Male Cards

I am often asked for ideas on male cards. This can sometimes be a hard thing to make. Here are a few tips that I follow when making a male card.

1. Choose masculine colours (obviously)

2. Clean, simple and symmetrical.

3. Shapes work well - squares, circles.

4. Choose male or geometric stamps/images (again, obvious)

5. Think outside the box - look for inspiration in a variety of places
eg. the more neutral patterns of designer series papers, or use
your stamp in a different way, like turning it upside down, or
masking a section of it.

Here is a male card that I have used in the past for workshops. It is fairly simple to make (which is perfect in a workshop situation, where some guests will not have ever touched a rubber stamp before). The tip on this card is step 5. The DSP is from Urban Oasis, which immediately strikes me as a female DSP.

Colours are Kraft and Not Quite Navy, stamp sets are Loads of Love and Starring You.

Hope you like it.

Happy Stamping.......Manda

Sweet Treat Cups.....

You may have seen SU! Sweet Treat Cups examples popping up all over blogworld (is that a word??).


Anyway, I thought I'd show you a couple of examples that I have made. I decided to use my STC's as a baby's rattle, after finding inspiration in the baking aisle of my local supermarket. I bought a bottle of assorted colours and silver balls used for decorating cakes (No I can't spell the real name for them and I can't be bothered to go upstairs and have a look at the bottle - slack I know!) to use as the shakers in the rattle.

Here is the boy version........

And here is the girl version........

I have used DSP from the hostess pack, as well as Punches Three hostess set and Something Sweet for the rattle. Boys is Brocade Blue and Girls is Regal Rose. Brads are from Hodgepodge Tin (G) and Star Designer Brads (B).

I have based the card layouts on Mojo Monday Sketches.

Happy Stamping.........Manda

Valentines Day......

One of the ladies who comes to my monthly Technique Classes asked me to come up with a male Valentines Day card. So I combined this challenge with a new technique to teach, and this is what I came up with.

I have used Baja Breeze as the base cardstock, along with Chocolate Chip and Pacific Point. The DSP is from the Baja Breeze Prints pack. Stamp Sets are I {Heart} Hearts and A Happy Heart. I have used the Suspension techinique, which is usually used for symetrical images, such as circles, so that when the image (in this case a heart) spins, both sides look the same.

Hope you like it........

Happy Stamping........Manda

More Watercolouring......

As I have mentioned before, my good friend and downline, Anna and I get together once a week and stamp. I got to have a play with her Magnolia stamps and thought I'd show you the results.

First we have, what I call, Brocade Blue Magnolia.

I love combining Brocade Blue, So Saffron and Certainly Celery. The DSP is from a retired pack of SU! Sarah.

And then I thought I'd have a play with some brighter colours, which are much more out of my comfort zone, but I still an quite pleased with the way that the card turned out!

For this one, I have used the Kalidescope DSP from the SU! Summer Mini, Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore.

I have spent a little bit of time practising my watercolouring of late, which is very theraputic. I love the way that you can add so much dimension of colour to an image. For all of the watercolouring seen in this post, I have used SU! watercolour paper, aquapainters and SU! Stamp and Write Markers.

Happy Stamping........Manda

Birthday Book Class

Have you ever had this happen to you?

You wake up one morning, open your diary and realise that it is someone special's birthday. Only you don't have time to whip up a handmade card?

I have a solution for you.........Why not make a birthday book? This is a perpetual book, with a space to write everyone's birthdays, and a pocket to place the cards for each person, that you can make when you have time?

You may have seen the book that I made for one of my friends (see post here), which will give you more of an idea of the book.

Date for the class is Friday 26th February, cost is $10.00, BYO basic kit, and a packet of Designer Series Paper. Please email me if you would like more information.

Happy Stamping........Manda

Schoolbooks......

Now that the dust has settled and we are into week 3, I felt that I could make you all think about back to school again.

DD1 had some books to be covered for school, and as I have decorated her books for her for the past 4 years, I thought that I had better do something again this year. To add to the challenge, they all had to be done in one night and returned the next day!

DD1's instructions before going to bed were - "I want something tomboy girly and you can use purple, black, green, yellow and little bit of pink".

Well, after checking out my wrapping paper supply, I decided that purple was the feature and I worked from there.

I love Seeing Spots, it is such a versatile stamp set. Colours used are Lavender Lace, Certainly Celery and So Saffron. I have also used the journalling stamp from Enjoy Every Moment as the central feature, which I filled in with DD1's name, class and subject - please note - in black (I had to sneak it in there somewhere!)

And here are the finished items, after contact! (sorry about the glare).

Happy Stamping.........Manda

Build a Bear.....

I have a friend who is equally addicted to Stampin' Up! as I am....(waving at you Anna!). We spend one day a week stamping, while our little boys spend the day playing - or at least that is what they are meant to be doing.

A little while ago, Anna ordered the Build A Bear Workshop stamp set from SU! in the US. So I have finally had a turn at watercolouring these cuties.

Here is the Build a Bear Boy - I have watercoloured him with the aquapainter and the Stampin Write markers. I have used Bordering Blue and Brocade Blue to try and get a denim look.

And here is the girl........this time I have used Certainly Celery and Old Olive for her dress.....Both bears are a combination of Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip.

Hope you like them........Manda