Masculine Cards

Yesterday I held a Men's Card Class.  Not too many came but with the Canucks Hockey game playoffs happening and the day after a long weekend what can you expect.  Here's what they missed:

Making Masculine Cards Just Got Simpler

I often hear from my customers that they really struggle when it comes to making masculine cards.  This has been a real dilemma for me too.  Usually at this time of year I'm really struggling to come up with masculine cards for upcoming birthdays and Father's Day, but not this year!  I have to tell you I'm absolutely thrilled with the Open Sea and Sail Away stamp sets featured in Stampin' Ups! Summer Mini Catalogue.  These stamp sets along with the beautiful Nautical Expedition Designer Series Paper have made it super easy for me to design masculine cards for these occasions. 

On Tuesday night I'm hosting a "Men's Card Class" which features three cards made from these sets and the wonderful designer series paper. I think you'll agree these cards would work great for Father's Day or any other masculine occasion.  I'll be posting pictures of the individual cards and details following the class so come back and visit again soon.

MDS: Kids in the Park

Recently I've been having so much fun with My Digital Studio turning my niece's and nephew's photos into scrapbook pages, and today was no exception.  Here are two more pages made with existing templates in MDS.  Hope you like them.

Monkey56: A Kid Card + Sketch Challenge and Guest Designer

Last week I posted a My Digital Studio Scrapbook layout for the A La Card Monkey54:  challenge.  My entry was a picture of my dog Murphy and I was absolutely thrilled to find out I was a runner up along with Heidi and Lucianna ........whoo hoo!!!!! The blog candy was won by Kathy the Paper Stamper for her absolutely fabulous "Serengeti" design.   Anyway one of the great things about being a runner up on this site  is you're invited to be a Guest Designer for one of the next challenges, and here it is, Monkey56: a Kid Card + Sketch. 
I have to say this challenge really had me putting on my thinking cap as I don't make a lot of kid cards and as such, don't have many kid orientated stamp sets or designer papers. While I was struggling with what's current and what kids like inspiration finally hit me. My soon to be 3 years old nephew loves all things Sesame Street so why not make him a card based on one of the Sesame Street characters.  Forgive me but not having kids and being relatively old in the what's "hip" department I couldn't remember what the characters looked like apart from Big Bird so I had to hunt for some pictures before tackling this sketch.  In the end I was able to design this card for him by using Stampin' Ups beautiful Celebrations DSP, Brights Collection cardstock, and a variety of circle punches.  And here is the card:

What do you think?  I think Ian will love it.  The outside is pretty straight-forward and follows the sketch but I've added a twist on the inside of the card.  I've repeated the character on the inside but scored across the top three scallops so that it folds back revealing a birthday message. layered underneath it.

Closeup of Embellishment on Card Front.  Since it's Ian's 3rd birthday I added some circles stacked with dimensionals and a # 3 cut out from the DSP to lend a focal point and provide interest to the card front. 

This is the inside of the card.  The face lifts up to reveal a hidden message.

This shows the label flipped up and the Happy Birthday stamp from the Punch a Bunch set in Pear Pizzazz.

Recipe:

Sketch:  A La Card Monkey  Monkey56:  Kid Card and Sketch

Cardstock:  Pacific Point, Real Red (card base), Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, Black, Pumpkin Pie

DSP: Celebrations Designer Series Paper Pg. 173 IB&C  #117164

Ink:  Pear Pizzazz

Stamp Set:  Happy Birthday Sentiment from Punch Bunch (Occasions Mini)

Accessories:  Pear Pizzazz Satin Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, 3/4" 1" and 11/4" circle punches, 2" and 2  1/2" Circles die cut, 3 large gold brads (non  SU).

                  

A Visit to the Park

I thought I'd try my hand at designing some more My Digital Studio (MDS) scrapbook pages today.  These pictures feature my darling niece Laura on a recent visit to Lion's Park.  Isn't she sweet?  I wanted to see how easy it was to do two different layouts using the same photo, so I chose a predesigned template from the MDS library and just dragged and dropped the same photo in the templates.  I've changed up some of the embellishments and text and here is the result.  Let me know which is your favourite of the two. 

Love is in the Air

It's that "Love" time of year again, with lots of weddings, anniversary's and engagement parties coming up.  With that in mind I thought I better start putting some ideas together for cards so I'll have a good supply on hand, and not be doing things at the last minute.  

Usually I make a more traditional card featuring flowers or scrolls, but when I saw these two adorable birds on Laura Lipe's blog, I knew I just had to case her card.  Don't you just love punch art? 

Closeup of the love birds.  The punches used were the ornament punch for the base, the round tab punch (you could also use the Butterfly punch for this section of the body), small heart for the beak, wings are from the 2-step bird punch, and the feet and head feathers are fromthe small flower in the Boho Blossoms punch.

 My second card is based on a two-step card made from a 6 x 6 sheet of cardstock that I've attached to a 6 x 4 1/2 card base.   I used Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz and Poppy Parade Incolors for the DSP, cardstocks and ink.  The Flower stamp is from the Punch Bunch stamp set and the Love sentiment is from one of the recent Valentine stamp promotion sets.

Life's a Bed of Roses for Monkey Challenge #55: Flowers + a Sketch

Wow look at this bright and inviting card sketch from A La Card Monkey. It's Monkey55:  Flowers + Sketch challenge. 

The moment I saw this sketch I knew I loved it and knew I had to make it.  I think you'll agree that the simplicity of this layout  would work for many different occasions. 

For my version, I chose to add some 3-dimensional flowers made with the scallop circle and 1 1/4" circle punches insteading of stamping a flower image.  I pulled the colour combo from the beautiful Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper (DSP) featured in the Mini Occasions catalogue (Jan-Apr 2011). TIP:  It's so easy to match up your coordinating cardstock and ink because underneath the DSP pictures in the Stampin' Up! catalogues, there's always a listing and colour swatch of the matching colours. If you haven't used this feature check it out...........no more searching.

I love the richness of Rose Red so chose it as my base cardstock and then  layered it with Crumb Cake.  For contrast I was able to incorporate both sides of the DSP for the next layer and the flower centers. Accents in Rose Red and Crumb Cake were added for the straight and scalloped edge pieces as well as the 3-D flowers. The Petal Pizzazz leaves for the flowers were cut using the small oval punch and then embossed with the Square Lattice Embossing folder and leave edges were sponged with Always Artichoke ink.  For the sentiment I used the medium jewelry tag punch and Pear Pizzazz cardstock stamped with Always Artichoke ink.  To finish off this card I used smooch spray to give it some shine.  Here's my sample.

Closeup of the Flowers.  Scallop punched in Rose Red and then scallops cut to give it some dimension.

Closeup of the tags cut using the Medium Jewelry Tag punch.

View of the inside of the card. 

I hope you like my version of this sketch both inside and out, and leave me a comment.