Ink & Share Blog Hop: Masculine theme

I have always found creating cards for men a bit daunting. One, because I love flowers and colors and sparkles...not exactly manly things. Two, because I just don't know what to create and how to embellish it. And lastly, because I simply do not own alot of stamp sets that scream 'masculine'. True, I can always use nature sets as they are mostly neutral, however I wanted to step outside of my comfort zone and explore and try to create something different. Needless to say, this month's Ink & Share blog hop is quite a challenge for me...luckily for me, I love a good ol' challenge!

For my project, I wanted to use my Country Livin' set. I got this set awhile ago but never actually got around to using it! This seems perfect for our blog hop's theme this month. And because I don't make alot of masculine cards, I decided to further challenge myself and create an interactive card this time around. I wanted my truck to move, so I designed this card...my take on the double slider card. 

Here's a video tutorial of how I created this card. I apologize for the lighting near the end, my camera was on lock mode and didn't adjust to the changing light conditions outside! Lesson learned haha. 

PRODUCTS USED:

• Lovely as a Tree stamp set
• Rooted in Nature stamp set
• Detailed with Love stamp set
• Treehouse Adventure stamp set
• Country Livin' stamp set
• Balmy Blue ink pad
• Pool Party ink pad
• Versamark
• White embossing powder
• Embossing Buddy
• Brusho
• Aqua Painter
• Pretty Label Punch
• Thick Whisper White cardstock
• Gray Granite cardstock
• Night of Navy cardstock
• Dimensionals
• Foam adhesive strips
• Linen thread

Well I hope you enjoyed my contribution to our blog hop this month and thank you so much for stopping by! Do continue down the list of awesome crafters for more inspiration on masculine projects, just keep pressing the Next button. Happy crafting!

Deb Naylor

Cindy Mitchell-Clark

Jo Blackman

Ginger Rabesa

Rhonda Waechter

Sandrin Jse

Shirley Merker

*****Phoebe Borromeo-Carr*****

Linda Handford

Sue McDonald

Kirsten Aitchison

Jacqueline Bobeldijk-Schilder

Vickie Kerr

Tricia Butts

Delightfully Detailed Specialty Paper and Brushos 2-for-1 card

Today I found myself playing with my beautiful Delightfully Detailed laser-cut paper. This specialty paper is simply gorgeous! Add these to any project and it instantly transforms it into a wow-project.

Now of course I had to play with my Brushos as well! So I trimmed up a piece of my specialty paper so that I can use this as a stencil for my Brushos. Because I will be saturating my paper quite heavily, I opted to use a piece of Thick Whisper White cardstock for my art piece. Here's a short video of what I did.

And to turn these into cards, I kept it simple. I trimmed my painted card background piece and layered it on top of Whisper White cardstock before adhering to my Real Red card base (A2 size). My sentiment is from the set Detailed with Love, which I white heat-embossed on a die-cut piece of Real Red cardstock using a die from Petals & More Thinlits. And finally for embellishment I just added some Rhinestone jewels.

Of course being a hoarder, I can't bear to throw away my beautiful laser cut paper that I used as a stencil! I just had to use it a well! So I just added a little more color onto it with my Brushos to make the colors pop even more. My paper was curling up after drying, so I just sandwiched it inside a piece of copy paper and ran it through my Big Shot to flatten it. This made it easier for me to glue it down onto my Basic Black cardstock. I then layered this onto a piece of Real Red, then finally onto my Whisper White card base.

For my sentiment on this card I chose a stamp from the set Floral Frames, which I white heat-embossed on a die-cut piece of Real Red cardstock using a die from Rose Garden Thinlits. I then added some Rhinestone jewels again for a little bit of embellishment.

And that is my project for today...I hope you enjoyed them! Cheers to more experimenting, crafting and creating! :)

Springtime Butterfly

     As I've mentioned a few times already, one of my favorite items in the new catalogue is the Springtime Impressions Thinlits. If you need more reasons to love this die set too, here's more samples of how I used these dies to create simple and beautiful cards.

I made this simple card for the OnStage display board and as my swaps as well. They were pretty easy to make, let me show you how!

I used Whisper White for my card base and my layering piece, and Dapper Denim for my mat. I started by gold heat embossing my flower piece at the top left corner of my layering piece. This flower is the big die from the Springtime Impressions, cut out of a piece of fun foam so that I can stamp with it. 

I also gold heat embossed my sentiment at the bottom right corner...I used one from the Birthday Blossom stamp set. 

Next I die cut the butterfly in the middle. I just wanted to have the butterfly cut out so that my DSP could peek through. The DSP I used is from the Garden Impression stack, and the prints on these are perfect for a butterfly background. I just cut out a piece that's slightly bigger than my butterfly and taped it at the back. 

I wanted to stamp the butterfly outline, so I die cut the butterfly out of fun foam as well and used it as a stamp! I used Night of Navy ink pad for this as I thought black would be too harsh.

Now I could have left the card at this, but I wanted to step it up a bit more. So I die cut the butterfly out of vellum and covered it with Wink of Stella for some shimmer (coz' I love me some shimmer!). This was then just layered on top of my butterfly DSP. 

Then I just put together my layers and adhered it to my card base, and that is my simple butterfly card! Now wasn't that so simple? Here it is in black...

For this one, I just switched my mat piece to Sweet Sugarplum and white heat embossed my images instead of gold. My sentiment is from the Detailed with Love stamp set, and then for embellishment I just used some iridescent sequins.

Well I hope I've convinced you to get this beautiful thinlit set, it truly is a must-have in my opinion! Glad you stopped by today and I hope to see you next time! Happy crafting! 

Springtime Impressions Thinlits...Gorgeous!

     Need more reasons to love the Springtime Impressions Framelits? Well I have a few samples for ya! On today's post, I'm featuring two of my display sample cards for OnStage, and a video tutorial of how I made them. Easy peasy!

     When I received my display stamper supplies, I instantly gravitated towards this framelits set. It was just beautiful...I had a million ideas of how to use these dies. I was hoping that the big die would have a coordinating stamp, sadly that is not so. So I improvised. I made my own stamp!

     Watch the video below and see how I created these two cards. 

     PRODUCTS USED:

• Springtime Impressions Framelits(p.129)
• Gold embossing powder
• Blender pen
• Re-inkers: Lemon Lime Twist, Fresh Fig, Sweet Sugarplum and Tempting Turquoise
• Cardstock: Whisper White, Sweet Sugarplum and Tranquil Tide
• Detailed With Love stamp set (p.39)
• Timeless Textures stamp set
• Tranquil Tide and Sweet Sugarplum ink pads
• Metallic Ribbon combo pack (p.130)
• Pink Metallic thread (p.107)

     Here's another card I made with the same technique, just trimmed up a bit. 

     Well I hope you enjoyed these cards and thanks again for stopping by. See you next time!