May Card Club - Masculine

Good afternoon! 

Isn't it just a gloriously weekend?! Right now I'm sitting next to my beloved on our sofa outside, enjoying sun and warmth and drinking in all the beautiful spring smells, mingles with BBQs. I'm guessing quite a lot of my readers will be enjoying a nice long relaxed weekend, being a Bank Holiday in the UK and for my American friends, Memorial Day! I hope wherever you are you are enjoying good weather and spending some time with your dear friends and family. 

Stuart and I are trying our first ever proper BBQ - not like a grill out where you burn charcoal and then stick burgers and sausages on the grill to cook. I'm taking about proper American style BBQ - it involves sticking wet wood chips on the coals to smoke the meat to cook it over hours. I've watched it so many times on the Food Network - love Guy Fieri! So after watching it so many times, doing a bit of research, watching some you tube videos, I've made a dry rub for my beef brisket, made my own BBQ sauce, and got the wood smoking the meat. Now my tummy is grumbling with anticipation. Its going to be epic - if I can remember in my excitement I'll snap a few pics for you guys. 

Anyway, onto some card love for y'all. I thought you'd like to see the Masculine collection of cards my lovely card club ladies made last weekend. All were designed so the sentiments could be swapped out - its great to have choice isn't it!? 

With Father's day less than a month away its time to start thinking about making some cards for those special men! 

Aren't these cards fun!?! Do you struggle for inspiration when it comes to masculine cards? They're difficult aren't they!

Stamp Set: Need For Speed, Best Dad Ever, French Foliage

Ink: Basic Black

Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Grey

Big Shot: Labels Framelits

Extras: Silver Foil Smooch Spritz, Festive Piercing Pack

This card is a bit messy but it looks great and so its well worth getting a little sparkly for! 

A mask was cut from printer paper and temporarily adhered with my awesome two way glue pen to the white cardstock, then spritz with the fab Smooch Spritz (its ready made sparkly spritz that you can mist your projects with - amazing stuff!!). Let it dry a moment while you spritz the background and stamp it with the water blot stamp from French Foliage. By that time it should be dry so peel off the mask and cut with the next size up framelit, pierce with the piercing pack for some extra detail and then stamp the car and sentiment. I thought it looked cool chopping off part of the label. What do you think? Do you like this monochrome card? 

So what are you up to this beautiful bonus weekend day? Have a great day and stop by again soon for more on the other fun man cards we made! 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda x

simply stampin' challenge week 52

Its Saturday again and time for another Simply Stampin' Challenge. This week is a sketch! And here is what we had to work with...

And below is what I created with it! 

Birthday Car

Stamp Set: Need For Speed, Happiest Birthday Wishes (Hostess)

Ink: Pool Party, So Saffron, Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery, Pear Pizzazz, Lucky Limeade, Basic Black

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade

Punch: Corner Rounder, Scallop Edge

Ribbon: Pool Party Ruffled, Pear Pizzazz Stitched Poly, Linen Thread

I really didn't play around with this sketch too much - it was a simple one and it worked for me. I actually had lots of ideas but in the end I went with this car as it was floating around my craft room while I was doing my mammoth tidy this week, I really wanted to use it up before it got lost. 

I coloured in the stamped image and mounted it on some Pool Party cardstock. I then punched a scallop edge in Lucky Limeade and added it to the bottom, over the divide between the pool and limeade cardstock  I layered up some ribbon. Ribbon can be manly, right?! Well, that's what I was trying to go for anyway, let me know what you think! First ribbon layer was the Pool Party ruffled ribbon (I just wanted a thin layer of pool ruffled edge), then the Pear Pizzazz Stitched Poly Ribbon. Finally I tied a scrap of linen thread over the top. How lovely does this look? I'm so pleased with it. I popped the entire thing up in dimensionals and layered it on some Whisper White cardstock on a Pool Party card base. At the bottom I stamped the word  "birthday" - its part of a larger sentiment but I only chose to ink up the word birthday - this as mainly because I liked the font and the full sentiment was too large for the space I had. 

Now why don't you step over to the Simply Stampin' Challenge blog, check out what the other DT members have created for you and enter your own creation using this cute sketch! 

Thanks for popping by, please leave a comment, 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda x

for my bro

My brother is at university at the moment so we don't see much of each other, but it was his birthday on Tuesday so he came home for the weekend. It was great to see him again. Anyway today I just wanted to share the card I made for him and coincidently a new stamp set in the catalogue too! Its a great boy/manish set!!!

Happy Birthday Car

Stamp Set: Happiest Birthday Wishes, Need for Speed

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Real Red, So Saffron, Pool Party, Basic Grey, Basic Black

Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Pool Party, Whisper White

Accessories: Red Baker's Twine (non-su)

Extras: Stamp-a-ma-jig

A very simple but very fun man card. I stamped the car and then coloured it in with stampin' write markers, and mounted it on a piece of Pool Party. I used the stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the happy birthday in a row for a tone on tone background - I thought that it looked a little like a racing stripe - well it was the closest and most appropriate thing I could find. I wrapped some baker's twine around and then adhered the car to the top. 

So, what do you think? Did you enjoy seeing a new stamp? I hope so!! Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think! 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda xx