Why I'ts Been so Quiet Here Lately!!

Hello everyone!!  Hope you are all having a wonderful day!!

Just a short post to say what's been happening here.

'Not much lately' I hear you say .. LOL!!

Well, I have been interstate visiting rellies and catching up with friends and .. the main reason for going .. celebrating a couple of important birthdays.  Needless to say, we had a fabulous time  but, are certainly happy to be home.  I did take my Laptop with me but, apart from the odd comment here and there, didn't really use it much so I have a bit of catching up to do.

Before we went away, the cupboards in my craft room were finally finished!!  Yayy!!  Has been a work in progress for a while but they are now finished.  

Huge thanks to my darling hubby, my youngest son and our handyman.  

Only thing is, I still need to paint them and that's going to take a few days yet.  All my craft stuff is piled up everywhere so I have no idea where anything is.  Won't be much creating happening for a little while!

Here's a few piccies to show you what I mean!!
Pulled out all the drawers so I could paint the fronts.  They still need another coat!

Here's all (well, most) of my craft stuff, as I said, piled up everywhere!!

Big mess!!!

.. and a little sneak of how the drawers will look when finished!!  Can't wait!

So, I probably won't be back  in action until next week but, in the meantime, I will try to pay all of you a visit to see what you've been up to!  Looking forward to that too!!

Thanks so much for  dropping by and hope to catch up soon!!

Take care and God Bless.
Have fun crafting!!

Crafty CardmakersChallenge #191 - Here Comes Summer!

Hello lovely visitors!!  Welcome!!

Hope you are having a fabulous day!!

Crafty Cardmakers have a new Challenge starting today!  The theme is 'Here Comes Summer' and June is our host.

As always, anything you make is fine as long as it follows the Summer theme.

A bit hard to get into a summer kind of mood in this part of the world at the moment, I know.  We are just at the start of Winter and it's been really cold here in Adelaide so it was quite hard to think of warmth and sunshine but, that's what I think of when I think of Summer.  Hot days and a profusion of flowers in the garden!!  So, that's what I had in mind when I made this card.

The papers are from Maja's Vintage Summer Basics and, although they look quite orangy here, they are really more of a warm yellow.

Wrapped some twine around the base papers  and used my fave flowers from Megs Garden after spritzing them with some colour.  Added lots of texture underneath the cluster with twine, gauze and also some sisal.

I added a little extra colour with Lindy's Stamp Gang's Magicals.  You can't see it at all in these photos but it actually gave this card a lovely gold shimmer .. so pretty IRL!

I created the sentiment by simply printing it on my computer, trimming it to size, distressing the edges and glueing it to the card.

Had to add lots of prills and micro beads of course.  Can't seem to make feminine cards without them .. LOL!!

Hope you like my Summery card and that I have inspired you to join in with the Challenge.
For more inspiration, go and take a look at the fabulous creations by the rest of the Team and then join in the fun!!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #191 -Here Comes Summer!!
Don't forget to read the rules and please take note of our 15 Challenge limit!

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and have a look and do enjoy the rest of your day!
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Of Clocks and Cadillacs

Hello sweet visitors .. welcome to my blog.  So pleased that you decided to drop by.

I want to share another 'Man' card with you.

  Hope you're not getting sick of seeing masculine cards here.  This won't be the last one either .. I'm afraid I still have a few more to make for this year.  

The papers used are from Maja.

This is the 'brother' card to the one I shared here.  They were both made at the same time using a similar design.  Just the colours and some of the elements are different.

The paper under the sentiment was fairly plain so I used a Prima background stamp and archival ink to create some extra interest. 

The focal image was taken from one of the ephemera pages of  the Sherlock Vol 2 papers by Megs Garden ..

.. and  I created  the sentiment myself by printing it out and then cutting around it and inking the edges before sticking it down.  Very simple, very easy.
As I was assembling this card, it seemed to be missing something.  Took me a while to figure it out but the twine did the trick!!

The clock is a free image from the net which I printed out, glued to some chipboard and then covered with Glossy Accents .. easy peasy way to make your own flair!!
I really like the look of the corrugated board .. adds a bit of texture and looks fab on a 'man' card I reckon!!

.. and another one done and dusted!

As I said, I still have a few more of these to do and then it's on to .. dare I say it again!! ..
Christmas!!

I am entering this card into the following Challenges..
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday - # 286-287 Anything Goes
The Male Room - # 62 - Off the Edge

Thank you so much for stopping in and taking a look.  I really appreciate you taking the time.

Enjoy the rest of your day!!
Take care and God Bless!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #190 - For a Special Man/Boy or Father's Day

Hello sweet visitors and welcome to my blog.  I am so happy that you dropped by.

The new Challenge is up at Crafty Cardmakers and I am the host .. Woo! Hoo!  This is my first time as host and I have really been looking forward to it.
As you can see by my post title, this challenge is all about the men.  You can create whatever you like as long as it follows a masculine theme.

I decided to create a card .. surprise!! surprise!!  LOL!!

The papers used are from Kaisercraft and I have created another version of the tied down tags on a double fold card.

Prettied this tag up with a metal trinket that I cut in half.

Used the other half of the trinket on the opposite side.

Am totally in love with these flairs that have been in my stash for ages.  Unfortunately, I haven't got many left and, as I have no idea where they came from, I won't be able to get any more.  Boo! Hoo!

Added some washi tape which was torn in half before it was stuck down.  I placed the straight edges back to back and it created quite a unique effect .. I like it!

More washi on the inside ..

.. and Voila!!!  Another male birthday card, done and dusted!!

For some more inspiration, pop on over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog and take a look at what our fabulous DT have created and then join in the fun.  We would love to see what you create and would also love to know who it was created for.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #190 - For a Special Man/Boy or Father's Day.
Please take note of our 15 Challenge limit.

Thank you so much once again for dropping by.  I am so pleased you took the time to take a look and I do hope you enjoyed your visit.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg

MM - To Bin or Not to Bin!

Hello everyone!!  Welcome to my blog with a special welcome to my new followers.
So pleased you decided to join me on my creative journey.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

I'm back to share another of my inky (or painty? LOL!!) cards with you.  This one was made at the same time as the clean and simple cards I posted a while back (HERE) but, as you can see, it is totally different.

Actually, after creating the background, I was going to throw this in the bin!!  Glad I didn't though because I really like how it turned out in the end.

When I was creating my MM cards, this was actually my first attempt.  I mixed the colour (Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals - Cocklebells Coral) and popped it into a bottle and sprayed it onto some watercolour paper.

Unfortunately, the sprayer didn't work correctly and so I ended up with this big blob in the middle.  Bumma!!!  So, I tried softening the edges by using a paper towel soaked in the paint and dabbing it on.
Blah!!!  Still didn't like it so, I put this aside, tried a different technique and came up with the other two cards.  Loved them .. but hated this and was going to toss it.

But then I had another look and thought .. mmm .. maybe if I add a bit of stenciling and tone that 'blob' down a bit and perhaps add a bit of gauze as well to soften the look.  

So, out came the stencil and the texture paste and ...  still not really happy but it was starting to look a bit better.

Maybe I should also add a little stamping!   Yeah .. I suppose that looks alright!  Okay, let's try the gauze ..  no, the white looks all wrong so .. colour it!  Still wasn't really happy but started looking for some flowers .. that would certainly cover up the 'blob'.

Well, it took ages to find the right one.  Small ones didn't work, medium sized ones didn't work  so I figured I'd try a large one.  Well, I had to go through a lot of my stash, but finally found this really large Prima  bloom.  It was white and, at first didn't look right either, but then I sprayed it with the same colour and, voila!, it looked fabulous!! (at least, I think it looks fabulous!!)  I really love how it didn't take the colour evenly and IRL it almost seems to glow!  Loved it!!

While I was hunting through my stash for the flower, I found some silver stamens I forgot I had so, I mixed them with some white ones, and decided to add those instead of leaves.  Had to add some prills too, mixed with micro beads of course, and a twine bow at the side ..

.. and, Voila!!!  So glad I didn't toss out that background.

You just never know what can be achieved until you try it.

Thank you so much for stopping by to take a look and, I do hope you enjoyed your visit.
Happy crafting everyone!!!
Take care and God Bless.

Another One for the Men

Hello lovely visitors and welcome to my blog.  So pleased you came by.

Sharing another man card with you today.  I've still got a few of these I need to make for this year so trying to get them done and then I can start on my Christmas cards.  Oh my goodness, did I just mention Christmas??!!??  So sorry, didn't really mean to do that .. don't even want to think about it yet!!!  (It is sneaking up on us though!)

The papers on this one are a bit of a mix.

The paper used as the base layer is from my stash .. I have no idea where it came from.  

I wouldn't normally have used this on a male card because of the lace and flower print but the colours were perfect and I think it works really well with the embellies I've used.

The corrugated board came from packaging.  I simply tore away the top layer to expose the corrugations and then inked the edges.

The Hour glass and the 'Design' label are from an ephemera sheet of the Sherlock Journal Vol 2 Paper Collection by Megs Garden.

The metal gears and cogs were also found in my stash.  The clock is a free printable from the net which I mounted on a piece of chipboard and then coated with Glossy Accents.

The sentiment was printed out, inked, and then mounted on a piece of cardstock ..

.. and .. Voila!!  Another one done and dusted!!

I made two cards again this time, which is working out really well for me, but I decided to show the other one at a later date.

That's it from me for today!  Thank you so much for coming by and taking a look, I really appreciate your visit!
 Have a wonderful day!!
Take care and God Bless.