A Good Man has a Barbecue

It's almost BBQ weather, but not quite.  Although most of the snow is gone it's still quite cool and by all accounts winter has not loosened its tight grip.

For this masculine card, I decided to combine two stamp sets:  "A Good Man" and "Outdoor Barbecue" and feature a new background technique using vellum and Stampin' Blends.  A tutorial on the Vellum background and Stampin' Blends will be on a separate post.

All layers of this card were die cut using the stitched rectangle dies.

Both images from separate stamp sets were coloured with a combination of watercolour pencils and Stampin' Blends.  The guy in the lounge chair, with a bottle of ketchup (yup not beer) on the ground beside the chair, is from "A Good Man"; the barbecue is from "Outdoor Barbecue". Some Crystal Effects is added to the Barbecue to give it more of a metallic appearance. The hamburger, flame, and bottle of ketchup were stamped on a separate piece of Whisper White card stock and fussy cut.

The image piece is matted with Bermuda Bay card stock, and before adding it to the card front with dimensionals, some glitter Bermuda Bay Baker's twine (SAB) was wrapped around one end.

Whisper White card stock embossed with the Hexagon embossing folder is added to the Bermuda Bay card base.  A 2 1/4" piece of the Vellum created using Stampin' Blends is added to the embossed Whisper White. A tutorial on how to create this Vellum background will be posted separately.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  A Good Man, Outdoor Barbecue
Inks:  Black Memento, Watercolour pencils, Stampin' Blends (Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Mango Melody) SU Markers (Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight)
Papers:  Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Vellum background
Accessories: Stitched rectangle dies, Blender pen, Crystal Effects, Dimensionals, Hexagon embossing folder.

Beetles & Bugs Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday #320

The optional theme for Vicki's sketch at Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday, is May Days.  You may wonder why I have bugs on my card. Let's say I was out gardening, and some flying, biting insects were very abundant, and more abundant now since the weather warmed up.  Therefore the insect card.

 

I actually don't mind insects, but not crawling all over me.  Structurally they are quite fascinating.

I started by taking a piece of Soft Suede cardstock and embossing 6 beetle/bug images from the stamp set " Bugs & Beetles" with Black Embossing powder.

Then, using fresh ordinary household bleach and a very small paint brush, I applied bleach to these images being careful to stay within the lines.  Immediately the color of the bugs changed.  The color was enhanced when I applied heat to the images with my embossing tool.  When the images were dry, I took a Basic Black marker and reintroduced some black back into the images.

This art piece was matted with Basic Black card stock and added to the card front using dimensionals.

The basic card is Basic Black card stock, layered with So Saffron cardstock embossed with the Hexagonal embossing folder.  On the left side I added a piece of Soft Suede DSP matted with Basic Black card stock.

Emerging out from under the art piece is a die cut tree - die cut from Beautiful Branches Thinlet dies.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Bugs & Beetles
Inks: Versa Mark, Basic Black marker
Papers: Basic Black, So Saffron, Soft Suede, Soft Suede DSP

Accessories Black embossing powder, Heat tool, Hexagonal Dynamic embossing folder, bleach, small paint brush, dimensionals.

A Basket of Flowers - Just Add Ink #345

Maybe because January, the most depressive month of the year, is done with, or maybe its the extra sunshine that we have received, but I've had flowers on my mind lately. My downline and I were discussing flowers as well, so maybe that was a factor as well.
Whatever it was, for the sketch challenge with Just Add Ink, I created a basket full of flowers.

The Card:
The base card is Calypso Coral layered with Whisper White embossed with the Hexagon Texturized Impression folder.

Focal Point:
Two circles were die cut using the Shaped Stitched Framelits.  The larger circle is die cut using the Succulent Garden DSP; the smaller circle in Whisper White.  Between the two circles is a strip of Calypso Coral card stock.

Before the basket of flowers was adhered to the Whisper White circle, the background was stamped with Mint Memento ink using the dot stamp from the Avant-Garden stamp set.

The two layer flowers were made using the Petite Flower Punch.  Two of the flowers were punched with Sweet Sugarplum; the third with Calypso Coral. Each flower petal was sponged with the corresponding colour of ink.

A tiny slit was made between each petal after which each petal was curled with a wooden skewer.  They were adhered together using a glue dot. A green flower was punched and cut into 5 petals. These became the leaves of the flowers.

In the center of each flower, sprinkles embellishments were glued in place using tombo glue.

The flowers were adhered on a basket which was die cut using the Basket Builder Framelits, They were then adhered to the Whisper White circle.

Sentiment
The single word. highlighted with a Tip Top Taupe marker to omit the other word, was stamped on a scrap piece of Whisper White card sock and then punched with a small oval punch.  The edges of this oval were sponged with Tip Top Taupe ink and then applied to the front of the basket.

The smaller circle was adhered over part of the larger circle using dimensionals.

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Good Greetings, Avant-Garden
Inks: Tip Top Taupe, Calypso Coral, Sweet Sugarplum, Mint Macaron
Papers: Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Sweet Sugarplum, Garden Green, Tip Top Taupe, Succulent Garden DSP
Accessories: Basket Builder Framelits, Petite Flower Punch, Embellishment Sprinkles, Shaped Stitched Framelits, Small Oval Punch, Hexagonal Dynamic Texturized Embossing Folder

Urban Birthday

As my son so aptly put it when I showed him this masculine birthday card - not every guy is into tools.  Up until today tools were my favourite embellishment I put on masculine cards.
So today, I used the Urban Underground Specialty DSP with its black, gray and delightful Dijon colors to make a guy card.

The basic black cardstock base is layered with Urban Underground Specialty DSP.
A 2" strip of the reverse side of the  DSP was embossed with the Hexagon Dynamic Embossing Folder, matted with Basic Black cardstock and adhered to the left side of the card front. A bit of sponging with black ink brought out the embossing a bit better.
The sentiment was stamped with Versa Mark onto Basic Black card stock and embossed with White embossing powder. A metallic embellishment was added on both sides of "Happy".This sentiment piece was matted with another embossed piece of DSP and then with Basic Black card stock.  It was then adhered to the card front using dimensionals.

Supplies Used:
Stamp: Big on Birthdays
Inks: Versa Mark, Black Memento
Papers: Basic Black, Urban Underground Specialty DSP
Accessories: Hexagonal Dynamic Embossing Folder, Metallic enamel shapes, dimensionals, white embossing powder.