More Post Christmas Birthdays

Morning all.

Like most, I struggle with masculine cards, so when I come across a good one, i make a couple of them and put them away for a rainy day. My darling Dad turned 71 in the 1st week of January, so I needed one for him. my FIL also had both knees replaced in the same week, so I needed a Get Well Soon card for him. I found the inspiration here.

I tend to go to Lovely as A Tree as my "male" set. These are the 4 versions of the card I found.

Now on the original card, i believe it was stamped onto Frostwood Lodge DSP. We do not have that here, so I made my own by using the retired Rough Texture Wheel. I inked it up in Crumb Cake and then randomly drew Early Espresso lines across it, stamped it off and then onto the Very Vanilla CS. I loved the result.

 They also looks kinda cool all together......

Now Miss 7 also wanted to make a card for her Grand-dad's birthday. She sat and designed the card all by herself and I helped her punch out the shapes. She stuck them down and assembled it and then I helped line up the stamps.

Thanks for dropping by again. I do so very my appreciate you all taking the time to comment.

Stuff Used:

CS: (SU) Certainly Celery, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Early Espresso SWM, Versa Colour - Pinecone 171

Stamps: (SU) lovely As A Tree, Sincere Salutations, Rough Texture Wheel (ret), Generic clear b'day sentiment stamps

Other Bits: Mini Pewter Brads, Cuttlebug Branches Embossing Folder, SU Bouquet Blossom Triple Layer Punch, Carla Craft CP2 Heart, Clear Rhinestones fm stash. Optix Apple Green and Sky Blue CS

Lynda xx

Crafter's Retreat 2011 #2

Another thing on my 'to do' list was a couple of Male Cards (collective groan of frustration!!!!) 2 men in my life are turning 40. One is my hubby and the other is my Bestie's partner. I had his pressie in the car at camp, so I kinda HAD to do it....cause Bestie was running it back to Singapore for me!!! Now I DID make the same card for both boys, I just aqua painted them slightly differently.

I had found some FANTASTIC DP in a bin for 60c a sheet (12 x 12 no less) and I loved the colours in it immediately. This shaped the colour scheme for the card....and the stamp was a cinch...Lovely As A Tree. This is what I came up with.....

Isn't the DP fantastic?? It is real Autumnal tones. I used the Nestabilities Deckled Rectangles to get the rough edges.....again...to bloke it up a bit!!

The tree was stamped is Basic Brown and the aqua painted over, the same way as I had done here. Just gives it that bit of lift don't you think??

I then kept the age basic....cause male cards are not fussy right. I used some gold Upkit Numbers I have had for ages...and then used 2 full stops to fill the space.

I really do love the way this turned out, and by all accounts "Mr" Bestie did too.

Tonnes more to show.....thanks for popping by.

Stuff used:
CS: (SU) Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla and 2001 Anna Griffin DP (AG052)
Ink: (SU) Basic Brown, Always Artichoke and Soft suede with the aqua painter
Stamps: (SU) Lovely As A Tree
Punches: (SU) Designer Label Punch, Carla Craft 1" circle punch
Other bits: Aqua Painter, Nestabilities Deckled Rectangles, Upkit Gold Numbers

Lynda xx

Cracked Tree

I have had a further play with Lovely As A Tree. This time inspired by this. I took a layer off, but it is otherwise a direct CASE. I had never tried the Cracked Glass technique. Sometimes it is called Shattered Glass. Hindsight has told me to invest in some UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) because doing it with noraml clear EP is certainly time consuming. On this card I must have done 10-11 layers. I also re-Versamarked the image once to get the coverage even again.

Here's the card

As a masculine card...I love it! I also like it purely mounted on the brown, as opposed to the caramel in the original. 1st use of Creamy Caramel too....can you believe it...and they retired it...LOL!!

The "cracks" in the EP really give it an aged look that matches very well with the Weathered BGS. The layered Word Window punch with the Pewter brads add a lovely finishing touch. I am so loving this stamp set and actually wonder how I managed without it!!

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel (ret), Very Vanilla

Ink: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Versamark

Stamps: (SU) Lovely As A Tree, Weathered BGS, Sincere Salutations

Other Bits: SU Word Window Punch, Kaiser Pewter Brads, Ranger Super Fine Clear EP

Lynda xx

As Lovely As 70!!

My darling Dad turned 70 recently. Such an occasion warranted a very special card. I broke out Lovely As A Tree which Santa bought me for Chrissy!! PERFECT for masculine cards.

I had 2 thoughts with regards to it. Sadly the 1st....ended up on the REJECT pile (ha...I endeavoured to emboss!!) on black CS with silver EP....not a very masculine result!! Dad is actually quite a shy and quite chap (yeah which makes you think I am recessive DNA!!), and a beautiful soul.

I then turned to this....and thought about what I had and what I couple do to add a personal touch. This is what I came up with....

I am so very happy with the way this turned out. I even decided to take a chance and try and watercolour the tree and the original did. Here's the tree up close.

Just that subtle bit of colour made all the difference. I stamped the image in Basic Brown ink, the pressed the stamp pad to the lid to get a lilttle colour. I dried off a little water from my aqua painter, picked up the ink from the lid and then washed it over the image. I even dragged ou some DSP from the Summer Mini 2008 - Holiday Harmony to get the Artichoke DP. Sometimes hoarding does pay off....hee hee hee.

I hope you like this card. It probably is layered a lot more than my usual style, but i like it all the same. Thanks for popping by.

Stuff used:

CS: (SU) Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony DSP (2008 Summer Mini)

Ink: (SU) Basic Brown, Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip

Stamps: (SU) Lovely As A Tree

Other Bits: Upkit Gold Numbers, "Krafty Savers" Craft Ribbon - Dk Chocolate

Lynda xx