Masculine Valentine

 I know it is jumping a season but I am participating in a Valentine Market in January.  So I have to get an early start. Since masculine cards are the hardest, I have started with them. Actually men's card are not so hard. They are pretty minimal--no fuss, no frill.

I frequently use Kraft card bases for men's cards. The mat is a dark brown with a wood pattern E/F.  The 2 wood patterns are from the scrap box. Buffalo check is also a go to for males. The die cut for the heart is from SU. The sentiment is also SU. And it's all tied together with natural trine. 

I used the sketch from Try Stampin on Tuesday

Christmas Music

 One thing I like about making my own cards is they can be designed for a person's personal interest. This one is for the Music Minister at church,

I was going through my Christmas papers for inspiration and found a pack of music patterns that were from Stampin' Up! a few years ago. 

I pulled out the black one that has "O, Come All Ye Faithful" I cut a 2" strip and matted it on red. Then onto a white mat that is embossed with music notes. The sentiment is from SU's retired set For Unto Us. I die cut the sentiment and then put it on a punched red label. That is popped up on foam squares. I found some really small black gems for the upper right corner.

Inside is another sentiment from the same stamp set. I love the font on this one. Then added a sticker music note.

I've used the sketch from Try A Sketch on Tuesday

Hello from Santa

I know a lot of kids love Santa, so I made a Santa card for Send A Smile 4 Kids 

Before JoAnn's closed I scored some Christmas paper for 60% off. The candy cane is one of them. Another had a lot of Santa's on it.  I fussy cut Santa and glued him to a die cut oval. The white was too bright so I sponged red around the edges. The stripe was in the scrap box.

My favorite holiday to make cards for is Christmas so I will also submit to Time Out Challenges

Using twine

Let's Craft and Create  challenge this month is anything goes with an option of using twine

I have been spending this week using whatever paper is at the top of my scrap heap. It has worked out pretty well. 

 The background paper from SU is white with white embossed leaves. I sponged on color with yellow, orange, and red. The big sunflower was in my stash also. I punched leaves from 3 shades of green to tuck behind the flower.  The sentiment is SU, stamped and fussy cut. The orange/white twine bow is tucked behind the edge of the sentiment which is popped up with foam squares. 

Sunflower Thank You

Cardz 4 Galz has a challenge to use coloring, any medium you choose. I love the look of water coloring but am just not very good at it. So I tried a new method using finger daubers and ink pads.

I used the sunflowers E/F from Stampin ' Up! I spritzed the paper before putting it though the Big Shot. It gave a nice deep impression. Then using Daffodil Delight, Mossy Meadow, Pumpkin Pie, and Crumb Cake inks, I lightly colored the flowers using finger daubers. To not cover up the flowers, I chose a small sentiment from SU and fussy cut it. To dress up a little more, I added a fold of yellow ribbon. I probably should go back and add a few sparkly gems but I already sent the card. 

I actually liked this so much, I made more for other occasions and I will definitely add some gems to them.

 

Leaves

I have been busy filling my stash in prep for a Holiday Market. But I wanted to take a time out to share this Thanksgiving card I made for The Paper Players  challenge of Clean and Simple leaves. 

The card base is Kraft. I stamped off with brown to make the leaves at the bottom. At the side is a "cork" paper  with a brown mat. The tree stamp is from SU. For the sentiment from SU, I found a coordinating color of paper in my scraps. Stamped and then sponged a bit with Tim Holtz Tea Dye ink.

Here is Paper Players inspiration photo.

 

Purple and Green

 Not your traditional Halloween purple and green. Those are the color challenge from Cardz 4 Galz

I still have bits of the Forever Lavender paper from SU. It fit nicely on the die cut fram som Sizzix. The paper does all the design work so I only had to add a sentiment and a butterfly. The butterfly is for Let's Craft and Create challenge to add wings.

Fancy Due Cuts

Cardz4Galz challenge is using dies or punches. 

The patterned papers are from Memory Box. 

The die cut label is from Sizzix

The sentiment is an old unlabled wood block stamp, I used a clear star gel pen to highlight the flowers.     3 flat sequins from SU. 

I tried a sheer pink ribbon through the lacy top of the label.

AUTUMN/FALL

Autumn/fall--my favorite season for card making.  The warm colors and textures--perfect for masculine cards. So I had to play along at Cardz 4 Guyz challenge.

Crumb Cake base. 2 papers from the stash, leaves I had already made, some twine, and a sentiment on a popped up deckled circle.  This was probably a 10 minute card only because I already had the die cut leaves done. The leaf die cuts are from SU. I cut them from white cardstock and sponged on yellow, orange and red colors. The twine bow adds texture.

Layers and E/F

 Can You Handle The Pressure challenge is always use an E/F and this week has an added twist of adding layers. Let's Craft and Create also has a challent to use lots of layers. So I have a two-fer with just one card.

I used a Real Red card base. The next layer is white with an all over snowing E/F from Cuttlebug.The next two layers are from Joyful Days Memories and More card pack from SU. The sentiment is an old SU one cropped to a small strip. I added enhancements with a punched gold star at the top of the tree, red star gel pen over the red dots. At the bottom, I swiped Pool Party at the bottom of the tree and then covered that with clear glitter glue.

If you have not tried the Memories and More card packs from Stampun" UP!, give them a try. You get 54 cards in the pack for $11.50. There are 6"x4 and 3" x4" cards. So far I have made 20 cards and have enough for 4 more. All you have to add is a card base and some embellishments. Some of them already have a sentiment.

This one has the preprinted sentiment. There are 2 layers of cards from the pack, one of the 6x4 trimmed to 51/4x4. I added a red mat to the sentiment card and then a red bow and 3 flat red sequins.

This one ia a single layer. The trees are printed on the card already. It was a 4x6 and I trimmed it to 5 1/4 x 4 size. I added a sentiment and used a snow maker pen to add fluff to some of the branches.