Greg's Birthday card

This is my brother, Greg's birthday card. I began experimenting with various CB templates and then ended up tearing the images and layering them. I used the same technique as I have before- after cuttlebugging, I painted with my Lettuce paint dabber. Once dry, I sanded the raised images and then used vintage photo distress ink and my blender tool to rub in some colour.The car stamp is Kaszazz. I stamped it in Dark brown chalk ink and coloured parts of it in using an aqua brush and the distress ink. You can also stamp with distress and then blend the colour on the lines - that's the great thing about distress inks. I made a nestabilities bracket shape with brown bazzill and cut it in half to place behind the car stamp. I used antique gold paper fasteners on each side and then mounted the car and the words. The card is also edged.
It really is much more challenging to create male cards and be satisfied with how they look! Hope this has given you some ideas.

Butterfly Birthday !

I quite enjoyed putting together 2 unlikely colours- red and pink. On a plain white card, I stuck an CB embossed piece of white and inked the edges with warm red fluid chalk. Onto that, I made the name plate using nestabilities. The Happy Birthday is a kaszazz stamp-one of my favourite ones. I have 2 butterfly punches. The one has since been retired from Kaszazz , but the larger one is current. So , I just layered them and inked the white ones edges with warm red fluid chalk ink. I then ice stickled the pink butterfly. The tiny daisies are so cute- it's my new favourite punch. Kaszazz has these tiny punches that work really well. I've had so much use out of this small daisy punch. So, add a scattering of tiny daisies and voila, a very happy birthday card!

Steve's birthday card.

I made this card for my brother in law, Steve. It was his birthday last week and I'm still not sure if he's received the card yet! Never mind, I can't wait otherwise I might just forget to put it on!!

This started with some Flourish paper rolled through the CB folder- retro. I then textured a piece of oatmeal card with corrugated cardboard CB folder and inked it with vintage photo distress ink. The little piece behind the Happy Birthday is actually from the School range -it's a mustard colour that has been distressed. I used the new Paper distresser for around some edges - love that tool!! I enjoyed decorating the inside of the card too- I used the sand SB paper from the Castaway range and stamped it with the distress ink, the wire stamp and clock stamp. For some reason , I always picture male cards as rustic!

Bunches of love Card and watering can

Excuse the shoddy photos!! Taken in a hurry! Anyway, I had a great time with the card that I made. It all started with the paper for the watering can- it is now discontinued from Kaszazz, but it suited the person I made it for! Maureen loves her garden and has recently begun a vege patch, so I decided that I'd pop some herb seeds into a watering can for her birthday. I can't take absolute credit- Jude came up with the idea of seeds! Thanks Jude.

Once I made the watering can, I knew I had to use the hibiscus stamp in the card. I really enjoyed making the blue CB background for the card. I took a plain white card, embossed it, rubbed it with the Acrylic paint dabber- Pool. Leave it to one side to dry. Once dried, sand the raised parts, gently, dust off. Then take vintage photo distress ink and a blender to gently add some extra colour. It really does look great - even if I may say so myself!

The hibiscus flowers is a Kaszazz stamp. I inked it with marmalade Distress ink and then inked on the edges with Vintage photo distress ink, to give it a blended look. You can also lightly spritz to give a watercolour look, but I wanted crisp for this card.

I also used the nestabilities to cut out the signage for the birthday greetings- I'm really loving them. Thanks Di!!

I have added the link to the watering can template - it's so cute. Just a tip with templates, you can just print the template directly onto your paper, as long as it's on the wrong side- obviously!

Have fun creating. If you do make up a watering can, do email me a pic so I can pop it up on the blog for all to see!!

http://images.splitcoaststampers.com/data/ee/images/tutorials/Watering_Can_Template_without_text.pdf

A Sympathy Card

I thought I'd make a collection of some cards, to have on hand. I have many cards, but I'm not necessarily happy with all of them! Anyway, I thought I"d make a sympathy/thinking of you card. I love the sentiment "thinking of you", it just encompasses so much. I always feel drawn to chalks for these types of cards. I was really pleased with this one,because I used my nestabilities and CB folder! I created the oval nestabilities shape first, kept the plate on and chalked gently around it before removing the plate. I then stamped using perfect medium and chalked the lavender stamp. I stuck a piece of organdy white ribbon along the bottom of the oval, only securing at the back. This allows me to slip another piece of ribbon under the base one to tie a bow. I used the oval scallop nestabilities for the lilac bazzill and then simply put them together and mounted them on the white card. For the strip along the base of the card, I scalloped a piece of lilac bazzill using our new scallop border punch. I then used the CB die which is just a strip (I"m sure all these things have special names, but, I don't know what they are!!); to create a paper ribbon along the bottom. I stuck this onto the scallop piece and placed along the base of the card. The words "thinking of you" were stamped in Dusty concord distress ink, edged and mounted on the paper ribbon.
The whole card is edged with dusty concord. Now to making another friend a card and special gift! Gosh, the fun just never ends!!