March 2016 Card Group Projects

Here's what I created for my lovely card group ladies to make on our monthly get together last Thursday afternoon.  At our February meeting I didn't exactly promise but I did say there might be a masculine card in March.  Well, I ended up making three cards suitable for men - actually, I think they would be suitable for males or females - but they're definitely not girly, no flowers and butterflies!

The first card uses the lovely SU! 'In the Meadow' set.  I stamped the images in VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink onto a square of watercolour paper using a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig for perfect placement.  I put drops of SU! Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi and Soft Suede inks from re-inker bottles onto a tile and picked up the colour with a water brush.  I used a Soft Suede marker to add colour to the tree trunks and the deer legs and I used a Wild Wasabi marker to add detail to the grass.  I dotted the brush end tip of the Wild Wasabi marker onto the treetops.  I stamped the sentiment and noticed that the 'y' in 'Especially' wasn't stamping completely so I filled in with an Early Espresso marker.  I stamped the sentiment several times onto scrap paper which confirmed my suspicions that the stamp was damaged and so I consigned it to the bin.  On the day, the ladies stamped a 'Just for You' sentiment on a separate piece of Soft Sky CS and cut it out with an oval punch.   I edged the panel with Early Espresso ink, glued the stamped panel to an Early Espresso die cut Rectangle Parenthesis shape, added some Early Espresso baker's twine and glued the label to the front of a Soft Sky A6 card base.  I punched a small Soft Sky circle and added a metallic finish embellishment to complete the card front.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

Card two features the oh, so versatile SU! 'Kinda Eclectic' set and a colour combo of Crumb Cake, Night of Navy and white.  I made an A6 Crumb Cake card base and stamped the dots in Crumb Cake ink several times onto the card front.  The wood grain banner was cut using paper from a 6" x 6" pad, I edged the banner with Crumb Cake ink and glued it to the card base leaving the flagged end unglued to add a bit of dimension.  I stamped the sunburst in Night of Navy ink so the image covered the wood grain banner as well as the card front.  I glued a smaller Night of Navy banner into place and then worked on the sentiment circle.  I stamped the leaves in Lost Lagoon ink after stamping off once first, stamped the sentiment in Night of Navy ink and used a 2" circle punch to cut it out.  I edged the circle with Night of Navy ink and popped up the circle.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

Card number three is quite different for me, not my usual style, I don't often do grunge and I've never seen the appeal of washi tape!  I've been debating whether to get the SU! 'Gorgeous Grunge' set for a long time, I wasn't sure I'd like it all that much.  But then I do keep seeing lovely cards on Pinterest made with the set so  I finally took the plunge and got some washi tape along with the stamp set!   I so enjoyed putting this card together, I loved that the simple stamping was quick, easy - and great fun!  I did have to add an image - a card just doesn't feel complete to me unless there's a "thing" on it, like a flower or butterfly, an object of some sort so I couldn't stamp the grunge elements and a sentiment only - I can't help it, it just doesn't feel right to me!  So after the background stamping, I added a strip of washi tape and stamped the sentiment.  I stamped a leaf in Old Olive ink onto a piece of Very Vanilla CS and used a blender pen to draw the ink from the outline into the leaf to add a touch of colour.  I stamped the speckles and the postmark, then tore around three edges of the panel, inked the edges with Soft Suede ink and glued the panel in place.

Here's the inside and the envelope.  I didn't plan on adding washi tape on the inside but there was a gap between my stamped lines which I didn't like so the strip of washi tape proved very useful! 

Supplies for deer pair 'Especially for You' card:
Stamps: SU! 'In the Meadow' set, sentiment from Woodware 'Going to Seed' set
CS: SU! Soft Sky, Early Espresso & Whisper White, watercolour paper
Ink: VersaFine Vintage Sepia, SU! Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi & Soft Suede, SU! Soft Suede & Wild Wasabi markers
Tools: SU! Stamp-a-Ma-Jig, XCut Rectangle Parenthesis 1 die, XCut 3/8"  circle punch, water brush, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Early Espresso baker's twine, Marianne Designs metal adhesive gem

Supplies for 'Sending Wishes Your Way' card:
Stamps: SU! 'Kinda Eclectic' & 'Butterfly Basics' sets
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Night of Navy & Whisper White
Patterned paper:
Ink: SU! Crumb Cake, Lost Lagoon & Night of Navy
Tools:  SU! 'Banner Triple' punch, MFT 'Fishtail Flags' Stax die, sponge daubers
Embellishments & accessories:  Dimensionals

Supplies for grungy leaf 'Happy Birthday' card:
Stamps: SU! 'Gorgeous Grunge', 'Vintage Leaves' & 'Butterfly Basics' sets, Clearly Besotted 'Happy Birthday' set
CS: PaperMania cream A6 card blank, SU! Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Soft Suede, Tip Top Taupe & Old Olive
Tools: sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Bohemian Designer Washi Tape, blender pen