Fancy Fish Card

This is a sketch challenge that I did a week or two ago from this Mojo Monday card sketch.  I never got it posted in time to share it there so I'm sharing it now.

I bought a K&Company paper stack called Que Sera Sera and it's my favorite paper stack right now.  That fish is part of the paper design and I just love it.  Click here to see another fish that is in that wonderful paper stack.  I just love it.

My favorite thing about this card is how masculine it is while still using beautiful papers.

And here's the inside.

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge CFC7

This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is Color Blocking.  They want to see blocks of color next to each other to form a cohesive design on a clean and simple creation.  I think this card fits the bill.

I used a square punch and paint chip cards from the paint section of Home Depot for the color blocks and a computer generated sentiment.

I don't find myself making many clean and simple cards but I like this one.  Happy Father's Day weekend!

Trees and A Brayer

I was inspired by a recent post on the Gingerwood board to break out my much neglected brayer. I've never had much luck with getting good results from a brayer so I guess I just stopped trying. After watching this great tutorial on using a brayer, I think there may be hope after all!

This card started with stamping the trees (SU Lovely as a Tree) in black pigment ink and embossing with clear embossing powder. I punched a circle from the sticky end of a post it note and placed down where the moon is. Then I used the brayer to add more mustard and night of navy ink to the scene. I also used my white Signo pen to highlight one side of the tree trunks and the ground under the trees.
The sentiment is from the SU set called Elegant Cheer and I used a brayer with more mustard ink on white cardstock to make it match the main layer of the card.
The metal embellishments are SU's hodgepodge hardware and the grosgrain ribbon is SU also.

Maybe a little more practice will make my brayer one of my tools that gets used in my art studio!

Two Challenges in One: TPE #22 & CPS #124

Tonight I found some time in my art studio and created a card that fits into two challenges.  The first challenge is The Pink Elephant Challenge #22 (click here to view), which is to create a card with "stars and stripes".  The second challenge is Card Positioning Systems #124 (click here to view) and that one is a card sketch.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I like the CPS sketch layout and the stars and stripes theme was perfect because I wanted to make some patriotic cards this week.  My 17 year old son who just graduated high school left for Army Basic Training last week and I wanted to make some very special cards to send to him as soon he's allowed to receive mail.  This is the official first one!

I'd also like to take a moment to point out the new link on the top of my side bar: Cards for Heros.  In honor of my son, I am making an effort to support them and I hope you will to.  

Okay, back to my card....
This card uses night of navy cardstock and designer paper.  The stamped images are all SU and are embossed with night of navy ink and clear embossing powder.  
I used my sewing machine to add some stitching detail.
Here's a close up of the sentiment on the front.
And here's the inside of the card with matching details.

I hope you'll join me in support of Cards for Heros and keep all of our soldiers in your thoughts and prayers.  They are very brave and wonderful men and women!

Masculine Birthday Card with Bleach Stamping

The next installment in my "What Old is New Again" series is bleach stamping.  Here's the card:

This card uses the SU set called Ferns and I randomly stamped the fern stamp on handsome hunter cardstock with bleach.  The bleached out sections turned a nice brownish color that I matched with a layer of sahara sand cardstock.  Some black added to the card pulls the whole look together.
Another thing I'd like to point out about this card is the size.  A few months ago I won an ebay auction for eight packs of large SU envelopes.  I paid almost nothing for them and when I got them, I tucked them away.  It's time to use them.  The envies are the size of a half sheet of cardstock and I made this card to fit that envelope.  I wonder what the postage will be on this one!
Here's a closer look at the front.  The sentiment is stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with clear.  The button is tied to the ribbon with some hemp twine.  
And here's the inside.  Pretty plain.  

I hope all of the men in your life are having a wonderful Father's Day.  If you want to see the card that I made for my dad click here.  Have a great day!

Father's Day Card

I got a some much needed playtime in last night and made a couple of Father's Day Cards.  I made two of the same card this year- one for my dad and one for my hubby's dad.  They live several states apart from one another so they won't know they got the same card.  {grin}

Here it is:

I found that great plaid designer paper a while back at one of the big box stores.  I bought it because it has such a masculine feel and I love the colors.  It reminds me of golf for some reason.
This card is simple layers with some stitching and ribbon.  The stamp is SU stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with clear powder.  The ribbon slide is from SU's hodgepodge hardware kit in antique gold.  The cardstock colors are black, always artichoke and cranberry crisp.  They match that DP perfectly, don't you think?
And here's the inside- layered and stitched to match.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to play again tonight so that I'll have some things to share with you this week.  Have a great day!

One Sheet Wonder- Masculine Cards

Tonight I did another One Sheet Wonder project and I wanted to share the results with you.  I started out on a mission to create a pile of masculine cards because I never seem to have the appropriate card when I need one for a male friend or relative's birthday.  These cards aren't super "manly" but I think they will work so maybe my title for this post should be "Masculine-ish Cards".

I made a total of 8 cards from one sheet of hand stamped "designer" paper and here they are (please scroll down for more pictures of the making of these cards and other details):

The last picture above is the inside of one of the cards.  There are so many pictures in this post that I didn't go crazy showing you the insides, but I wanted to show you one.

When I started out tonight, I used my SU color wheel to pick out a color combo and I went with five colors: brilliant blue, always artichoke, rose red, bravo burgundy and elegant eggplant.  I also chose two SU sets: Papa's pocket and Antique Collectibles.   They compliment each other nicely.

Using all five colors and all the stamps from both sets, I started randomly stamping up a sheet of ivory cardstock.  
Here's what it looked like all stamped up.  I made sure that I went right off the edges of the cardstock with the images.
I decided the paper needed some "antiquing" so used a duster brush to stipple on some close to cocoa ink- very lightly.
Now my "designer paper" is done and I gathered up some cardstock to start assembling cards.  I randomly cut up the designer paper and created one card at time and embellished them with ribbon and embellishments from my stash.
Below are each of the eight cards photographed separately.  You can click on them to see them larger.   

If you'd like to see other One Sheet Wonder projects I've done, just click on the One Sheet Wonder line under "Posts by Topic" on the right side bar.  I had fun tonight making this one and I'm happy to have some cards that I can use for men in my stash.  What do you think?  Please leave me a comment and let me know.  Thanks for stopping by!