Pile It On - For or From the Guys

I don't know about you but I kind of like horror flicks and scarey stuff.  Walking my dog in the dark is a little scarey because there's some nasty critters that live around here BUTwhat really, really, REALLY scares me is the phrase "make a card for a man".   There's another crafting phrase that makes my blood run cold - "make a clean and simple card or project".  It seems like CAS should be easier to do but not for me.  I like piling on the layers, using two, three or even four patterned papers and dressing it up with embellishments and bling.  Putting a big pretty bow and a charm on top is icing the cake.  So for this week's Pile It On challenge to make a masculine card I decided to make it a real challenge for me by adding the Clean and simple element.   Works out since most men aren't all that carzy about the pretty stuff like flowers and ribbons.   Of course for a man's card you need a manly image, and that's what this week's sponsor, Dude Time Doodles is all about. 



don't forget the inside

Join the design team by making a masculine card and you'll be in the running for a $10 gift certificate to the Dude Time Doodles store.  All you have to do is link it up on the Pile It On challenge blog and enter it into at least one other challenge.  There's the usual no back linking rule but otherwise that's pretty much it.

Here's the deets:
stamp - Dude Time Doodles "Ernie Carpenter"
ink - hp printer
paper - My Mind's Eye "This and That - Charming"; Stampin' Up "Wild Wasabi"
miscellaneous - copics; My Favorite Things "Chevron Stripes" die-namics; button; burlap twine; saw charm

Here's the challenges:

Pile It On #13 - For/From a Man

One Stop Crafts #175 - Clean and Simple

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes

Craft Your Days Away #41 - Just for Men/Boys plus a Button

Card Makin' Mamas - Buttons

Simon Says - Let's Play Bingo (Charms, Punches/Dies, ribbon/twine)

Totally Papercrafts #109 - Humour

Cute Card Thursday #209 - Anything Goes

Paper Playtime #70 - for the Guys and Include a Sentiment

L'il Red Wagon #125 - Clean and Simple

Creative Belli - Clean and Simple

Cards for Men #6 - Cheekie Chappies

Just Keep on Creating #1 - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again and I hope you find the time to play along with us at the Pile It On challenge to make a card or project "For/from the men".

Howdy Cowboy!



can you see the cowboy hat charm, click on the pic to enlarge it

 Do you always make girly cards?  Left to my own devices I make cards that may not be frilly but would not be suitable to send to a man so it's a good thing when I'm challenged to make a masculine card.  This week Paper Pretties PWC145 Challenge is to make a masculine card.  You should play along with us so you will have something in your stash for when you need it.  You don't have to use a Paper Pretties image but if you've got then we'd love to see what you do with them.
I always say that masculine is code for brown and even though I'm joking it usually turns out that my masculine cards end up being brown, but bright colors could be perfect.  
Need some more inspiration?  Visit the Paper Pretties blog and see what the rest of the design team has created. 
So what will you do?  I'd love to see your cards, and get some ideas to get away from the brown.  After you make your card link it up here. 

Here's the deets:
stamp -  Paper Pretties "Cowboy Cooper"
ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Ranger "Spiced Marmalade"
paper - Cosmo Cricket "Joy Ride" pad; Stampin' Up "Soft Suede" cs for base; Georgia Pacific white cs for image
miscellaneous - copics; nestibilities curved rectangles; burlap twine; cowboy hat charm

don't forget the inside

Here's the challenges:

Paper Pretties PWC145 - make a masculine card
A Sketch for You to Try March - sketch
Really Reasonable Ribbon #20 - One for the Boys (I hope the burlap twine is acceptable as a ribbonish trim)
Going Grey - Anything Goes
Sweet Stampin' - Your Favorite Movie (Toy Story 3 - actually it's my daughter's favorite movie and this fella makes me think of Woody)
CES Challenges #27 - Men Only

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you'll come back again.  In the meantime, make a masculine card and play in the Paper Pretties challenge.  

A Boy's Birthday

It's preview time.  Paper Pretties is previewing the March releases.  This is so much fun for me.  I've seen the stamp sets but I haven't seen what the rest of the DT has done with them yet so I'll be hopping over to the Paper Pretties blog to see it all.

I don't know about you but I struggle with cards for boys and men.  I'm drawn to images that are more girly so I was thrilled to receive this goofy (I mean that in the most complimentary way possible) giraffte stamp.  Isn't it just FUN!  It can easily be made into a girl or a boy's card, it's just a matter of switching your colors, maybe adding some sweet embellishments for a girl's card.  AND the set comes with sentiments that can be used for an invitiation.   

Here's the deets:
stamp - Paper Pretties - "Party Giraffe"
ink - Memento "Tuxedo Black"; Memento "Cottage Ivy" for sentiment; Versafine "Toffee" inside image
paper - Stampin' Up rich regals cs; Georgia Pacific white cs for image and sentiment; K & Co, "Daydreams" dp
miscellaneous - copics; charm; SU hemp twine; SU oval and scalloped oval punches; Nesites oval and scalloped ovals; Martha Stewart border punch; stickles



don't forget the inside

Here's the challenges:
Terrifically Thrilling Thursday - Layers, Layers, Lots of Layers 
Charisma Cards #9 - 4 legged friends
4 Crafty Chicks - #27 - stitching
Creative Belli #112 - Animals
Going Grey  with Scrap Creations - Kids


A new Paper Pretties set will be previewed every day from now till Wednesday March 9 when we'll have a blog hop to celebrate the March release. Stop by each day so you won't miss a thing.  Here's the link to Paper Pretties.

A Guy Thing

I've been thinking that I really need to make some menfolk type cards.  I never have one when I need one.  Then as I was going through the challenges I spotted the Sweet Stampin' challenge for "Clear as Mud" which is brown plus one other color and the Stamp with Fun Challenge for  "blue/brown" and the Allsort's challenge for a "male/boy" card.  I think I got the push I needed to make a he-man card and with it being Monday I looked up the Mojo challenge to get a sketch and then I was ready to go.  It didn't take long to pull the supplies and since there's not coloring, just a stamp and die cut, well it was done in no time.  I had plenty of time left to go feel the flamingos at Sarasota Jungle.
Here's the deets:
Stamp - My Favorite Things "Textile Rectangles" a very cool set of stamps with a matching die, makes things very easy peasy
ink - Stampin' Up "Soft Suede"
Paper - Stampin' Up "Soft Suede" cs; SU "Patterns Pack II" dp


don't forget the inside

 Miscellaneous - SU "Soft Suede" ribbon; SU twine; SU corner punch; charm; buttons; My Favorite Things rick rack die-namics

Here's the challenges:
Mojo Monday #175 - sketch
Crazy Challenge CCH#51 - dots and stripes
Stamp With Fun #95 - Blue and Brown
Sweet Stampin' - Clear as Mud (brown plus one color)
Allsorts week 87 - male/boy

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again and if you could spare a few seconds, please click on the pink ribbon in the sidebar to help fund mammograms.  Thanks again, have a good day - go stamp something.

For the Boys

This week the My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club challenge is "It's All About the Boys".  I don't know about you but my stash is sadly deficient of masculine cards so I'm game for this one.  I picked the "Who's that Geek Guy" stamp set because this guy could be my husband.  Mine might even have that t-shirt. 

Another challenge this card was made for is the Just Add Ink "Just Add Blue" challenge.  They want you to know that besides being Breast Cancer Awareness month October is Anxiety and Depression Awareness Month.  If you know someone is depressed don't shrug it off, encourage them to seek professional help.  Mental health problems such as depression are as real as physical ailments and often need to be treated by a physician to be cured. 

So here's the deets:
stamp - MFT "Who's That Geek Guy"
ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Ranger Stained Walnut
paper - Georgia Pacific cs for the image; Warsau cs blue mat and card base; Basic Grey "Skate Shoppe" collection dp
Miscellaneous - Queen and Co Grass Green pearls; copics; the Cat's Pajamas twine; computer charm from acharmingplace.com

Here's the challenges:
My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club MFTWSC10132010 -It's All About the Boys
Midnight Madness #75 - the sketch (how are you all, sorry I haven't been howling much lately- moving messed with my routine)
Just Add Ink #39 - Just Add Blue and optional send the card as a RAK to someone you care about so this will go out to my husband who has stayed behind while my daughter and I have moved.  He's missing us and we miss him.  Hopefully he'll be joining us soon.
Paper Cutz #63 - Anything Goes
Play Date Cafe #51 - colors pale blue, beige, pale mintish green
Simon Says - Easy no Cook Recipe Challenge, 3 embellishments (twine, charm and pearls), 2 dp, 1 image
L'il Red Wagon #50 - Something Old/Something New, the paper is old and the pearls are new
Papertake Weekly - 3 of a kind (the bars behind the image)
Tuesday Throwdown - Create a card with 3 elements - again the bars

My Little Geek

Here's my latest MFT stamp "Who's That Geek Guy". It was in the happy mail I got today. It made me extra happy because I could make my father's day card early and not realize at the last minute I forgot about it and then be really stressed at having to make a masculine card. Like many other paper crafters manly cards are not my strong point. Also like many of the MFT junkies this stamp is a great match for my husband. Do you think there's some kind of strange attraction between geeks and crafters? Any thing's possible and strangers things have happened.

So here's the deets:

Stamps - MFT "Who's That Geek Guy?"

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, CTMH Desert Sand

Paper - Stampin' Up Tangerine Tango and Kiwi Kiss cs; Cosmo Cricket "Boyfriend" collection dp

Miscellaneous - Nestibilities; Stampin' Up Oval and Scalloped Oval punches; cork; laptop charm

Here's the challenges:

My Favorite Things - MFTWSC060210 sketch

Crafty Ho's - Anything Goes (this is anything)

Corrosive Challenge #67 - Die Cuts

Stampin B's #61 - Masculine Card

Simon Says - Father's Day Card, Male Card

For Fun Challenges - For a Man

The Shabby Tea Room week 13 - Just for Dad

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again. Don't forget to click on the pink ribbon before you go.

Dude

I hope you read that title with a Valley Girl accent, this little doggie is a regular surfer dude and he talks the talk to go along with it. Growing up my brothers used to call each other dude, in a familial mocking way, later we had a dog with that name, she was black but she didn't surf. Then again we never gave her a board, who knows, maybe she could have.

Last week The Cat's Pajamas challenge was to use cork and it's sticking with me and being carried over into this week's challenge and since I have a large sheet of cork you'll probably be seeing a lot of cork.

This week our hostess with the mostess is Joanne and she's issued a color challenge to use turquoise, red and ivory. I threw in a piece of yellow but I don't think anyone will mind. I picked the surfer dog because I thought he'd go with cork and the colors.

By the way, the red in this picture has a brownish orange look but it is a gorgeous shade of red in real life, I wish I had a better understanding of how to work the editing color features.

Here's the deets:

Stamp - The Cat's Pajamas "Fun in the Sun"

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up markers "Real Red" and Tempting Turquoise"

Paper- dp Me and My Big Ideas "Ellen Starfish", cs CTMH ivory for card base and image, SU turquoise, Colorbok yellow, red MFT

Miscellaneous - Heidi Swapp bling, EK Success "Dotted Wave" border punch, Nestibilities "Blossom Two", MFT buttons, SU ribbon, cork, clip Spare Parts, Sulky thread

Here's the Challenges:

the Cat's Pajamas TCPTUES - turquoise, red and ivory

Simon Says - Buttons, Bows and Bling

The Pink Elephant - TPE64 Color Challenge Aqua (I think that's the same as turquoise)

Sketch Saturday - Week 100 the sketch

Kowabunga! Baby Brother

Kowabunga! Isn't this a cute card for a little boy? How about a not so little boy? My "baby" brother's birthday is Friday so I made this card for his big day. I may have gone a bit over the line when I added the "You're How Old?" to the Kowabunga sentiment. You know what they say about pay back, I may live to regret this. It's never a safe bet to torment someone younger than you are about their age.

Because my brother lives in sunny (but currently not so warm) Florida I picked this little surfer dude. He's from the The Cat's Pajamas. This week the hostess with the mostess for the Cat's Pajamas challenge TCPTUES92 is Joanne Basile from Just a Little Something blog (go visit, you'll like it) and she's got a color challenge to use Chocolate Chip, Baby Blue and Kraft, a very fun color combo with works well with the surfing theme. There's also a blog hop to welcome Jen Del Muro's brand spanking new baby boy, the hop starts at Joanne's blog.

Since I've been playing with my sewing machine I was happy to find the Just Us Girls #15 challenge to "Add Stitching". The Crazy 4 Challenges C4C19 challenge is to create a card with a birthday theme and the challenge TPE#49 at the Pink Elephant is also Birthdays.

So here's the rest of the deets: the swirly dp is "Ellen-Starfish" from Me and My Big Idea; the cs is kraft from SU and SnoCone from MFT; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; MFT ribbon; starfish charm from K & Co; Dotted Wave border punch from EK Success.

Thanks for visiting, come back again, before you go click on the pink ribbon.