                                                      Old Olive Classic Ink

I did do quite a bit of cutting out shapes with this card, but I didn't have anything else I could have used to keep to the sketch.  I stamped both the flowers from the Vintage Vogue Set first in Pink, then just around the edges with Navy onto Whisper White CS.  I love this technique, but I have no idea what it's called; or even if it has a name!  I cut out both flowers and the Olive Butterfly from the Bliss Set.  I stamped the background decoration from the Bliss Set with Navy onto the Pink CS before adding the Navy CS (punched on the bottom with the Scallop Trim) and Olive ribbon.  The sentiment from the Well Scripted Set was stamped with Whisper White Craft Ink, but if I had thought about it earlier I would have heat embossed it with White as well!  And that's about it!

Coming up next; I have yet another Man Birthday Card... That pickup truck from Loads of Love is really getting a workout!

Thanks for Looking,
Mandy

Attempts for C&S Christmas Cards

Hello Blog Ppl,
I wanted to share a few REALLY quick cards I made.  I got the idea from the Clean & Simple posts over at Stamping 411.   They are really great for a nice card in a short time.  Anyway here are what I came up with:

One of the ladies from the MFRC community asked me to come up with some ideas for cards to sell at one of the charity events we Canadians annually participate in here in Belgium, and I've started with the most basic, and will get progressively more detailed (read: expensive) as I go.  And for these the only cost is half of a sheet of CS each!  I dont think a card can get any cheaper to make than that!

I will post the next batch when I'm finished them!

Ciao

Gift for 1st Birthday

Hello again Blog World,
Now that I have this blog, I couldn't help putting pictures up of this really cute gift I made for one of my best friends' 1 year old girl.
I got the idea when I was giving my son's room a good organizing, sorting toys, etc.  I found a little block set that was not only missing a block - which was important as each block formed part of a picture, like puzzle pieces - but with which he was way past too old to play.  Then I got to thinking... Hmm, there are five blocks left, I bet I could cover them with cute girly papers and things and conveniently there are five letters in the name Jenna, who's birthday party I'm going to in a few weeks!  Perfect! :)

I started by ripping off the paper that was on there because it was glossy and I didn't think things would stick very well to it.  Then I covered it with all different styles from the Sweet Pea DSP Stack.

For the front - where the letters of her name are - I used two layers of mostly random Sweet Pea paper or correspondingly coloured CS, then added a Whisper White Scalloped Heart of Hearts before sticking on the letters.  I coloured the letters from the Loads of Letters Chipboard with Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker.

For the top I used some Sweet Pea Stitched Felt, the Modern Label, Curly Label and 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punches.  The Stamp sets I used are Little Angel, Tiny Tags, Vintage Labels, Short & Sweet and Outline Alphabet Lower (which is from 1998!).

I really love this gift!  So much in fact that I'm asking my Dad to make me some more blocks out of any scrap wood he might have laying around... they've been renovating their house since they bought it in 1988, so I think they might have some!  I would love to make these for other people, they'd be GREAT baby shower gifts!

Cheers,
Mandy

First Crafting Post!!

Here it goes... I've been checking out the blogspot.com blog called Stamping411 lately and it has hugely inspired me to get my butt in gear and start doing some of their challenges.  It's mostly just for fun, but it will hopefully get me going enough to book a class at the MFRC or with Andrew's class moms or something.

So I have done this Thursday's Color Inspiration Challenge #150!!   with one exception... the colours were Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi and I have nothing in Wild Wasabi, so I swapped it for Old Olive.. I hope that's okay!

I'm going to try to post the colours on here:

And now I just have to take a picture of my card...

Stampin FUN!! (I hope the links work!)