Trusty Tools and Toolbox Fun

Although Father's day isn't until mid June, Stampin' Up! usually releases some kind of  masculine stamp set during the launch of the Spring Mini and the Sale-A-Bration sales period.  

This year's release is called Trusty Tools # 163274 and is featured on page 56 of the Mini Catalogue.  This stamp set which includes 16 photopolymer stamp images is a two-step stamp set and comes in English and French versions.   This stamp set can be purchased individually or as a bundle #162723. 

       

Two-step stamping allows you to layer two or more images to create one final image for extra texture and dimension. The tool images are open line-art which is great for colouring with  blends, watercolour pencils or paper piecing.  

The Trusty Tools Dies #162722 includes 20 dies which coordinate well with both the stamp set and the Trusty Toolbox DSP (Sale-a-bration #162978).

Trusty Toolbox DSP  Get it for Free with a $60 purchase during Sale-A-Bration.

The Trusty Toolbox 12" x 12" (30.5 x 30.5 cm) Designer Series Paper has tool designs on one side of each sheet, including hammers, saws, wrenches, drills, and more. It's great for card backgrounds or scrapbook pages. Individual images can be die cut with the Trusty Tools Dies or they can easily be fussy cut.  There is a nice variety of color coordinated all-purpose patterns on the reverse side of the papers.  

HERE ARE MY CARD SAMPLES: 

The tool box dies are easy to assemble, and can be popped up with dimensionals to give a 3-D effect.  I cut out the peg board from Smokey Slate card stock to use as a backdrop for the tools.  The card base is a standard 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" scored at the center. I added a 4 x 5 1/4" layer of Basic Gray after I'd dry embossed it with the Metal Plate 3D embossing folder.  I loved the effect!  All of the tools in the tool box were fussy cut from the Trusty Toolbox designer paper. Some of the folks I stamp with don't like or do die cutting, so I chose to fussy cut these tool images, just to see if they would have any difficulty..... and the answer is "no", they were very easy to cut out. 

I really liked the sentiment "I think it's time for a CELEBRATION", which  is from the Beautiful Balloons (161450) stamp set on page 15 of the Annual catalogue.  I embossed it on a piece of basic black cardstock with white embossing powder.  It fit perfectly on the toolbox front. 

This card features one of the beautiful background papers.  The images are screwdrivers.  I fussy cut a few of the tools from the designer paper and adhered them to the background before adding my focal point.  I added some Rustic Metallic adhesive-backed dots #159082 A/C to the focal point on both card faces.  They worked beautifully.  Somewhere in my stash I know I have some metallic ones that look like screws, so I'm going to dig those out for the next cards I make.  

I always do the insides of my cards and here is the horizontal one.  The saw image was taken from the side of one of the dsp papers and although it's not a full image of the saw blade it worked perfectly in the bottom corner of the inside layer.  

I'll have some more of these cards to share with you over the next little while so please come back soon.  

Happy Stamping!

Penny Token's Stampin' Spot 

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Independent Stampin' Up! Demo 

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Masculine Cards Aren't That Difficult

We're still experiencing one of our wettest springs in this part of the world. It seems like summer will never come but we have to make the best of it.  For me one of the good things about summer rainy days is not feeling guilty that you're inside paper crafting and not outside, working in the garden or enjoying the sunshine. At least that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

This past week I've been making cards that could be used for any masculine occasion, simply by changing out the sentiments.  All of my sample cards feature Stampin' Up! products from the He's All That Suite which I featured earlier in this post.

Diamond Flip Birthday Card: 

Take a look at this fancy fold called a Diamond Flip. What fun!  I first saw this design on CindyLee Bee Designs blog and after watching Cindy's great instruction video I shamelessly CASed this card. 

Just like the video, I used the Brewed For You Bundle .  I did change up the embossed layer on the diamond with a retired script embossing folder.  If you'd like to try out the Diamond Fold, then check out her awesome card and video here. 

I stamped the sentiment on a 1" strip of Crushed Curry in Momento Black Ink.  Love how it looks on the side of the card.  Seriously  it looks so good! 

I used Crystal Effects to  add a glass like finish to the beer glasses.  

Stamp Set:  Brewed For You #159093

Card Stock:  Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry and Basic Black 

Designer Series Paper:  He's The Man 12 x 12 DSP #1259068

Cut N' Shuffle Technique:

The Cut N' Shuffle technique is a fast way to mix and match designer papers and use up your stash. The paper featured is from the "He's The Man" #159068 designer series paper.  

If you've never heard of the Cut N' Shuffle technique I encourage you to try it.  With every stack you cut you'll make four beautiful cards in no time flat.  My inspiration came from Michelle Satchow of Michelle's Creations blog.  Check out her video tutorial and explanation of the process in this video.  Note: The dsp measurements in my card are a little different from Michelle's but it's the same process.  

My third card features the Book Binding Fold.  You can check out my instructions for making this super fun fancy fold card in this post. 

My next card was a specially designed birthday card for friend's dad who is turning 97 this month.  When making custom designed cards you really have to rely on the details you're provided.  Stampin' Ups! retired Sail Away and Traveller stamp sets, were among the many used to create this montage design.      

This is a slim line card and matching envelope.

The sentiment  on the inside of the card was a digital custom made saying.  

  

I was also asked to custom make a Father's Day card with a "prairie like" design.  I created a backdrop for the weather vein and fence from the Ride The Range stamp and die set with designer series paper called On the Horizon.

Please leave me a comment if you liked these cards and if you have any questions I'll try my best to answer them. 

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin Spot 

Penny Hanuszak

Clean and Simple Masculine Card

I took inspiration from Linda Callahan's Freshly Made Sketch Challenge #476 for my clean and simple masculine card today.  

FMS#476

It's been a while since I purchased the Handsomely Suited stamp set and coordinating Designer Series Paper called Well Suited.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something masculine.

Here's My Card:

Details:

Base:            8 1/2" x 5 1/2" Night of Navy cardstock scored at 4 1/4"
Layer One:    5 1/4" x 4"  Very Vanilla  - cut 2 and use one for inside layer
Layer Two:    5" x 3 3/4" Cajun Craze embossed with the Subtle 3D EF
DSP:             5" x 3 3/4" diagonal striped design

The Handsomely Suited stamp set and coordinating Suit and Tie dies are part of the Well Suited Suite on pages 66 and 67 of Stampin' Up!s January to June Mini catalogue.  They can be purchased as a bundle (15640) or as separate stamps and dies.  They can also be purchased as part of the Well Suited Collection, which includes the stamp set, dies, Well Suited Designer Series paper and Coordinating Twine (155983).  The stamp set is great for masculine birthdays, father's day and so much more and can be purchased in either English or French versions.  

The Well Suited Designer Series Paper (154562) has 12 sheets: 2 each of 6 double sided papers.  These beautiful masculine patterns coordinate with Basic Black, Basic Grey, Cajun Craze, Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Poppy Parade and Smokey Slate colours.  

This is the double sided patterned paper I chose for this card.  The diagonal stripes were perfect for completing the striped portion of the sketch challenge outline.  

The Subtle 3-D Embossing Folder is one of the best purchases I think I've made in the past year.  It never lets me down when I want to add just that "little something" to my card without going overboard.

There are six sentiments in this very masculine stamp set and I like them all.  I chose this one because I new I could stamp it in both Cajun Craze and Night of Navy inks and merge the two stamped images into one by cutting across the center using the lines on the image.  The two pieces were glued together and then mounted onto a Night of Navy scalloped edged circle. This piece was adhered to the Cajun Craze circle with dimensionals, and then adhered to the scalloped edged Night of Navy circle.    

Luckily I had two small Cajun Craze Pop Dots of in my stash that I added to either side of the sentiment.  

For the time being I haven't stamped a sentiment on the inside layer of this card.  Why?  Well I'm not sure what occasion I want to use it for.  It's a versatile design and while the outside sentiment says "To One of the World's Greatest Dads", this doesn't limit the use to just a father's day card.  This card could also work for a father's birthday or even a thank you from a daughter or son. 

So while the sentiment is missing from this inside layer, I took the opportunity to use up some of the left over designer paper and decorative piece in the bottom  corner.     

I'm not sure if you can see the rough texture of this Cajun Craze layer but it took away the flat look of coloured card stock. 

For the striped portion of the card I simple cut a 5" x 3 3/4" piece of dsp and then used my trimmer to angle cut along the lines.  I like the boldness of the lines  and provides the masculine look I was going for. 

Well that's it for today's challenge.  I hope you liked it and will stop by to leave me a comment.  Cheers and have a great week everyone! 

Happy Stamping!

Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

Penny Hanuszak, Canadian Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

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