Male Happy Birthday

Sometimes it is so hard to make male card, at least for me, I seem to want to add flowers to everything.   Well every Wednesday I try and participate in a weekly challenge on the Cricut message board and when I see a sketch that I can turn into a male card I try and make one just for my stash.

I have had these screw head brads for some time and when I saw this happy birthday cut on the MS Birthday Cake cartridge I thought they would be perfect for it.
The bottom brown strip I used a punch to make slits then wove my bakers twine back and forth across it.
Basically that is it, thanks for stopping in and hope you have a great day.

Birthday Cards for Grandson

Yesterday was my Grandsons 20th birthday.  He is in the Navy and stationed in Connecticut training to be a submariner.  If you are a regular reader of this blog you have probably heard this a hundred times by now, sorry I guess I am just a very proud Nana.

I saw this paper from the DCWV Mariposa stack with the Fluer De Les and knew what I wanted to make.  I cut the gold Fluer De Les using the Sweethearts cartridge from gold foil card stock, then a glossy black shadow layer.

You can see them a bit better in this photo.
I also put some of this same paper on the inside and stamped a sentiment.

Since my Mom is here for the Winter I also made her a card to send to him.  This one is a bit more military or navy themed.

I am very pleased with how this one turned out.  The papers are from a K&Company stack that I got on clearance at Michaels that has a lot of patriotic type papers, but in subdued tones.  The happy birthday is cut from the MS Birthday Cake cartridge.  This is the first time I used this cut and I love the wavy banner background.  Picking up the letters off the mat and getting placed correctly on the ribbon banner could be a difficult thing, but what I did was use sticky drywall mesh tape and picked them all up together then glued them right onto the ribbon banner perfectly spaced, waa laa makes it so much easier.

The anchor I cut out of glossy silver paper using the Stand & Salute cartridge.  Then I covered it with Crackle Accents, and feed a chain like ribbon that I had through the top whole and wound it around.  Looks pretty cool huh?

The inside I just stamped with a Gina K design stamp and added a sticker.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, hope you all have a wonderful day.

Challenges for this Card
Dream Valley  Just for Men    ends  - 3/1
Wags n Whiskers   Masculine Birthday  ends - 2/29
Make it Mondays   Always anything goes   ends - 2/26
Card Makin Mama's  Birthday  ends - 3/1
Paper Sundaes  Birthday   ends - 2/26

My First Explosion Box..............

So sorry I have not been around for the last couple of weeks, but with family visiting, re-arranging my craft room and going out of town craft just did not fit in.

I made this explosion box for my Great Granddaughter's 1st birthday.  I think it came out very cute.  I had seen one that someone did around Christmas time and have wanted to try it since, so I thought it would be perfect for this special event.  Even a little prize of a light up happy birthday in the center.  Lots of sparkle on this one.  Here is an overview of the whole card, so hard to take a picture of this.

The inner pink layer is Core'dinations card stock that I Cuttlebugged with several different folders and sanded it off, then punched the corners with a MS punch.  I used Cricut Craft Room to weld the letters together for the "Emma" using Lyrical Letters cartridge.  The "1" is also from that same cartridge.  They are cut out of purple glitter paper and mounted on white glitter paper ovals I cut using my Spellbinders.  Here is a closer look at the Emma.

I used the Create a Critter cartridge to cut out the monkey again all from glitter paper.  I added googly eyes, a party hat and one of those party blower thingies.

The center "Happy Birthday" is a K & Company stick that has a button that you press and lights flash on it.  Tried to get a picture but hard to capture the flashing lights.

When you fold up all the sides you place a lid on it to hold it together, so here is a picture with the lid next to the card.

I will tie if closed with a white sparkly ribbon/bow.  On the MS Birthday cake cartridge there was a cut for baby's first birthday so I cut it out and glued it to the top of the lid with a couple cupcake stickers.  I got to thinking since it doesn't lay flat it might be kind of hard to keep as a memento.  Oops.

Thanks for stopping in to take a peek, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my explosion box card.

Challenges for this box
The Cuttlebug Spot   Box    ends - 2/6
Crimbo Crackers   For a child   ends  - 2/1

Mirror - Mirror on the wall

Here is a card I made for my brother-in-law whose birthday was January 6th.  He is a very funny person and we joke around a lot.  Later in the post I will explain the "joke".   I wanted to make the front of the card very serious looking so we would be thrown off track.

The frame was cut from Elegant edges and I backed it with silver mirror paper.   The saying was computer generated.  So hard to take a picture of that mirror with my camera showing up in it.  LOL
Then when you open it this is what you see................................

Well now to tell a bit of the story.  One time while we were in Las Vegas, my BIL did a bit too much partying one night and when he got up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom he said he looked in the mirror and there was "an ugly man" in there.   Even though he just turned 71 he still has a lot of hair, (some grays ones so I colored them in) so it was quite a mess when he looked in the mirror.  The image I colored using my Copics, it is an image from Digis with Attitude and thought it fit the theme of this card perfectly, with him proudly holding up his brew.

I even added a piece of rope for his belt.
The grill I cut from glossy black paper and silver for the grate using the From my Kitchen cartridge.  The steak was also cut using From my Kitchen and covered with Glossy Accents.
I printed the grass paper using my Imagine and the Snapshot Nature cartridge, then cut it out using the grass cut from Plantin Schoolbook.

I added cloud paper to the background.  The happy birthday is cut from glitter black paper using MS Birthday Cake Art cartridge.

I want to say thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear what you have to say about this card.  It was so much fun to make and we all got a big laugh out of it.

Challenges for this card
Make it Monday   Always anything goes   ends  1/16