Boys Birthday Card..

I was forced into cardmaking a few days ago (thank goodness!) to make a card for my nephews 7th birthday. He likes football so I used an Elzybells Stamp as I don't have many boy-ish stamps!

This stamp is very handy as it's good for young or old. I also used the football stamp as an embellishment as I didn't think I'd be able to get away with ribbon, gems or pearls! I used a 6x6" card and the paper was Karen Foster Designs called "Soccer Ball Collage". I used an EK Success punch to break up the background and a Personal Impressions clear stamp for the sentiment.

My Grandads Birthday

I discovered recently that my Grandad thinks my cute cards are for children so when it came to making a card for him, I stayed well away from Penny Black! I went shopping for a new stamp (what torture!) and looked at the male ones (old cars and trains) but he's not old fashioned so I kept searching. My husband then found a large cake covered in candles so we thought that's probably best for him. As the paper was still out from my Beerafella cards I decided this would work with the blues and greens of the candles (and it would help me avoid adding yet another half sheet of paper to my box of used sheets!). I coloured the cake with Derwent Coloursoft pencils and blended them with Sansodor and paper stumps. I used Glossy Accents on the flames and icing and then took a shortcut with a Craftwork Cards birthday circle! I also used a new border punch that I got for my birthday down the side of the card. I have got lots of Martha Stewart punches lately, but this was an EK Success one, it's a slim punch that locks closed which is very handy for storing lots!!

Beerafella v.2!

Monday was my brothers birthday. I decided it would be nice and easy for me to use the Beerafella man again as I could loosely copy my last card (and the paper was still out!!). I did make it a tiny bit different as you can see, but it's mostly the same. I was quite pleased with the result actually for a plain card. I love ribbon, gems and glitter so I find it challenging to make male cards without these things!

Again, I coloured the image with Derwent Coloursoft pencils and blended them with paper stumps. I kept to the colours that would go with the paper again. Lastly, I used Glossy Accents on the beer bottles for the finishing touch!

Beerafella 1

Last Friday was my Brother-in-Laws birthday so I decided to use the Stamping Bella "Beerafella" stamp. I also wanted to keep the card quite simple so I tried not to add anything cute, although I did end up using four adhesive dots, but I kept them small! I also used a Craftwork Cards "Birthday Circle". I couldn't believe how much time it seemed to save by using it... needless to say I have bought several packs (different colours)! I coloured in the image with Coloursoft pencils and blended them with a paper stump and Sansodor.

Fathers Day rushed card!

I was so busy this weekend that the Fathers Day card for my Dad was made in a bit of a rush! I went through my box of stamped images already coloured and went for the footballer.

The image and football are from Elzybells and the wording is from an Elzybells clear set. Inside it is stamped with Happy Fathers Day. The image was coloured with Koh-i-Noor pencils (also from Elzybells) and the boots were accented with Glossy Accents. The glittery paper was bought a long time ago from Craftwork Cards.

Teenage boy card!

Every card maker knows that mens cards are hard to make, but I had a real dilemma last week when trying to work out what to do for our step-nephew's 15th birthday. Luckily he does karate and I managed to find an old Elzybells stamp that I owned of a bear doing karate (this has now been re-released so is available from Elzybells). Otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue what to do for his card. I tried to keep it quite simple so it wasn't too cute, it was horrible not being able to use adhesive gems or ribbon! The stamped image is Elzybells, coloured in with Copic Ciao markers. The red card is core'dinations. The Happy Birthday message is from Elzybells and the background stamped image was from Elzybells some time ago so may not be available. The brads are Dovecraft.

Another male card...

This card I am pleased with as I came up with a card sketch first and tried to push my boundries a little. I wanted a card that was different to my normal layout (see below) so I was pleased to try something new and have it work. Also, I tried something new (for me) with the border of the picture and wording with the rough lines. Normally I am a perfectionist and have to have everything lined up and straight so I had to leave my comfort zone to do the squiggly imperfect lines, but I was pleased with the result as again, it was a change to my normal cards. The rubber stamps used are: Funstamps "Racing Ted" and Stampendous "Montage Birthday". The spotty card is Bazzill swiss cardstock and the image is coloured with Copic Ciao markers.

Wish Big!

This card I made when trying to think of ideas for a male birthday card. I started with the image as I thought it is really suitable for men and cute but not too cute. I think this image came from my box of "Images ready" so this is coloured with chalk pencils (my old way of colouring) with Sakura glaze pens for the candles. The stamps used are all Penny Black.