Manly Mondays Week #32

Happy New Year Blog Fans! 

Hope your New Year is off to a great start. Mine, not so much.  I spilled a full cup of freshly poured  coffee all over my keyboard on day 1! Expletives fly out of the mouth, husband comes running in and dog goes running out.  Once I brought the keyboard to the sink to let the hot liquid pour out it seemed like it would never end. It was initially thought that a new keyboard would have to be purchased. Letting it dry overnight seemed to have solved the issue and thankfully all is right for the time being.  Keeping my figures crossed.  This mishap was followed by dropping one of my favorite Christmas tumblers full of water, yet again freshly poured, and shattering to the kitchen floor. The saying "when it rains it pours" is very apropos for this day. Thankfully it's over LOL.

My first Manly card for this year has a French theme.

I'm really liking Early Espresso and Marina Mist these days. The Early Espresso layer is a bit of a Faux Leather technique.  One of the easiest you will find out there.  Mist the paper and roll loosely.  Put it between your hands and roll back and forth.  The paper will start to get a bit of a cracked looked to it and especially with a dark brown color the effect will be that of worn leather.  I then followed that by embossing French Script with white embossing powder.  The scallop squares where made with Nestabilities. The Early Espresso layer for this one is stamped with an image from Provençal using Versamark and White embossing powder.  I added a piece of Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon.  The sentiment from the French version of last year's Whimsical Words, Douces Pensées, was first stamped in Versamark then Early Espresso and embossed with Clear powder. As I was putting the layers together I decided to distress the edges of the large Early Espresso layer. The whole card has a very subtle shine to it. 

Frankii had a good Christmas and Santa bought him a shiny new red toy.  Like with all his new toys he is rather possessive the first few days. 

"This Christmas stuff is exhausting" he seems to be thinking.  "I wish I had more of those cookies Dolly gave me." He got he cutest gift from his Girlfriend and no matter where that bag went he sniffed it out.  I must ask for the recipe.   He's still playing with his squirrel but for now this is his toy of choice.  Thankfully the squirrel is still all together and he has not had the inclination of ripping out either of the two squeakers inside.  He comes running when we step on it by accident.  He'd much rather chase a real squirrel which he has been very busy to try and find.  They're there because we can hear them when we are outside shoveling the front steps. They are most certainly keeping cover to stay warm.

A La Prochaine!