WWC #162 - Charolotte's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Spring Equinox arrives this week and I'm so excited because it means longer days and the move towards warmer weather, hopefully and all things Spring.  It hasn't arrived yet though, and today it's a tad cool in the shade and when the clouds move overhead.  I'm trying to layer up rather than turn on the furnace all the time, so it was a bit cool in my stamping room. 

This week's host for the Watercooler Wednesday challenge is Charlotte and she's challenging us to make a Masculine style card or project and "Anything Goes".  

This challenge will be open until 5:00pm Mountain Time on Monday March 26th, so if you feel inspired to join us we'd love to see your creation. All the rules and how too's are on the main screen of the Watercooler Wednesday blog. While you're there, check out all the awesome cards contributed by the Watercooler Wednesday Design Team Artists, they're awesome and so inspiring.

Here's My Card: With less than two weeks to go for the Sale-A-Bration Promotion, I was encouraged to make a card for a friend's son who's really in to sports, using the Epic Celebration stamp set.  What a charming and fun card for a young man!

My card is an A2 with a top fold, made with a Night of Navy card base measuring 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4".  I've layered the card base with a 5 1/4" x 4" piece of Whisper White card stock.  Before I adhered this panel to my card I stamped the sneakers and two sentiment pieces and cut them out.   Why waste card stock?  The Cherry Cobbler layer measures 5" x 3 3/4" and I randomly stamped the sneakers and headset in Versa Mark ink before adhering to the white layer. 

I stamped the sneakers in Momento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured them with the light and dark Night of Navy Stampin' Blends.  These are fantastic and easy to add depth and colour with.  I also coloured the white parts of the sneakers and laces with some Wink of Stella to add a little gleam.  I wanted to ground the sneakers to the card stock so I coloured around them with a Light Smokey Slate Stampin Blend.  The square was cut out with the 2 1/8" Stitched Shapes Square Die.  For some birthday fun I stamped some confetti in the top corner using the Confetti stamp from the Picture Perfect Birthday stamp set.  

I stamped the sneakers  and headsets from the Epic Celebrations stamp set randomly across the Cherry Cobbler layer with Versa Mark ink.  I love the look of this because the stamping lies subtly in the background and doesn't take away from the main images.  The panel with the "Happy Birthday" sentiment from  the Picture Perfect Birthday stamp set was stamped a row at a time in alternating Cherry Cobbler and Night of Navy inks.  I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the sentiments and make sure they were evenly spaced.  

  

I stamped the "Here's To An Epic Celebration" once in Night of Navy and again in Cherry Cobbler on Whisper White card stock and then cut both sayings out with a 1" circle punch.  I wanted to add the Night of Navy word "EPIC" so I cut across the circle just above and below the word Epic and then adhered the cut piece with Tom Bow Adhesive to the Cherry Cobbler circle.  This piece is mounted on a 1 1/4" circle cut from Night of Navy card stock.  It's popped up on top of the two other stamped panels with Dimensionals.  

The inside of the card is pretty simply, just a few more sprinkles of confetti and the Stylized Birthday stamp in Cherry Cobbler.  

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Epic Celebration (Sale-A-Bration 18), Picture Perfect Birthday #145519, and Stylized Birthday #141828
Card Stock:  Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White
Inks:  Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Versa Mark, and Night of Navy (Light/Dark) Stampin' Blends
Dies/Punches:  Stitched Shapes - 2 1/8" Square, 1" and 1 1/4" Circle Punches, Memory Box Pinpoint Rectangles 
Accessories:  Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, Big Shot, Paper Trimmer, Wink of Stella, Dimensionals, Tom Bow Glue 

Well that's it for this week's project.  I sure hope you enjoyed it.  I think I'll be making several more cards with this stamp set as it was really fun to colour and play with.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this card.

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin Spot 

Girl's Basketball Birthday Card...........Game On!

A lot of our friend's teenagers are involved in basketball, baseball, golf and soccer, so it's not unusual to get requests for birthday cards with an "athletic" theme.  

A few weeks ago on request, I made a birthday card for a Claudia a fifteen year old who's really into basketball and has great aspirations to earn a basketball scholarship when she goes to university.

Her mom gave me some helpful insight into what Claudia likes and doesn't like, which really helped when designing this card.  For instance it was really helpful knowing her school colours, bright blue and orange, and that she's not into frilly "girly girl" type cards. So knowing that ahead of time helped me to focus instead on the basketball and banners to capture a real sports style for her card.  I hope you like it.  I hear Claudia she was thrilled. 

Here's My Card:  

Here's my card and matching envelope.  I generally try to do something with the envelope that reflects the card inside.  I absolutely love this winged, swirly stamp from the Great Sport stamp set, so it was appropriate to showcase it again on the envelope. 

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Great Sport (R), Afterthoughts Hostess (R)

Card Stock:   Pacific Point, Whisper White and Tangerine Tango
Ink:  Tangerine Tango and Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.

Accessories:  Banner Punch, Itty Bitty Accents Punch (larger star), Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Calypso Coral Baker's Twine, Circles Collection Framelit dies, 2 1/2", 1 1/4"  and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Basic Rhinestones.

The Tangerine Tango card base measures 41/4 x 11 and is folded at 51/2 for a top fold card.  A layer of Whisper White measuring 4 x 5 1/4" was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder and then adhered with Tom Bow glue.  Before Embossing this piece I stamped the flourish stamp in Tangerine Tango in the upper portion of this layer. 

This center piece started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock and a repeat stamping of the Tangerine Tango flourish stamp.   This piece was punched out with the 2 1/2" circle punch. This piece was then mounted on a piece of Pacific Point cardstock that was cut out with the 2 5/8" Circle Framelit.  Because the extended wings and flourishes were important to the balance of the card front, I was very careful to line up everything before mounting this layer with dimensionals. The Pacific Point layer was punched out with a 1 3/8" circle punch and then the basketball image was added with dimensionals.  The basketball was stamped on Tangerine Tango with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and then run through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder before it was mounted.   Two small rhinestones were added to the outter stars on the image and then the larger star was punched from  Pacific Point with the wonderful Itty Bitty Accents star punch. The large star was finished off with a medium sized rhinestone and then adhered with a dimensional.  

 

Aren't these banners just the cutest?  They were punched out in Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango card stock with the Banner punch (my new fave punch).  I used a very small dollar store star punch for the small star centers.  I mounted the banners on a piece of Calypso Coral Baker's Twine with glue dots.  The bows were tied and then added separately  with glue dots.   

I had to turn the flourish image on an angle to fit it to the 5 x 3 3/4 Whisper White card liner for the inside of the card, but it worked okay.  I added the basketball with Tom Bow ink so it would lie flat.  The sentiment is from the Afterthoughts Hostess stamp set, which is retired. 

So I hope you enjoyed this card.  Earlier in the spring I made these other sports themed cards using the Great Sport stamp set and a similar style of card.  The details are in this post, just click here to take a look.  

A "girly girl" soccer card in Melon Mambo and Basic Black

A masculine soccer card that could be used for a teen or adult in Marina Mist, Gumball Green and Black

And finally I couldn't resist showing off this one which I entered in the Connie and Mary Sketch Challenge  CCMC213, where I earned a badge for being one of their top 3 picks.  This was one of my favourite card challenges this season, and I'm not sure why, but I think it was the DSP and colour mix.  At any rate I'm taking the liberty of re-sharing it with you today.  Details on this card are on this link. 

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens