It's Just a Number

This should make a nice masculine card for a guy turning an age he may not really want to be! So I had these cute distressed papers that had numbers all over them. I also used the Tim Holtz Ranger numbers and sanded them a little and then added some Pearl color and some Ranger Distress crackle paint to age them.  I also covered 3 chipboard numbers with some number paper and stained the edges with Ranger Distress walnut stain. I colored the 687 numbers with some Baja breeze ink and also used some distress crackle on top of that. The center statement of It's Just a Number is done with a Dynamo letterer. I distressed and stained the almond cardstock where I placed the Dynamo letters. I added Clear Distress Crackle over the statement piece. Card is covered in a Wood Designer paper, but the numbers cover it up pretty well! LOL!

Kute little Koala

This is a cute little stamp from Whippersnapper. I had quite a few scraps of paper on my desk, so I just grabbed some older designer papers and cardstock and used up some paper stash to create this cute little Koala Birthday card. I used Copics to color him in. I had a little thumb punch of a cupcake so I used the same striped paper to punch out the cupcakes on the side. I also sort of followed an older SCS card sketch for the placement layout. Faux brads are used in the corners by using a very old industrial paper punch my DH gave me quite a few years ago. It was another fun one!

Hi Y'all! Here is a selection of Birthday cards I've been working on. This first one is done with a selection of Kraft Core colored cardstock. I then used a border punch and stained all the edges with Ranger's Distress Ink Walnut Stain. 

 This second one I just tried to bring out the colors of the stripes  by using the purple cardstock, purple and orange Prima flowers, and an orange scallop around the sentiment.

 Here on this third card, I just loved the blue and yellow color combination and highlighted with the orange Prima flower centers and orange scalloped circle.

 This fourth and fifth card I just liked the Pinwheel designer paper which I highlighted with little gems in the centers. I used a Baja Breeze ink and sea colored cardstock and tried to pop it with orange and red.

 For these last two, I found this cute aqua cardstock and turquoise aqua designer paper, and I used an old Splitcoast card sketch with the large diamond square with three smaller diamond squares accenting it. I used a combo of Aqua and Baja Breeze, and it looks better IRL (in real life) than it does in these photos.

                                                      As always I just have fun making cards!

Mixed Media on Canvas

Here is one of my first attempts with mixed media on canvas. A while back a friend of mine sent me a link to Christy Tomlinson's She Art blog. You can view it here.  I certainly love her style. She makes it look like so much fun. I had to try it. I think I like how it turned out. I have a lot to learn yet, but this was tons of fun. So much so I want to do it some more!

This one may be my first in placement on the wall,

Then this one in the center, with the larger butterfly,

Then this one as the last placement.

These were done using designer paper, acrylic paint, light modeling paste mixed with some acrylic paint, and some rubber stamps and punches. I used all kinds of stencil templates to add the modeling paste. You can tell I obviously tried to do a few things that Christy shows how to do in her tutorial.  It was just fun to do!

I tried this idea after viewing Gina K.'s blog. I liked how she trimmed the scalloped die cut at the edge of the paper. You can then use a rather large stamped image and trim it to fit your A2 size cards. You can use any style diecut, such as a Spellbinder's label's 8 or Labels 4. Just fit it at the edge and trim it! This style is nice to make because there are not too many layers so it mails nicely in a regular A2 invitation sized envelope. I still always put a card protector piece of cardstock over the card so it goes through the mail machines smoothly.

I love this sunburst style card! It is such a great way to use coordinating papers! The sunburst pattern is from a blog a friend referred to me.  Here is the link:Sun Burst Card Template © 2012, Andrea Walford, Paper Crafter’s Library; www.papercrafterslibrary.com

Andrea has a great tutorial on how to piece this together so it comes out so nice on your card! You can choose any occasion, any sentiment and any color to make it your own. I have used all sorts of colors using this pattern,  and all kinds of sentiments to fit the occasion of the card I choose to make. It makes such a bright, beautiful card!

 I am sure you recognize the shape. I have artist friends and blogs I follow that alter the coolest things. They alter jars, silverware, picture frames, vintage tins, vintage windows and shelves and vintage clothing. Not I. Well I do that stuff sometimes. No, not today. Today I go and alter a toilet paper roll! Of all things, really!
I found though that this little gadget-- also known as a Doo Doo tube --you know, when your kids take an empty toilet paper roll and go around the house blowing it like a kazoo, making the Doo Doo sound!

Well this gadget also covers my desk duster really well, so it maintains it's shape. I didn't like the look of the plain brown toilet paper roll, so I took an aluminum soda can piece --yes I cut up an aluminum soda can so I could alter the metal. I ran that piece of aluminum through my Cuddlebug with a Tim Holtz embossing folder. I then adhered the aluminum piece to the roll with that fantastic double sided red tape. It adheres really well, and this needed strong adhesive. I also ran some brads up and down the seam so it would stick even better, and give it a more rustic look. I punched some holes all around the edges of the top and bottom and took some black lanyard lacing and wound the bottom and top with that. Then I took some acrylic paint, some ocean blue and bahama blue and painted the entire surface with Americana acrylic paint, and let that dry. When that was completely dry, I sanded off quite a bit of the blue paint, and then used some Perfect Pearl mica powders. I covered the surface with the medium and then spritzed the powders with water and painted the copper, bronze and a little gold on and let it dry. That was it! Now I have a rather cool duster cover. My altered doo doo tube!

This beauty is a design by Dee or Deelight in our SCS stamping group. I love, love, love this design, the colors, and the technique used to make this ultimately cool masculine card. The color is an awesome SU blue ink. Dee had some wonderful shiny silver designer paper, and that was put into a gears theme embossing folder, then swiped on the up-textured side with black ink. Very neat effect. Labels two Spellbinders was used, and then blue sponging around the stamped motorcycle image while the image was still inside the Spellbinders die! Then she tied a washer around the panel and added three silver brads. Very cool. Oh, and various gears where stamped on the background with white ink. Inside was a chain link stamp, and a You're the Best stamped image. Awesome! And Totally Rad!

This card  was designed by Carol - a new Carol-haha! I think we have three now!

She used a fish stamp and embossed it after stamping in three different colors. Nice rounded corners, and a great theme for men!

This card was designed by Laurie. Laurie had some great old German music papers and I took the liberty to stamp in lightly direct to paper with the red ink pad. I also distressed the edges. The word Love was put on a Spellbinders die cut and brads were used to adhere it. Neat Date Stamp used for the theme. Nice black and white ribbon attached with the Tim Holtz tiny attacher. Fun valentine to give to a Guy!

This card was designed by JoAnn. She used the Tim Holtz theme embossing folders, and Stampers Anonymous sentiment stamps. I love her use of male patterned papers and distressing the embossed images and edging around the DP. Nice copper clasp holds the card  in place and another sentiment is stamped inside.

This is the inside of JoAnn's card. (above).

 This is Danette's design. Danette did an ATC! (Artist's Trading Card). Danette used the clear acrylic and passed it through a Tim Holtz embossing folder, and sanded it slightly to bring out the image since it was so clear. Then she had clear pocket corners to tuck the acrylic sheet into on top of the tan sentiment piece, stamped with a Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous sentiment. Inside is an embossed image swiped with color to bring out the impression as shown below here.

Showing the cute little envelope and key that went along with Danette's design.

Below is my design for the swap. I simply used some cool DP I found at Archiver's something along the lines of a Pear Tree I think. All the paper designs looked masculine to me. Then I added Tim Holtz gears I embossed and cut out and then swiped with Distress Walnut Stain ink. The stamped images and sentiments are a Gears theme from Technique Tuesday. I attached the stamped image panel with the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. Cuttlebug die cut corner. I also attached a little key from 7 Gypsies with Glossy Accents glue.

 This awesome card was designed by Katherine. She used all SU colors and stamps. This one is from the Surfer group. I love this image stamped in that pretty blue! I love how she surrounded the image with the bold, bright yellow and orange. The inside panel was water color paper wet down with a spritzer with water. Then the inks from the stamp pads were used by pressing the lid of the stamp pad down onto the ink pad and using water and a paint brush to place on the water color paper. We dried it with a heat gun and then pressed the sumburst embosing folder onto the paper and Oila! A beautiful sunburst impression to go with the Surfer! Very Cool Indeed!

Another one of my design, using a different designer paper.
Thanks for looking at my Masculine Cards this week!

Masculine cards for a swap

Here are some cards I made for a Masculine Card Swap on SCS.

Sure had a fun time making! I used several Cricut cuts from the Heritage cartridge. I also used the Cricut Imagine cartridge JT. It has a nice steampunk feel to it. I chose several masculine papers and Heritage cuts that looked masculine. Some of the labels are from the Heritage cartridge too.

CTMH Giveaway from My Passion for Scrapbooking

A cool giveaway is going on at http://www.mypassionforscrapbooking.com/browse-65008/Giveaways.html
I sure would love a chance for this too, but if you are here you need to check it out too! Its for the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection cartridge! I've been drooling over this cartridge for awhile! You might be too!
Cool blog btw too!

Masculine Birthday Card

Birthday Card I made for my son. For this card, I used some Tim Holtz embossing folders, and inked them two different ways. For the car in the top left, I inked inside the folder first before embossing the cardstock. The gears and the car in the bottom right, I inked after I embossed them. The Birthday sentiment is a studio 112 stamp. Tied a black cord around it. Background dp is Stella Rose from My Minds Eye.