Masculine Flowers

This will be my last post for a few weeks as, during the rest of July and the beginning of August I will be on holiday with my family in Australia- yes, all 5 of us on Walkabout! Getting excited now, but I was also excited about the challenge this morning at The male Room.

Wowser! How to do that?
With DP of course! My coordinating papers come from a Rosie's Studio collection called East Meets West and it's perfect for this challenge.
The photo is accurate, the background colour graduating as you move diagonally downwards. There is a name for this, is it ombré? Anyhow, I cut the panel, mounted it onto red CS to accentuate the fine red detail in the flowers.

Next I added a banner, stamped using Thoughtful Banners and punched out with my new banner punch (could be Best Buy ever!) I also added two little red hearts, using the Owl Builder Punch.

Popped the banner up on foam pads. I then carried on decorating the inside of my card with another paper from the East meets West collection. I used the little white mat so that you can write your message

Finally, a third DP was used to decorate the envelope inside.

I am so pleased with how this turned out. The dark colours fit the sentiment well (I did think of going with a sympathy card, but this is better) and the fact that the three papers come from a set mean that they truly coordinate.

Hope you have as much fun with your masculine flower card as I did and see you in a month or so!

Happiness is a man on his Bicycle....

Just squeaked in with this one for The Male Room as I got carried away making a card for a swap challenge, which has taken me most of the day! Lucky I knew what I wanted to do. I have used one of my favourite colour combos, Kraft, red and white, usually reserved for Christmas cards, well, for me anyway. The theme this time is transport. Good one for me, I'm married to a transport modeller, a Dutchman, who is bound to like this card!

I am into using some of my older stamps and Pedal Presents doesn't come out of the box very often. The Happy die cut is from Hello You and the birthday is from Best Dad Ever.

I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to make sure the cake was exactly in the right position.

I hope you like my CAS take on the theme. There is a DT call too, over at the challenge blog and we'd love you to join us, creating masculine projects (not just cards) fortnightly.

A Horse, A Horse....

New challenge at The Male Room this morning and I was quite excited about this one...so much to choose from. You will know, unless you have been hiding in a cave, that it was the 400 year anniversary of Shakespeare's death last weekend. Love his work or not he is still a huge influence in our lives if you are an English speaker as so many of his phrases are in daily use. I wasn't a fan until I started to see his plays, mostly in The Globe in London, a recreated Shakespearian theatre which is an absolute must-see if you are there. Now I try to go as often as possible. They are equally good in his home town of Stratford, which is much closer for me.
So, what to do? I went for a well known line from Richard III, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"  But, if you look carefully you might see "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" From McBeth!

I wanted a good background for my galloping horses, and went for brayering. I am still very much an amateur at this technique but I watched a great YouTube clip which helped, the link is 

here 

After brayering the sand and sea/sky using Indigo Ink, Baja Breeze and Hello Honey and Crushed Curry I stamped the horse image in Early Expresso multiple times? The hardest decision was where to place the sentiment. Using a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig meant that I could look at it in several positions, I finally settled on the mid-page. 

My card is tent-fold and is quite big, A5 size. It will be for my Dad. To finish off I used a black mat and foam pads to give the image a lift off the front of the card, it was in danger of being just a little too flat.

I hope you enjoy the Shakespear theme, there really is so much you can do with it!

Thanks, Man!

i have a vintage style thank you card this morning to share. As its for The Male Room Challenge it is, of course, designed for a man with more than a little help from the sketch over at The Paper Players.

This card started life as a technique workshop, where we used dark card stock, embossed and rubbed over with a metallic ink pad, to resemble metal work. Here it is black card and a copper coloured ink on a printing press themed embossing folder ( no idea which brand as I borrowed it on the evening)

I have used this as a top layer, and put some vintage K&Co paper behind it. The banner is stamped with a sentiment from Vintage Verses- I used Chocolate Chip on Kraft card.

I have made a small mat from some DP, from Adventure Bound- these are brilliant papers for masculine cards, and added a small Kraft tag with a stamped vintage car image. I sponged all the edges of the layers with Crumb Cake

The finishing touch is a little clock hand added to point to the sentiment and I've used a small Brad to attach it.

Halloween

Do you like making cards for men? I do and today I have a Halloween card to share with you and other followers of The Male Room Challenge Blog.

 A week or so ago I used one of these backgrounds for a CAS card. When you use this technique of inking and spritz in onto glossy card and then moving the ink around with cling film you are never quite sure how it will look when dry. That's what I love about it! This one looks a bit cobwebby and spooky and so I chose it for this Halloweeen card.

To be honest I don't really send cards for Halloween, or I didn't. Last year I sent a card to my daughter and this one will be for my son, who lives away from home, studying at university. It gives me a good excuse to pop a card in the post, everyone loves receiving happy post after all.

I used the cats from You Little Furball again,  just stamped in black and the layout from the card I posted last week. Fred, my son, is another animal lover so I know he'll like this little guy.

The little sentiment is from Holiday Home.

Autumn Retiform

Back to my roots this morning, with some good old-fashioned stamping.

I first saw this technique when a friend posted a card on FB and mentioned that she used the 'retiform' technique. I googled "retiform technique" and there were some excellent tutorials on YouTube. The theme this week at The Male Room is Autumn or fall, so I used my Autumn Days stamp set, which hasn't seen the light of day for quite a while. I added images from Simply Sketched, French Foliage and Lovely As A Tree.

 

I started by masking off areas of the card using More Mustard ink and in this way formed the 'grid'. Then by masking of the individual panels using post-it notes, I stamped the connected images using Tangelo Twist, Chocolate Chip and More Mustard. I made the sentiment attachment using an oval die and the birthday greeting from Simply Sketched. My biggest problem was keeping the ink in the
right place, stamping cleanly and selecting the images moor each panel. Other than that it was a breeze!
Going to link up with the challenge at Make My Monday, haven't played over there in such a long time and I see that they have an Autumn colours challenge.

Rock Out in Neon

I missed the last challenge at The Male Room. I was trying to get all the posts ready to schedule whilst I was away and that one slipped through the net. So, I have diligently worked on my masculine card for this next challenge.

Of course, on any DT you know what's coming up weeks, or even months in advance, so when I saw Visible Ink had some stamps on sale a couple of weeks ago I got the rocking guitarist image with this challenge in mind. I used a green background paper which I matched to the neon green in my post-it note block and then I had a lightbulb moment- you know, when some stroke of genius comes to you from who knows where! I would use the actual post-it for an upbeat, young and trendy touch.

I hope you think it works, I'm so pleased with this card. Young teenage males seem very hard to design for. The Spider-Man card I made a few challenges ago for TMR started me thinking, bold, bright colours seem to work, and punchy sentiments. 

I added the 'on your birthday' bit by stamping part of a sentiment from the Happy Hour set. The image is embossed to add some texture and I have fixed the post it note more firmly with double sided tape.

I'm going to link up my card to the Anything Goes challenge at Seize The Birthday  and, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, to the music theme challenge at Cas-Ual Fridays too.

Spiderman, Spiderman

Another scheduled post for me today, whilst I continue on my holiday exploring Florida. I have to admit I loved making this card for the new challenge at The Male Room! It was such fun and it was inspired by a free gift at my local supermarket.

The git was a pack of playing cards, featuring Spider-Man. My boys loved Spider-Man when they were younger.........,what Am I thinking....we all love Spider-Man young or old! We often watch the films back to back. This time I used the cards to make a waterfall card. I'm going to enter the challenge at Sieze The Birthday, for 'Anything that Flies'!

I used newsprint as my background and selected red and blue card to keep with the theme

I used the tag punch to give a tag end to my waterfall strip and a snippet of silve chord. The brads are very plain and masculine too. The next photo shows the last scene in the waterfall.

Next you can see better the middle images, all cut from the free playing cards.

I used the only sentiment I own which fitted with the design. I wish now I'd done something a little more creative like a 'Kapow' or a 'Zap' in a star burst shape, like the real comics...oh well.

I added a liners inside as I think it's really hard to write on coloured card. A final image from the playing cards was stuck inside. 

Oh, in case you were wondering, the theme at The male Room is...

 A fun card for a teenager, I hope you like it too.

Life's a Beach

Just back from a week's holiday in Morroco with my lovely husband, rest and relaxation was the order of the day. We were staying right on the coast at Essouria and so I have watched some gorgeous sunsets, the inspiration for my card today for the new challenge at The Male Room.

I used Wetlands and Work of Art for this one and created a sunset

I love both of these stamp sets so much, Work Of Art is just so versatile and Wetlands is perfect for masculine cards. If you look closely you will see that I've added some guilding flakes to the sun's reflection on the sea.

I haven't added a sentiment yet, I think this card could be used for a variety of occasions so I will add the sentiment inside later.

Looking forward to my next holiday now, which will also feature the beach as we are off, as a family this time, to discover the coastline of Florida. Of course, the kids have also insisted on some time in Orlando to visit some of the theme parks!

Spots and Stripes

Hey! It's holiday time! Hopefully this will mean more crafting time for me and I started well by making a few cards for the up and coming challenges at The Male Room so that I can schedule them while I'm on holiday and not miss a week!
I started with this one

I just love this one! So easy to crate masculine projects using spots and stripes. I changed my mind several times before going with ties...

I chose a stripy DP and covered the card base before cutting the aperture. Then I stamped the ties from Best Dad Ever in Calypso Coral, Mossy Meadow and a berry red and cut them out. I positioned them in the aperture, centrally, the middle one is popped up on foam pads. Using the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig I could position the greeting.

When the card is opened the ties are inside.

Crazy Horses

Had one of those, rare these days, real have a card idea that I want to get made as soon as I got a chance. It is for The Male Room, where today's challenge is to make a card inspired by a song title. Are you old enough to remember The Osmonds? If so, this one will strike a chord with you.

Crazy Horses..... These ones are rising out of a foaming sea scape in the light of a full moon....

I love these Inkognito stamps from Visible Image. I stamped the flourish from the set in versamark and clear embossed these before stamping more on top in Lost Lagoon and Island Indigo. Then I stamped the three horses, before blending the colours over the top of a circular mask to make the moon. Wiping off the excess ink allows the white to show through. 

I made two cards, but some inky mishaps when stamping the sentiment meant that I needed a few stars in my sky. I am not sure if this is then completely suitable as a masculine card, although I actually prefer this second one myself