Masculine cards

What makes a good male card?

Its all about the colours you use - contrasty neutrals,  or dark blues, red and white.  

The textures - rough and edgy, not too many layers.

The style of stamping - crisp, detailed, yet distressed and a little bit dirty.

 For this card I chose "The Open Sea" stampset because its new and its in the Summer mini catalogue.

And, it has detailed stamp images of an anchor, world map, compass, ship's log, and a ship. 

 The colours are Black, Vanilla and River Rock (you could use sahara sand).

Giving lots of contrast and and character.

The four squares are punched out with the postage stamp punch.

Rough textures with clean stamping.
Distressing the edges of the world map circle and also the black layer of cardstock.
I have used a splatter stamp (from the French Folliage stampset) for some dirty, seasalt-spray on the black background and used the ship's log stamped in white frost shimmer ink.

 Finally the words: happy day to you are not too over the top or embarrassing!
Basic Black ink on vanilla cardstock punched with the modern label punch.

Here it is in the Red, white and blue version:

The pointer hand is from the Bring on the Cake stampset and spins on a brad attached to the cuff.

Button Birthday wishes- two weeks to go

There are only 14 days left before the Autumn Winter mini catalogue ends...

My favourite products in this mini include:
The Decorative label punch, which I have used in so many ways and will be using forever.
The Big shot: "Sweet buttons" Embosslits die, the "In stitches" wheel and of course the Framed Tulips embossing folder.
I have loved the word stamps from "Bring on the Cake" and the gorgeous leaves, mud splatters and script from "French Folliage", And the butterfly from the "Strength and Hope" stampset that we have all enjoyed on several projects.

 Well I couldn't put them all on one card so, here is a sample using the Embosslit Sweet Buttons and the Bring on the Cake set with the decorative label punch.

 The layout for this card came from the Stampin' Up Impressions magazine, which being a demonstrator I receive every month, with great ideas like this one, that you can copy or change to suit the stamps and colours you have in your collection.

 Did you notice the five petal flower punch?
It looks great in these colours and with the button centre... and what card would be complete without a few rhinestone jewels to bling the Birthday wishes sentiment in Rich Razzleberry.

If you wish to order any thing from the Autumn Winter mini catalogue please email me before 30 July so that I can ensure your order is placed before this catalogue closes.

A CASE of Julia Leece Purse Bag

When you find something cute and special sometimes you just have to have one of your own.
This is the case with Julia Leece's bag - you can see her original here.