Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #111 - Marsha's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

I felt bad missing Heather's Watercooler Wednesday CAS Bunny card challenge last week, but I was traveling and had no time to stamp.  What a terrible feeling.  But, not to worry because I'm back with a fun card for Marsha's #WWC11 Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge.  "Anything Goes" means that whatever is submitted is fine whether it be a card, a 3-D project, a scrapbook page just so long as the entry has a masculine theme.  What fun!  

Here's My Card:
My card features a fun stamp and die bundle from the Occasions Catalogue called Custom Tee and the T-Shirt Builder which I've married up with the  CAS Colors & Sketches Challenge #215:

Inside and out, this card has an "all boy sports theme" going on that meets the criteria for this Masculine Anything Goes challenge.  

I love that there are so many great sentiment stamps to use with the T-Shirts in the Custom Tee set.  There's also a set called "Designer Tee" in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue that's available for FREE until March 31st with a $60 CDN order .  It has 10 wonderful Photopolymer stamps that  fit in the middle of the T-shirt.  T

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Custom Tee, Balloon Adventures, Cozy Critters Hostess Set, Great Sport (Retired)
Inks:  Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Pacific Point
Card Stocks:  Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Pacific Point
Accessories:  Trimmer, Big Shot, T-Shirt Builder Dies, Circle Framelits, Itty Bitty Accent Star Punch (R), Bunch of Banners Thinlets, Tom Bow Glue, Glue Dots, Basic Rhinestones, Sponge Dauber.

What fun!  I loved how this card came together.  Here's the details:

1.  The card base was a piece of Very Vanilla card stock measuring 4 1/4" x 11" and scored at 5 1/2".

2.  The first layer is Rich Razzleberry and measures 4 x 5 1/4".  

3.  The second layer is Pacific Point and it measures 3 3/4" x 5"

4.  I used one of the retired Circle Die Stamps to cut a 3 1/4" circle from the Pacific Point layer.  I randomly stamped soccer balls from the Good Sport (R) stamp set and small birthday presents from the Cozy Critters Hostess set in Pacific Point ink on this layer.

5.  I was going to use a 3" circle die to cut out a smaller circle in the Rich Razzleberry layer, but decided to use the T-Shirt Builder die instead.  I lined up the T-Shirt so that it was in the middle of the 3 1/2" circle.  

6.  I glued the first and second layers together but before I attached them to the card base I cut off the bottom right hand corner on an angle, which exposed the Very Vanilla card base, once these layers were adhered.  I stamped the sentiment "All Star Champs" from the Customer Tee stamp on an angle in this space.  I stamped "#1" in Old Olive ink in the middle of the T-Shirt. 

7.  I created a banner label using the Bunch of Banners Thinlet dies and stamped "Birthday Boy" in Pacific Point ink.  

8.  I punched out some small stars with the Itty Bitty Accents Star punch (R) from Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry card stocks and adhered them with Mini Glue Dots to the banner and the card layer.

8.  To finish the inside of the card  I stamped the Rich Razzleberry T-shirt that was left over with the sentiment "All Star Champ" and sponged the edges with Rich Razzleberry ink, and adhered it to the top inside panel of the card.  A few random Old Olive and Pacific Point stars were added. 

9.  The bottom inside layer was stamped with the sentiment "No One Deserves a Happier Birthday Than You" from the Balloon Adventures stamp set in Pacific Point ink.  A soccer ball was stamped in the bottom right corner in Pacific Point and two small gift boxes were stamped in Rich Razzleberry.

Well that's it for me this week.  I hope you liked this card and will leave me some comments.  

I hope you'll drop in and visit the other Design Team Artists for some more inspiration at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Blog.  I also hope you'll play along with us by linking to the InLinksy no later than 5pm Mountain Standard Time on Monday March 27th. Instructions are at the bottom of the Watercooler Wednesday challenge blog post.   We'd love to have you join us. 

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

WWC75 - Deborah's Sketch Challenge

July has arrived and with it the celebration of two very patriotic holidays in North America.  The first is Canada Day on July 1st followed by Independence Day in the States on July 4th.  I hope all my Canadian and American stamping sisters were able to celebrate and enjoy the holidays and perhaps get a little stamping in!  

This week's Watercooler Wednesday is hosted by Deborah Smart and is a sketch challenge.  I'm loving the simple lines on this one.

 Here's My Card:  

My youngest brother's birthday was on July 4th, so I took advantage of this great sketch to make a masculine birthday card.

I used a 5/8" x 5 piece of the DSP from the card front and a and a 1/4" x 5 strip of black card stock on the right hand side of the card.  The verse is from a retired stamp set called "On Your Birthday".  This set with it's twelve birthday related sentiments is one I will never get tired of using.  

I really like the design on this piece of Painter's Palette designer series paper.  It almost looks like grass cloth.  The design on the Elegant Dots Embossing Folder made me think of the swirls of smoke coming out of the smoke stack on this engine and I'm happy to say I think it really works for this card.  I used three Ice Brads to complete the card.

Supplies:   

Stamp Sets:  Traveler and On Your Birthday (retired)
Card Stock:   Very Vanilla and Basic Black, Painter's Palette DSP
Ink:              Momento Tuxedo Black 
Accessories:  Big Shot, Paper Trimmer, Elegant Dots Embossing Folder, Ice Brads (retired) Tom Bow Adhesive, Dimensionals, Paper Piercer  

Well I hope you enjoyed my post today and will take a moment to let me know how you liked this masculine card.  And, if you haven't been over to check out the other Watercooler Wednesday Design Artist's blogs, make sure you do, you won't regret it.  Lots of great ideas and designs.  

Happy Stamping! 
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot 
July Hostess Code:  2B9CCGQR
(for on-line orders under $200.00)

Watercooler Wednesday Challenges - WWC69 Masculine CAS Challenge

It's time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and this time the theme chosen by design team member Kath Ricks, is for a "Masculine" "CAS" challenge.  Yikes, masculine and CAS......... two words I  normally don't want to hear in the same sentence.

I love layers and colour in my cards so the term CAS which stands for uncluttered, with white or open space, and minimal layers and embellishments, pretty much terrifies me.  I think it's probably the "white open space" concept - because I always want to fill it up.

Well here goes:  

I began with an 8 1/2 x 5 1/2" piece of Cherry Cobbler card stock scored at 4 1/4".  A 5 3/8 x 4 1/8" layer of Night of Navy card stock was added next, followed by a 4 x 5 1/8" piece of Whisper White card stock.  I used the Simply Scored scoring board to add three lines of scoring vertically and horizontally in the upper left portion of the card.  The addition of these stripes helps with the cards visual balance.   

I think this is possibly the most white space I've ever left on a card, but to my surprise it actually worked out okay.  Without any additional visual distractions this little boat really looks like it could float and it really highlights the sentiment "world's best dad".   

The sail boat image is from a soon to be released photopolymer stamp set called Swirly Bird.  On its own, the image of the sail boat was too plain looking, so I hunted through my stamp collection and found a stamp that would provide a light and airy background behind the boat.  The stars and dots image from the Celebrate Today Photopolymer stamp set is actually a two-step stamp meant to be layered on a big balloon but I found it took on a magical quality when I stamped it in Soft Sky and Dapper Denim (new) inks on this card.  

This is the Celebrate Today Photopolymer Stamp Set.  I used the image above the word "baby" for the background stamp.

I mounted the two sails, hull and flag on a block and stamped the full image in Night of Navy ink on top of the background stamping. I stamped the image again on a scrap of Whisper White card stock and fussy cut out all the parts. Before adhering these additional boat parts with dimensionals, I placed them on my piercing pad and rolled a stylus on the backside of each image (except for the flag) until they began to roll. I guess I must have pressed too hard with the stylus on the back of the smaller sail because it looks like it has wrinkles on it, but that's okay by me. Don't sails have wrinkles?   To achieve the 3-D look I had to stack two dimensional pieces on top of each other and then adhere them to the board.

Here is the inside view of my card. The sentiment is from Guy Greetings and the navigation symbol is from the soon to retire Going Global stamp set. 

Supplies Used: 
Stamp Sets:  Swirly Bird (new), Guy Greetings and Going Global 
Card Stock: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy, Dapper Denim, Soft Skye
Accessories:Trimmer, Tom Bow Glue, Stampin'Dimensionals, Simply Scored

May 31st, 2016 ..... Update!
Just wanted to let you know it was a good week around the watercooler for me. I just received a note from Heidi Weaver of the Watercooler Wednesday Design Team letting me know I "Rocked the Watercooler" with this WWC69 Masculine CAS card.  What terrific news!  I'm doing the happy dance now!  Thank you design team and congrats to the honourable mentions for your terrific cards. 

 
Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin Spot!

Watercooler Challenges - Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #32

The Watercooler Blog Challenges have moved to a new day and have a new title.  The challenges will now run from Wednesday to Monday and are called "Watercooler Wednesdays Challenges".  

I'm looking forward to playing along with these weekly challenges and I think you will too.  I'm challenging all of my stamping friends to join in the fun and participate in these weekly challenges.  Tell them Penny sent you.
  
Okay let's get down to business. The wonderfully talented Kath Rick's is starting off this Watercooler Wednesday challenge with her awesome sketch WWCM#32: 

Here's My Card:
I have another male birthday coming up soon, so it was the perfect opportunity to use the Watercooler Wednesday sketch to make a masculine card.  

Originally I planned to use my retired In the Wild stamp set for the images and the Go Wild DSP Paper stack for the mat layers, however all that changed.  Why?  Well, while I was doing some test stamping and checking the ink density and image clarity on the Tip Top Taupe card stock my plan took a bend in the road.  I enjoyed stamping all the animals and a beautiful pattern began emerging from my random stamping.  It didn't take me long to figure out I wanted to use the sample instead of the DSP.  Don't you just love when those unexpected things happen?  It's the a-ha moment, personified!

A 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Early Espresso and a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of Very Vanilla card stocks were adhered to the inside of the card.  Another giraffe image was stamped in Early Espresso ink and a sentiment from the retired "Full of Life" stamp set was added. 

Supplies:
Stamp Sets: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Gorgeous Grunge, In the Wild (R), Full of Life (R)
Card Stock:  Early Espresso, Tip Top Taupe
Ink:  Versa Mark, Early Espresso, Tip Top Taupe
Accessories:  Lots of Labels Framelits, Trimmer, Big Shot, Bo Chic TIEF,  Two brass brads, dimensionals, Tom Bow glue, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat Gun 

The animal images were stamped randomly with Early Espresso ink on Tip Top Taupe card stock on a 4" x 5" piece.  After stamping I cut the larger piece into two pieces measuring 1 1/2" x 4" for the top mat and 3 3/4" x 4" for the bottom mat.  I've been dying to use my new Lots of Labels Framelit dies since they arrived last week, so this was a perfect opportunity to work with them. Each layer is separated with dimensionals.

Two small gold brads I'd recycled from another project were place in the center top and bottom of the Early Espresso layer.  I stamped the "happy birthday" sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Versa Mark Ink and embossed it with Gold Embossing powder  on a piece of Tip Taupe Top card stock.  I've never been able to part with my small retired oval punch so I hauled it and the Large Oval Punch out and layered the sentiment with dimensionals before adding it to the bottom corner of the card front.

I stamped the speckled image from Gorgeous Grunge in Tip Top Taupe ink and then again with Versa Mark ink on the top and bottom panels and the background of the smaller label and then embossed them with Gold Embossing Powder. What a difference this makes!  The embossed gold specks add the right amount of life to the images. Before adhering the top stamped mat, I wrapped it a couple of times with gold thread.  Once again this small addition added more interest and life to the images.  

For the card's focal point I stamped the giraffe from In the Wild in Early Espresso ink on the smaller label.  I sponged the edges of all the layers and mats with Tip Top Taupe ink.  When I was finished I felt that the giraffe image looked a little flat, so I stamped a second giraffe with Versa Mark ink on a scrap of Tip Top Taupe card stock, heat embossed it with Early Espresso Embossing Powder and BAM! the image really popped off the page. I fussy cut the second image and mounted it over the original giraffe using small strips of dimensionals. 

 

 I hope you enjoyed this challenge and my masculine card and perhaps you'll join in the fun and enter your own creation for this challenge, you've still got time.
Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens