Well, what can I say - a seven day absence from my blog - unheard of!! I know this is a busy time of year and I've certainly no shortage of lovely things to share with you, but my real issue has been keeping up, both with the photography (lots of makes are leaving the house before being photographed!) and blog writing itself. The James juniors have finished school for the Christmas holidays already, and in addition to all of the usual pre-Christmas preparations, I have been having so much fun with them I've had little time for anything else this past week.

No festive project to share today - instead the alternative trio of cards made following the same layout used in my December Christmas card class (you can see the Christmas versions here) but with distinctly non-Christmas card designs. So here they are:

This one uses some of the Print Poetry paper stack that is currently available to buy on the clearance rack, whilst stocks last. The second one:

This one has quite a retro feel, with the colour scheme inspired by the retired Sycamore Street SAB paper - my customers love this paper, so are still looking for ideas and ways to use it. Lastly, the third card featuring a bow made with the Gift Bow Bigz Die:

This card actually uses a couple of the things we used to make the Christmas card version - the Seasons of Style paper stack paper and the 'Wishing You' stamp set and proves that these things can be used for non-Christmas as well as Christmas cards if you use alternative colours.

I liked the way all three of these cards turned out and the fact that they gave me a few cards to add to my stash ready for the year ahead. This really is a quick post from me, but before I go I thought I'd share one festive picture of the masterpiece created by my super-creative children today - our very first gingerbread house, from scratch! We made the house yesterday and they built and decorated it today. I'm pleased to say it's all their own work - I for one, think it's rather impressive:

Complete with gingerbread boy and girl and Christmas tree in the garden and following a considerable 'snowfall', of course! Tomorrow I have a day of present wrapping in store, so with Christmas music and tape in hand will be a woman on a mission!

I will hopefully not leave it so long before my next post; until next time, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Standard Cutting Pads	Gift Bow Bigz L Die	Sticky Strip	Mini Glue Dots
Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive	1-3/4 Inch Circle Punch	Wishing You Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Season Of Style Designer Series Paper Stack	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Deco Labels Collection Framelits Dies	Feel Goods Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Express Yourself	Brights Candy Dots	Raspberry Ripple Classic Stampin' Pad
Raspberry Ripple A4 Card Stock	Gumball Green A4 Card Stock	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad	Wisteria Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Wisteria Wonder A4 Card Stock
Summer Starfruit A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Rich Razzleberry Classic Stampin' Pad	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock

I have been such a busy bee and my date with the ironing basket didn't leave me time for a blog post yesterday, but I'm back on track today and have so much to share I'm almost spoilt for choice! I've been spending much of today preparing for next week's classes: we are doing a 'One Sheet Wonder' using the Secret Garden stamp set and framelits. If you would like to attend this or any of my other classes, or get together with some friends and host a private class of your own, do get in touch via joanne@thecraftyowl.co.uk. 

But  for today, with Father's Day just around the corner I will be spending the next week or so sharing some masculine cards with you, interspersed with some lovely cards featuring products and accessories on the retiring lists and a few cards featuring this months 'Best of Flowers' anniversary set. Today's cards were inspired by a birthday card shown on page 14 of the Spring-Summer seasonal catalogue:

There were a number of things I liked about this card, in no particular order:

• the partial embossing using the hexagon embossing folder
• the use of patterned paper to build the design
• the simple sentiment

So taking these things as my starting point, I developed two similar but slightly different designs. The first one a Father's Day card:

I used the current in-colours and with a Summer Starfruit base, used a number of the patterned papers from the Print Poetry DSP for my patterned hexagons. Some of them I stuck flat, and some of them are adhered using dimensionals. This DSP has a nice variety of papers, with some lovely spots and stripes, which work well for masculine cards. I also spritzed the base card with Midnight Muse so that it didn't look too 'yellow'. I decided to partially emboss a diagonal section across the card and use the unembossed corner for the sentiment.

I then created a second version along the same lines, but this time adhered the Summer Starfruit embossed panel to a Midnight Muse card base and used a simple 'Dad' sentiment on a flag:

This card could be used for any masculine occasion by altering the sentiment inside the card to suit. The 'Dad' stamp I used here is part of the retiring 'For My Family' stamp set that is one of my 'go to' stamp sets for personalising a card - if this is a set you've had your eye on, it will only be available until the end of the month so get your order to me soon.

So what do you think of these cards? My husband said it reminded him of The Gold Run on the 80's quiz show 'Blockbusters' ("I'll have a 'P' please, Bob"!) which I think is rather cheeky of him - he won't be receiving either of these cards then!! Personally, I'm quite pleased with how they turned out - especially for someone who doesn't 'do' masculine cards for anyone other than the under 12s!

Back tomorrow with another card - until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Delightful Dozen, For My Family

Cardstock: Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla, Print Poetry DSP

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Midnight Muse

Tools: Textured Impressions Honeycomb Embossing Folder, Colour Spritzer Tool