Christmas in August? You gotta be kidding me....

OK, I struggle with blog titles, and I really do feel that Christmas comes far too early each year, but I guess we all have to started making our Christmas cards sooner rather than later.
Very quick card this evening, made with some My Minds Eye papers which handily came free with a craft magazine this month. Gotta love those freebies.... 
I have never really got to grips with chipboard shapes - in my world they have no known purpose, but as the magazine came with matching chipboard shapes I figured I should at least try and use them. So I chose the smallest one I could find and tried to hide it on the card.....

The red paper at the bottom does have a subtle snowflake pattern, but I must admit I am tempted to jazz it up a bit - might have to stamp some random snowflakes on it later.
As usual, I can't make a card without entering a couple of challenges, and tonight is no exception :)
Christmas Inspirations - Clean & Simple
Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch

Oh boy, too many men....

....... in need of birthday cards. Although the same sentiment could apply to our household. Ages range from 44 to 13 to 2, and strangely enough they all behave in exactly the same way.
Anyway,  tonight's quickie male birthday card was inspired by the front page of Papercraft Planet where they were highlighting a masking technique. Always ready to have a go at most things inky, I had a rummage through the stash to see if I had anything suitable. I had already decided on my marvellous Impression Obsession Cover a Card stamp, but couldn't find anything suitable in rubber to use as my image. So I turned my rummaging into scrolling through folders of digi stamps and found one I liked which could be used for a man from Just Inklined.
The technique involved was really quite simple - stamp/print your main image (windmill) and sentiment, then stamp/print them again on scrap paper and cut out to make a mask. Place mask over main image and sentiment, and stamp your background design over the top. Lift off the mask and you have a perfect foreground and background. It worked a treat, but my windmill did look a little lost in the busy background, so I coloured it in very quickly with my trusty Promarkers. Layered up on a piece of blue Bazzill and job done.

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
The Outlawz - Copic/Promarker Challenge
Crazy 4 Challenges - Masculine
Passion for Promarkers - Week 114

Red-eeming Features

Hey ho folks, figured I better get on a do a post before P gets cross with me. She needs a bit of a light entertainment in the morning to take her mind off work - although I'm not sure her boss feels the same when he stomps in her office and sees her blogging, but there you go.
So today's shopping spree involved some Adirondack inks, which I've never used before, but I have it on good authority that they're great fun to use, if not slightly messy. On this recommendation, I went out and bought 6 of the blighters. Not a huge selection of colours - I would have preferred some blues and a richer green, however that can wait for another day.
I spent the first part of the evening engrossed in some Youtube demos of Mr Tim Holtz using the inks, and off I went. They are indeed messy, and in my opinion, incredibly smelly. I feel like I've been inhaling cheap gin. They do make for some lovely vibrant backgrounds though.
Here's tonight's card:

I used the Red Pepper and Butterscotch inks dabbed on the a felt pad. The flower stamp is by Hero Arts, the sentiment from Stampin' Up, and then I simply mounted it onto a piece of satin gold card and kept it very CAS.
I would like to enter it into the following challenges:
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Autumn Colours
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Hot Colours

Fabulous Follower Award....

"Well finally" I hear AM cry! The world famous "Copperknob of the 29 Stockings" has been nipping my head about showcasing the wonderful award she gave me for stalking her blog, and it's time I passed it on....

Of course she passed it on to just about EVERYBODY I know but there are a couple of folk who are very kind and visit me often, and they actually say nice things about my blog posts (Ahem, AM are you listening?) so I would like to pass on the Fabulous Follower Award onto.....(drum roll, please)

Ali @ Aqualeiga's Escape (who by some random quirk of fate got me into blogging and Papercraft Planet)
Claire @ Claire's Crafty Corner who stops by regularly and is nice to me (Ahem, AM...)
Sam @ Sparkly Moo Just love that name!
Cole @ Cole Meyer's Blog she would fire me if I didn't give it to her....

Grab your nice and shiny award here, ladies!

Thorn in my side.....

So, today my good friend P challenged me to a blog post, and whilst there have been crafty goings on this evening, I have nothing paper based to show you ;)

Hopefully this will do instead.....


Rose, the sign of love,
Beauty is picturesque
Speaks for itself,
An Inspiration.

by Elizabeth Grant Price

You inspire me!

Yes, you do and tonight I made a card using some of the tips and techniques which I have seen on various blogs, following my regular stalking of some lovely bloggers (no injunctions please, I am perfectly harmless).

To name-drop a few of the crafty ladies I took the inspiration from:

Petra for her unceasing dedication to using up scrap paper
Anne for her ability to turn her hand to virtually every handicraft known to man/woman
Anne Marie for her sweet smelling, fresh faced charm and charisma (and clever tips and tricks)
And finally Birdie for her never-ending support and guidance. She is my Guru :)

There are many, many others whose blogs I follow, and I'm sorry if I haven't mentioned you tonight, but hey, I have a very short memory, and can only remember four things at a time.

This card was made up using some free papers which came with a magazine a couple of months ago, and have languished in a box ever since, the bunting formed part of the free papers and I just cut it out and stuck it on. Anne Marie made a card this evening where she stamped a flower straight onto her BP, so I blatantly copied that idea!

I would like to enter into the following challenges:
For Fun Challenges - Anything Goes
Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Birthday/Celebration

Every cloud has a silver lining

Yes, apparently so. Tonight's silver lining is that my blog post does not contain any of my cards :)
Today we took a trip to the seaside - this time to Broughty Ferry. Slightly warmer and sunnier than our last day out at the beach!

Seven swans a swmming (or standing)

Broughty Castle

Splashing in the Play Park

A Question for you.....

When is a card handmade and when is card handcrafted? Is there a difference? If a card take ten minutes to make or two hours, is one a "better" card than the other?
That the question (or rather, questions) I was asking myself this evening - I'm currently on a mission to challenge myself to make quick, and yet still effective, cards. This obviously rules out pretty colouring and lots of fiddly bits, so what is left? A couple of bits of paper and a splodge of ink?

Or a quick dash over an image with some distress ink?

I'm not sure if either of these cards could possibly be sent out to anyone even remotely crafty, but what would a non-crafter think?