Masculine Themed International Blog Highlight

Another month and and another International Blog Highlight put together by Kylie Bertucci, where global entries are accepted and then voted on with the Top 10 featuring in a Blog Hop.
  

SEE ALL THE ENTRIES HERE

This theme lead me in the direction of an upcoming birthday card I needed to make, and my favourite go-to card for a 'Wow', the Tri-fold card.  Didn't remember how awkward these can be to photograph so apologies, and hope you get the idea.  Don't be put off if, it's not as hard as you think but if it isn't your thing, scroll through this post as I have a very quick and simple card with the same theme

This features a few more of my last hurrah's which I've been doing in my May posts.  Yes, sad to say The Wilderness Awaits and Wetlands are on the list, along with the 12"x12" Kraft cardstock, and previously mentioned Delightul Dijon cardstock and ink.  

My simple method of creating this card:  Cut base card of Kraft, 6" x 12", score at 2", 4" 8" and 10".  Rotate and line up at the 4 1/2" mark on your trimmer, cut from 1st score line to last score line, rotate 180 degrees and do this again (or 1 1/2" and 4 1/2" if that is easier). Then simply start at the first score and mountain fold, then valley fold. 2nd row, miss 1st score (hidden under the oval), then mountain and valley fold, and last row is same as 1st. From there my Early Espresso mats, are each 1/4" smaller than the measurement in kraft, and then the next layer of Whisper White, another 1/4" increment smaller again. I know it looks busy, but by keeping the layer of white crisp and choosing not to colour the images, I thought it masculine but not fussy.  The extra dimension stamped in Delightful Dijon is from Timeless Textures and the Large Numbers were cut in Delightful Dijon and Early Espresso, top layer embossed with the Hexagons Dynamic TIEF and coated with some Crystal Effects (now retired, but the Fine Tip Glue can be used as an alternative).  Folds up to fit in a normal envelope:

As promised, if you are feeling a little daunted, here's a quick card I put together featuring the same stamps sets, with a sneak peak of the new Wood Textures DSP stack, using the Layering Squares and Stitched Shapes framelits. Linen thread wrapped and tied off with a knot and the greeting from Wetlands die cut from another last hurrah, Tags and Labels framelits.

Thanks for staying to the end and don't forget to throw a vote my way!!  Regards, Sandra

Sunburst Birthday Cards

These cards met the brief for two challenges this week, and suited for two birthdays I had cards to make for.  I hate waste and often make two card bases (or more) when I break out the Sunburst thinlit.

The colours may not be to everyone's taste, but you could use the idea and try it with your favourites. The chosen array for Colour INKspiration #CI04 were Delightful Dijon, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White and Crushed Curry, while the Global Design Project #GDP075 topic was "Winged Creatures". 

Base card is Delightful Dijon, and I cut each out of Elegant Eggplant and Crushed Curry with the Sunburst Thinlit. As I still had some retired sticky sheets, I utilised those to piece the opposites together - voila two backgrounds, trimmed and matted with Whisper White.  I used a Layering Circles scallop with a Stitched Shapes Framelit circle for the Butterfly card, and a Swirly Bird shape for the Dragonfly Card. An Elegant Eggplant frame die cut with matching Rose Garden thinlit and Rose Wonder greeting stamped in Crushed Curry.  The winged creatures were raised with Stampin' Dimensionals.  If you want to know how I made the pattern on the butterfly, I used the Timeless Texture background stamped onto a scrap of Whisper White before die-cutting. The dragonfly was stamped after die cutting with the same image and I sponged around it with the Crushed Curry.

Hope you are feeling inspired, and thanks for stopping by.