Crafting with Dragonfllies takes off for a new year!

Hilde and the team are back! So, watch out! New challenges every two weeks, and only cards to be made unless otherwise clearly stated in the challenge. Stamps, digitals, dies, paint, ink, stencils - whatever you wish to use - as long as it follows the challenge theme for Crafting with Dragonflies.

What is the first Challenge?

Why, everyone's favourite!

#50 Anything Goes

I decided to play around with some of the many sprays I have acquired lately - particularly the TH Distress Sprays in this instance.  I also wanted to thank all the Peeps who have left lovely comments lately and all my various Teamies as well, and my two fearless leaders - Hilde and Elaine for keeping the faith!

So I used a stencil on watercolour card, and put the card inside a pizza box - trust me, it was clean, no left over pizza - and taped the stencil to the card, before spraying various inks onto the whole. Before I removed the stencil, I laid a piece of white card over the top of the stencil, and carefully pressed it down into said stencil covered with wet inks. Allowing a bit of time for the card to absorb the inks, I then lifted it off as cleanly as I could, and I got a negative image! I still had under the stencil a clean image, where the white pieces on this card below were sprayed with ink and the coloured parts of this card below were white! I will use this later for something.

I had been quite generous with the spray, and the colours were a little murky, rather than bright as they had melded together, but I liked the overall effect. When it was dry I embossed it with an Embossing folder to add some extra texture. 

The embellies came in a small pack from D-Lish a few months ago, and this was what was left over from another project. I love the little crocheted heart. The bright green doily was part of a freebie pack attached to a magazine, and I layered this over another white doily inside the stencil markings.

The My Favorite Things stamp and matching die were just what I was looking for - indeed, it took me 10 minutes to look for them! Obviously I had carefully placed the die in a storage set that I thought suited at some time but just as obviously didn't suit - must begin to catalogue my dies - getting too many now - but DON'T tell me husband I said that!

It is mounted on a black card

I flirted with the iea of adding a butterfly over the top left one, but left it s I thought it might be a bit too busy then - what do you think?

So, please go over to 

Crafting with Dragonflies

and read the blog, view the other DT pieces of work

and then enter your own piece of work at 

Challenge #50: Anything goes

Stop Toolin' Around........

You cannot beat a good pun!

Males cards  - apart from being fairly simple and clean looking - often work well with a funny line attached, and if you can build the card around a pun - home and hosed, my friend!

This card being made for Unstampabelles Challenge #50 Boys will be Boys, for September has used a pun around the word "tool". 

When I was still teaching, and in particular teaching young teeenage boys, this word had to be avoided at all costs - who knew it had some much capacity to reduced a classroom of teens to sniveling, sniggering, giggling wrecks with no ability to concentrate left. I was reminded of this fact a few days ago when a young person I know, and who has just started teaching, inadvertently used the wrong word in front of Year 8's and they lost the plot. She will be scarred for life I suspect. 

Still, it set me thinking about my unfortunate use of "man's prehistoric tool" in front of a similar group and then reminded me of the many uses applied to that particular word when talking about males. I had some die that would be appropriate, so set to work. 

This is what I created

Showed it to hubby - he sniggered - they never grow up!

This is what is say's inside

So, punny or worse - add a funny line or crack a joke and you have created a good male card.

Why not make one today and then enter it 

HERE!

Second post for Unstampabelles Challenge #50

Remember that over at 

Unstampabelles

there is a challenge#50 called 

Boyz will be Boyz

This is the prize pack

The twist is to write a few things about what makes a good male card - to share the information around and help out those of us who are a bit too challenged by these cards. 

I recently came across the UK company called Acid Drops and Whatnots, and may have purchased a few things from them when my fingers accidently skidded on the keys......

Anyway, they were selling sheets of funny images and sayings to make up into quick cards

This is an example of one of them

I had one for males - so made two quick cards from them to show that making a male card is not always that difficult, if you think a bit outside the square, and use printed images

The images were even coloured for me!

You can get these images in stamps too - and I have some of them as well - but for fast action, these two cards took me a whole 10 minutes for both!

I grabbed the sheet of left-over paper on the desk from my last male card venture for last week....

The sheet itself cost me about $3 with the exchange rate, and I made in total three cards from it. I also used a blank card from a freebie pack for the tall one, and the other is recycled, so in all these two cost me just over $1.10 to make - bargain I think!

Again I have used that principle for male cards that I tend to stick to quite a bit - KISS!

Keep it Simple Stupid

Why not pop over to Unstampabelles and see what the other team members have created for their male cards as well, and also to check out our September Guest!

New September Challenge #50 for Unstampabelles

So sorry I am late with this folks -long story, one for next time...

What is the Unstampabelles challenge #50 for September? 

Boyz will be Boyz!

Boys and Men: create a perfect card for the male in your life. What do you think is essential to make a card a male card? The twist this month is to ponder this question and provide some thoughts in your blog!

There are quite a few sticker sheets and decoupage sheets being provided for this challenge as the prize.

What do I think makes a male card a male card?

Simplicity usually - take an idea and apply the KISS principle

(Keep It Simple Stupid)

A bit of scruffiness works too - so making it a bit punk or distressed or aged......

I like to go to my stuff from Tim Holtz....he is always good for ideas and his various bits and pieces of ephemera are very useful for male cards. My card today is very Tim Holtz - stickers and die cuts and such.....

I have a couple of vintage brothers who are having birthdays in the latter part of the year......

The background papers are over 6 years old and are from Basic Grey - I added some ink and a bit of roughly drawn lines, some cogs and the vintage car, and a bit of bling

I hope that you have some ideas about creating a male card to add to the ones we have over at Unstampabelles: remember, we have until the last Friday in the month to enter.