WWC175 - Marsha's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

I love our Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge.  It gives me the opportunity to build up a stash of cards to which I can turn when the many men in our family have another birthday or a special event.  This week Marsha is our host for this challenge.

Just a reminder about our Design Team call which will end with this challenge, on June 25th.  I hope to see your card linked up with a DT so that we can consider you for our team.

For this week's challenge, I decided to use the new Sitting Pretty bundle.  Isn't that bulldog adorable?  I love him and the way you can either colour him from "scratch" or use the provided second stamp to colour him.  I decided to use a combination of Soft Suede and Crumb Cake because I have several bulldog friends with those colours.

I wanted an interesting background and so used the embossing framelit in the bundle to create that slate floor upon which he's sitting so pretty.  After doing the embossing, I lightly sponged over the slate with some Smoky Slate ink.  For the brick wall behind him, I used the brick stencil from the Pattern Party Decorative Masks and some of my white Embossing Paste (with a couple of drops of Sahara Sand ink stirred in).

Since this is a birthday card, I embossed the front of my Basic Gray base cardstock using the Polka Dot Basics ef.  The next layer is the beautiful new In-Color, Lovely Lipstick.  I used the Balloon Bouquet punch for my balloons, cutting the large one from a piece of Pineapple Punch and the smaller one from a piece of Lovely Lipstick.  The little heart is cut from Red Foil.

I loved creating the little birthday banner using the Duet Banner punch and the coordinating Thoughtful Banners stamp set.  My inks are, again, the Pineapple Punch and Lovely Lipstick.

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creation by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.  I look forward to seeing your creation linked up, too.

I'm also entering my card into the Stinkin' Inkers Challenge - The Guys Have It.

And also in the Try It On Tuesday Challenge - For the Boys.