Chorus Line

Thought this card might raise a smile or two to brighten this dull and damp and windy morning.  These chicks were sitting on my desk after having been stamped, coloured and fussy cut and as I looked at them I was reminded of a chorus line dancing across a stage.   Quite a simple card to make really with some layers and a little watercolour swooshed across the background with a few splatters added before popping the chorus line in place with a stamped greeting.

Chicks - Hey Birthday Chick from Stampin' Up
Sentiment - combination of three different stamps

Lighthouse

 I've been revisiting quite a lot of stamps and stamp sets which have been in my stash for some considerable time and perhaps haven't been inked as often as they should.  After all I'm sure I felt they were 'must-haves' at the time and I guess I'm not alone in being guilty of not using them enough.  Thinking back I seem to recall this set was part of a class I attended a few years back where the price included a set of stamps so maybe they wouldn't have been my first choice but even so they were used quite a bit at the time.  Not really lighthouse weather today, very windy and dark with lashing rain as I'm typing this. 

To make this card I started out by die cutting an oval from a square of white card which I then embossed to give it some texture.  Another square was used to stamp the little scene to place behind and the lighthouse was stamped onto a scrap and fussy cut.  Simple greeting and that's another card for the box.

Stamps - High Tide Stampin' Up (retired)
Embossing Folder - Braided Lines from Crafts Too 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #403

Time for another challenge over in the Snippets Playground and this time there is a clever card from Liz who is a regular playmate.  This showcases the super useful prize which is on offer this time, especially if you struggle with masculine cards.  Well worth taking a look and maybe having a go yourself - you will also use up some of your snippets - something we all seem to have loads of. My card has been made entirely from snippets apart from the base card blank.

It always interests me to see how different techniques seem to 'go the rounds' now and then before disappearing for a while, only to return once again.  Something which seems to be in the limelight at the moment is stamping onto coloured card, embossing with white and then colouring using watercolour pencils.  This is what I've done using a scrap of beige card which, once coloured, has been die cut and layered onto a piece of toning pink.  More toning snippets have been used to add other elements to the design and that's my dabble into the white embossed watercolour technique for today.

Image - stamp from Simply Sketched Stampin' Up (long retired)
Ovals - Tonic dies
Border and Sentiment Banner - Daisy Mae border die set
Sentiment -  punch from Stampin' Up (no longer available)

Class in the Post

 Had another class in the post this week from Jenny (Stamping Moments) - take a look if you want to see all of the projects she sent.  I'm sharing just one of the cards with you and I have added some of my own DSP so that it could be made into a larger card.  I'm sure you probably know that there is a new Stampin' Up catalogue around and the Pansy set is just one of the lovely new items which have appeared. As usual there are stamps and dies available as well as the designer papers to match and the pansies on this card were die cut from just one of the papers.

Background paper - from a Capsule Collection by Papermania from some time ago
Remaining elements - from the Class in the Post kit, Stampin' Up.

Sail Away

 Definitely not pleasant sailing weather today as it is very grey and raining steadily here but I do have another card to share which is probably more orientated towards the masculine. I started with a partial sheet of DSP with some text on it and cut a large piece for the background before deciding to use the remainder for the rest of the elements.  The background was stencilled randomly for a bit of extra interest and then I stamped the panel with the numbers, trimmed to size and inked the edges.  The sailing boat was stamped  and embossed onto another scrap and die cut using an  oval die, again inking the edges.  Finally stamped the sentiment on a really small scrap.  Two wavy strips were die cut from a scrap of black card to add a bit of contrast to the browns and creams.

Designer Paper - from a Prima Scrips pad which I've had for ages
Number Panel - Stamp from Phill Martin (magazine freebie)
Sentiment - Another freebie from a different Phill Martin magazine
Stencil - Creative Expressions from way back
Image - Sail Away stamp from Stampin' Up (long discontinued)
Wavy Borders - Border die set from Daisy Mae

Clean and Simple

 I've not given up on the idea of making masculine cards but yesterday I became side-tracked and came up with a fairly clean and simple floral card.  This one is a DL card and I've used a texture stamp to add three panels before over stamping with a floral silhouette in black.  A little stitched banner for the greeting and there we have it - a clean and simple result.

Textured Areas - stamp from free set with magazine (Phill Martin)
Flowers - stamp from the same set of freebies
Banner - from a Daisy Mae border set of dies, greeting stamp from Stampin' Up

Cards for Men

 I wonder why so many of us find it difficult to make cards for men, especially if they aren't particularly into football or drinking!!  I'm quite sure there are far more stamps, dies and the like out there for cards which are definitely feminine but luckily there are some items around which we can use for more general masculine styled cards (without a football or glass of beer in sight)..  I do realise that I make far fewer for men than for women but I am trying to balance things out a bit.  This is one such card which I made a while ago.  I started with a piece of design paper with light script on it and added some random stencilled circles.  The image was stamped and heat embossed onto another scrap of the text paper and layered with a darker rectangle.  Scrabbled through the scrap boxes and came up with a die cut cog and a piece of inky, dry embossed card with a sort of industrial/metallic finish.  Assembled everything and added a little banner sentiment.

Image - from a retired Stampin' Up set Feeling Sentimental
Cog - Sizzix die
Embossed strip - Cuttlebug embossing folder I think but not a recent purchase
Text Paper - Prima
Stencil - from All & Create