Let's Pretend at Cardz 4 Guyz

Time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week it's my turn to choose the theme. I've gone for Let's Pretend to give you lots of scope. You can use any faux technique - making card look like wood, metal, leather  - there are many techniques to choose from 

OR
Let's Pretend  - Dressing Up

I've used a Faux Leather technique for my background using masking tape and distress inks. I've added faux screws in the corners using mirror card. The tools are cut with a Memory Box die and the image is from an old Kanban topper sheet

I'm also entering this into the following challenges
Crafty Catz - Teddies
Sister Act - Anything Goes

Brads at The Butterfly Challenge

The current them at The Butterfly Challenge is to use brads - Mrs A didn't say how many but it was definitely plural :)  As soon as I saw this, I knew what I wanted to do but wasn't sure if I would have time. The first thing I had to do was to find my brads from various places around my craft room (and the spare bedroom where I keep some of my crafty stash). I finally got most of them together yesterday and sat sorting them in front of the television last night and this is the result

They're all sorted into little boxes which fit into an A4 box just like my buttons and charms so at least I might use them now!

Now onto my card and once I'd finished the main image, this is what the back looked like

You may just about see the shape of the butterfly - if you know what you're looking for. And here is the finished card

I love these Woodware Bubble stamps almost as much as their Huge word stamps. All but the 5 smallest dots on each wing have brads and they have blue Stickles like the body. The sentiment is stamped onto a scrap of card from when I made the card blank so I'm taking this over to the Snippets Playground when it opens as I haven't visited for ages

Woodware Bubble Butterfly stamp
Wild Rose Studio Birthday Circles stamp
Stampin Up Ballet Blue cardstock and ink
Broken China Stickles

 I'll also be entering this into the following challenges
Red Rubber Inspirationals - Focus on Stamping
Fussy & Fancy - Things With Wings

Anything Goes at Cardz 4 Guyz

Time for a new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week our theme is Anything Goes so plenty of scope for your masculine cards there. For my card I've turned this sketch from Friday Sketch Challenge

I saw this idea yonks ago at a demonstration by Kate Evans and thought it was about time I used it.. The sticks were from Wilko - they were sold in the gardening section and reduced to 10p for a large pack. The stamp was a 50p find in a charity shop - Julia's House shops in Dorset apparently get a lot of old stock from Hobbycraft so I always look in if I'm passing

Cuttlebug Diamond Plate embossing folder
K&Co Life's Journey paper
Funstamps Vintage Car
Stampin Up Road To Happiness for sentiment

Go Wild for Cuttlebug Mania

Wildlife is the theme of our second challenge of 2015 at Cuttlebug Mania. We are sponsored by Ooh La La Creations and I've used one of their freebie images on my card. I love watching the birds that come into our garden and I'm amazed at the variety we get and the way they all seem to get along. So I just had to have these dies from Joanna Sheen's Signature range. I've used the bird feeder from the Hungry Birds set on top of the Bird Bath die - I just love the little hanging feeder that slip onto the hooks

Joanna Sheen Bird Bath die
Joanna Sheen Hungry Birds die
Stampin Up Greeting and punch
Dovecraft Curiosity Corner paper

We'd Love to see what you come up with as there is so much scope

Happy Birthday To Cardz 4 Guyz

Cardz 4 Guyz is celebrating today as we're one year old. I'd just like to say a massive thank you to CAZ for all the work she put in to get this blog going and keeping us in line for the past year. So our challenge this week is simply Happy Birthday

For my card I've used tmy new Woodware 18th Birthday stamp and stamped it on paper from Papermania's For Him Colossal Papers. The backing paper is from the same pad and it's years old but just seems to go on forever. The middle band is just some webbing that happened to be on my desk

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:
Fashionable Stamping - Something New
Crafty Calendar Challenge - What's New
Fantasy Stampers - Happy Birthday

Thank You for Butterfly Challenge

A very quick card from me today for the first Butterfly Challenge of the year and Mrs A wants us to make a Thank You creation.  The card I've made is for the lovely ladies in the Market Gallery in Poole who helped me out yesterday. I've used the retired Stampin Up Medallion stamp which is so useful. the dimensional butterfly is by Papermania and is actually turquoise, not the green that has come out in the picture

Vintage at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for our first challenge of the year at Cardz 4 Guyz and this week we want to see your VINTAGE creations

The image is from a very old rub on set - I found about 15 sheets of them while clearing out and was pleased that it rubbed on with no problem at all. The paper and sentiment are by Papermania and the golf bag is from my stash. It was quite a bright orange so I've toned it down with Promarkers

If you need more inspiration, pop over to the other girls and see what they have done. We'd love to see what you come up with for this Vintage challenge but don't forget your creation must be suitable for a male

It Takes Two at Cuttlebug Mania

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very quiet but lovely.

So onto our first Cuttlebug Mania challenge of the year  and we would like to see TWO of something on your card. Now my card did not turn out as I'd planned as it was supposed to be a white on white card. I cut the Marianne Design cats from white card and was disappointed because having put them through my Bug a couple of times to get a good cut, the edges were tinged pink - the colour of the die! I gently scrapped it off with a craft knife. I then embossed a piece of card with an embossing folder which was free with Simply Cards and Papercraft. I cut with love with tattered lace dies from white card and when I put it all together it just didn't look right. I decided to stamp the greeting and cut the cats in black. These two came out with a pink tinge which I had to scrape off. I don't think I'll be using this die much although you may be seeing a lot of pink cats in future!

We'd love to see what you come up with for this challenge and don't forget to tell us how you have used your manual die cutting machine