WWC197 - Kath's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

With Christmas getting closer and closer, I decided that I'd make a Christmas themed masculine card for our challenge this week.  Of course the fact that I found this awesome stamp with the two horses wearing Santa caps made it an easy decision.

Isn't that a lovely image?  The stamp is from Impression Obsession with the image by Melissa Gordon.  After using my watercolour pencils on the images, I used an oval die to cut it out.  I wanted to give the card a real masculine flair and so mounted the oval on a piece of the wonderful Wood Textures Designer Series Paper.  With a base of the Heavy Whisper White, I chose Real Red as a matte to bring out the colour of those Santa hats.

I tried stamping a sentiment on a banner but it just didn't look right and decided to cut out the "Noel" from the retired Christmas Stockings Thinlits dies using some of the Red Glimmer paper.  Cutting them apart allowed me to use them vertically and I think it works beautifully, don't you?

I hope you'll check out the awesome creations by the other Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I've also entered this creation in the following challenges:

2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge #20 - Anything Goes with a Critter

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge #208 - Christmas Critters

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge #41 - Anything Christmas Goes

Taking a break from Valentine's

I love Valentine's and all the great cards you can make for the occasion: funny cards, sweet cards, downright mushy cards and everything in between.  But sometimes you need a break and today I decided to do anything but Valentine's Day cards.  Looking at all the stamp sets that I've bought and haven't gotten around to using, I realized that today would be the day I would use at least two of the sets...if not more.  The first one I chose was "Heaven Sent".  A perfect title under the circumstances.

I decided to make a tri-fold 4" x 4" card by taking a 4" x 12" piece of Very Vanilla textured cardstock and scoring it at 4" and then again at 8".  Then I chose one of the cheeriest of the Sale-a-bration DS papers and cut a 3 3/4" x 3 3/4" piece, centering it onto the front of the card.  I used the third from the smallest framelits Labels Collection die to cut a window in the centre of the front of the card.  I set the cut out label aside to use later.

Then I cut a piece of Pool Party cardstock to match the blue in the SAB paper and used the Snail glue to attack it to the back of the front of the card.  Using the second from the smallest of the framelits Labels Collection die and lining it up from the front, I cut a window in the cardstock, effectively making a double-framed window in the front.

Using Very Vanilla cardstock, I stamped the little boy collecting Easter eggs with Early Espresso ink and then cut the image out with the same die I used for the window in the Pool Party cardstock.  I coloured the image using Watercolour Pencils and a Blending Pen.  The colours match the SAB paper perfectly, which I love!  I used Pool Party ink and a sponge to shade around the label and then used Snail glue to centre it onto the next page through the front of the card.  It worked perfectly and the boy is as visible from the front of the card as he is on the next page.  Under that label, I glued a "Happy Easter" sentiment which  was stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock with Pool Party ink and cut with the Word Label Punch and then shaded the edges with the same ink.

You can just see the three pages of the card in this picture.  On the last page I used the set aside Label from the front of the card which showed off the SAB paper.  I glued that onto the page and then stamped the long sentiment from the set onto Very Vanilla cardstock and cut it out with the Modern Label Punch, shaded the edges with Pool Party ink to match the sentiment, and glued  that down onto the SAB label.

It's cheery, it's colourful, and best of all...it's not a Valentine. :)