Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #119 - Judy's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

After having had a Feminine challenge and then a Mom theme challenge it's fun to have a chance to make a masculine card.  This week Judy Markowitz is hosting a Masculine "Anything Goes" challenge and it's perfect timing as far as I'm concerned.

You see, my son-in-law's birthday was coming up and so, of course, I needed a card.  He absolutely loves to get away from the stresses of work by going out to a pond, lake, or river and doing some fly-fishing.  Well, I had hunted down and bought the perfect stamp set for that.  Back in 2002 Stampin' Up! released a terrific masculine stamp set named "Fly Fishing".  The images in that set are perfect.  But of course it's a retired set.  No worries.  We don't get to upset about anything like that in our challenge.

I decided to keep it understated.   Instead of using a lot of colours and making it almost like a photograph, I chose to go slightly vintage and water-coloured the fisherman and the surroundings in very muted hues.  Then I created a background of fish and flies on a piece of Bermuda Bay by stamping those images in Versamark and then heat embossing them with clear embossing powder.  Subtle but oh, so effective.

For the base of the card I used Early Espresso followed by a layer of Sahara Sand and then the embossed layer of Bermuda Bay.  I cut the image of the fly fisherman smaller than the actual image with my square framelits and added a narrow layer of Early Espresso.  Then I backed those with a layer of Sahara Sand cut with my square stitched framelit.

For the sentiment, I kept it to a simple "Happy Birthday" stamped in Early Espresso ink on Sahara Sand and cut with my oval framelit.  Then I backed that with Early Espresso cut with an oval stitched framelit.  The reason I kept it simple is this.  I had stamped one of the fancy fly imaged from the stamp set on a piece of Shimmery White cardstock and then carefully water-coloured it.  It looked great but I needed just the fly and so I fussy cut it, hook and all.  It looks great on the card but honestly I'm beginning to think I'm a fussy-cut-oholic.  To keep my sanity, I'll need an intervention.  (Yes, this is my cry for help.)

Well, a card needs to be attractive on the inside, too, right?  So I added a nice large layer of Whisper White to the inside and stamped my greeting.  Again, it's from that stamp set and is perfect with those flies added to the writing.  Just for good measure, I added a small fly image to the top right and then a lightly stamped (Bermuda Bay off-stamped twice) fish for the bottom left corner.  

The fly fisherman's dream card, right?  Well, Adam (my son-in-law) loved it.  So I suppose the fussy-cutting was worth it.

For more masculine cards, check out those made by our Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  And then, feel free to link up your own creation.

I've also linked my card up to the SUO Challenge #174 since it is all about water-colouring.