A Masculine Birthday Card

I don't know about y'all, but I always struggle with masculine cards.  Given that I do have males who happen to have birthdays in my life, I have to challenge myself each time I need one, so why not look to some of the challenge blogs for inspiration and motivation?  The Papercraft Challenge theme of "For Men and Boys" provided the motivation while Sunday Stamps provided inspiration with this photo and the challenge to use at least three of the colors to create a card.

The drawing in the book reminded me of Simon Says Stamp's Ornate Backgrounds stamp, so I stamped it on Desert Storm paper and embossed it with white powder.  I used ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers to color the image, layering a medium gray and green to make that color to the far right which sometimes looks dark gray and sometimes muted dark green to me.  For the sentiment I combined the word happy from Simon Says Stamp's Stained Glass Love set with "birthday to you" from Birchpress Designs' Make a Statement set.  After trimming everything down I decided I wanted a thin border around it before putting it on the card base but didn't have colored cardstock to match the dark muted green, so I cut another piece of Desert Storm cardstock and colored around the edges in the same gray and green I used on the stamp.  Perfect match!  Then all I had to do was attach it to the card base popped up with craft foam and glue on few white Nuvo Drops.  Because it takes Nuvo Drops so long to harden, I drop a lot of drops in different sizes on a silicon mat, let them dry for a few days and then put them in small jars to use later.

I am also going to enter this into the Seize the Birthday challenge which is always anything goes with an optional topping which I will forgo as this week it is "presents."  By the way, although the Sunday Stamps challenge ends at 6:00 p.m. EDT, there is plenty of time to enter the other two if you are inspired to do so.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Ink Swiping

A few weeks ago I saw this tutorial by May May Made It about swiping layers of ink over dry embossing.  Now I have inked embossing folders and used sponge daubers to selectively apply color to parts of the design, but this looked so free and unpredictable!  I looked through my embossing folders for ones I thought might be interesting  for this technique, embossed a stack of card fronts and swiped away to make some backgrounds which I put aside because life got in the way of card making.  Don't you hate it when that happens?  Then I saw this Freshly Made Sketch:

Instead of using that center panel to stamp and color, why not make the wide frame the most interesting part?  In other words, it was the perfect sketch to use one of my ink swiped, embossed card fronts!  The embossing folder is Swirls and Curls from Stampin' Up.  I am not sure what colors of ink are in this one because I used so many that day, but I do know that I sponged some Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide ink around the edges to ground it.  I used the Happy Large Word Die by Whimsy Stamps to cut three in white and one in Fresh Fig and then stacked them to give some dimension.  The sentiment strip was stamped using the Well Said set also from Stampin Up, embossed with white detail powder from Gina K Design and popped up with foam tape.  

Ink swiping was so much fun I can assure you that you will see more of it in the future.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi. 

In Memory of a Steel Magnolia

I made another version of this card for a friend whose mother passed.  It had just a hint of color on the flowers and a sentiment in a beautiful script.  It was really pretty, but no quite right.  You see, GrandBetty was what we in the south call an iron or steel magnolia:  a woman who is soft and sweet like a magnolia on the outside and strong as steel on the inside.  She was an artist who loved children, and she was never seen without her hair done.  When she could no longer leave her home, her angel of a hairstylist came to her home to make sure she was properly coiffed.  I have no idea what color her hair really was.  Yet she handled life's challenges, and there were a few, head on.  Of course she did so with dignity and grace.  No, I needed a different card for her to honor her.

The pink, delicate drawing, and sparkles keep it sweet, but the pink is brighter and I used bold stripes on the edge and a sentiment embossed on a black strip to provide contrast and better reflect who she was.  The layout is based on this Freshly Made Sketch:

The stamp is by Simon Says Stamp and I colored it with Prismacolor pencils.  I am much happier with this version.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

A Thank You for a Thoughtful Gift

My best friend growing up, who is stationed in Bagdad, sent me a flag that was flown over the American Embassy for me in honor of my grandfather and father who served in the Marines and Navy respectively.  I still tear up when I look at it.  Such a special gift requires a special thank you card.

I started by inking the flat side of the Leafy Branch embossing folder by Cuddlebug and embossing a piece of Colonial White cardstock.  Then I swiped an ink pad directly on the raised design.  I then used a sponge dauber to add a bit more color to some of the leaves and stems.  I love the batiked effect.  I heat embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder and then gilded the the top and bottom edge by perpendicularly pressing the edge into a Versarmark pad and then in the embossing powder.  I popped it up using foam tape.  The twine was bought at Target years ago.  I like how the metallic thread compliments the heat embossing.

I am entering this card in the Just Add Ink challenge to just add embossing.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

A Star in a Swirling Metallic Sky

The Jingle Belles want to see Christmas cards with glitter or metallics and I had some of the Hero Arts Glimmer Metallic Ink that I wanted to play with.  Did I mention that the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge has the optional twist of stars?  I had a vision of a star in a metallic version of a swirling galaxy sky.  Time to get playing!

The glimmer inks are fairly thick, almost like paint, and come in a dropper bottle.  I put a few drops of pewter, blue, and purple inks on a craft mat and spritzed them with a bit of water to thin them some but not so much that they would not have some texture as they layered on my paper.  I smooshed Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock into the puddles dragging and lifting until the paper was covered and let it dry naturally.  I did not spritz the paper during the smooshing and dragging process.

Next I used a die from Stampin' Up's Star of Light set to cut a star from my dry panel and from a piece of craft foam cut slightly smaller.  I then embossed the sentiment and attached the card front and craft foam to the card base.  I cut a filigree star from silver foil paper to nestle into the star shaped well and finished it off with a blue violet sparkle.

Lastly I used Color Box silver metallic pigment ink to stamp the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi 

Materials used:

Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 cardstock, Close to My Heart Silver foil paper

Ink:  Hero Arts Glimmer inks in Pewter, Blue, and Purple, Color Box Silver pigment ink

Stamp and Dies:  Star of Light by Stampin' Up

Embellishments:  Purple Sparkle by Ki Memories, White craft foam, Gina K Superfine White embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches Meets Color Throwdown for Valentine's Day

After my last post about a valentine for a friend to give to her husband, please don't think I neglected my own husband.  Here is the one I made for him using this Freshly Made Sketch and this week's Color Throwdown colors, dark pink, black and gray:

I started by using the A Layer of Birch Press Design's Adora layering die set to emboss the background.  Do you think that can count as the leaf element?  The smaller heart is Melon Mambo layered over three black hearts, brushed with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents for sparkle AND shine (although it does not show well in the photo).  The black layers subtly echo the word "love" which was cut from black glossy paper.   For the "gray" elements I used Champagne foil paper and gray sparkles.  The card front is popped up with a piece of craft foam for added dimension.

Here is the inside which I embellished with hearts leftover from the card in my last post.  The stamping is embossed with silver and Versamark ink and clear detail powder over black ink.

Yes, he liked it.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used:
Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 cardstock, black and Melon Mambo cardstock, Champagne foil paper, and black glossy paper from Stampin' Up
Ink:  Raspberry Pigment ink from Close to My Heart, Onyx Black Versafine ink, Versamark ink
Stamps:  Thoughtful Messages by Simon Says Stamp, Mad About You by Close to My Heart
Embellishments:  Gray sparkles from Close to My Heart, Silver detail embossing powder by Ranger, Clear detail powder by Stampendous
Other:  Adora Layer A die by Birch Press Design, Sweet and Sassy framelits from Stampin' Up, Cupid Hearts Border die by Simon Says Stamp, Opulent Swirls die by Crafter's Companion for Gemini

Shiny Valentine

This is a Valentine for a friend's husband.  Before you get the wrong idea I have to tell you that she asked me to make it for HER to give him.  I made it following this Freshly Made Sketch and assorted foil papers from Stampin' Up.

I cut the hearts using the three smallest dies from the Stampin' Up Sweet and Sassy framelits set and Simon Says Stamp's Cupid's Heart Border die from four foil papers (Black, Champagne, Lovely Lipstick and Grapefruit Grove) and proceeded to play mix and match.  Yes, I have a lot of hearts for other projects...  The overlapping hearts are popped up with thin foam tape.  For the word "Love" I used the die from Hero Arts Love stamp and cut to cut two from black cardstock and one from black foil paper and stacked them.  The rest of the sentiment was embossed in copper using words from the Thoughtful Messages set from Simon Says Stamp.  This required cutting (gasp!) the word "you" from the sentiment strip "you more today than yesterday."

This picture does not accurately show how shiny the hearts and "Love" sentiment are.  The Grapefruit Grove is particularly beautiful because it has a holograph effect when you tilt it, appearing to be copper until the changing angle of the light lets you see waves of pink and a bit of green shimmer.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi