Just a couple more spots left in my Father’s Day Class for this Friday evening, 27th August 2010.  Come and make this fabulous cards – and if you like you can easily change the sentiment of one or all of the cards on the night to make them into general masculine cards or to suit another male in your life.

Class will be held in Lane Cove, Sydney. 7:30pm start.  Email me now for more details or to book your spot.

It’s so tempting to use browns with all masculine cards but I had to make a birthday card for a friend who I think would suit something a bit more of a clean and trendy in style rather than rugged.  And do you notice something? Ribbon and rhinestone on a masculine card, yeah I’m really living on the wild side now aren’t I?  Yep, I made the executive decision that it was perfectly fine to use ribbon as long as there were no bows and fine to use a rhinestone tastefully    I think that embellishment looks like a nice cufflink anyway.

Here’s something else too… I usually reserve gingham paper for feminine cards like this one but in this case I think it goes well with the stripes and fits in fine with the masculine look.  I find it interesting that the same paper can be used on a woman’s card and a masculine card and still fit in well – gotta love versatility.

So do you think this card is still masculine despite the ribbon, rhinestone and gingham?

Here’s a list of the Stampin’ Up! products I’ve used in this card

Rubber Stamps:
Birthday Block (single stamp!)

Inkpads:
Baja Breeze

Cardstock & Paper:
Baja Breeze
Kiwi Kiss
Basic Gray textured
Urban Garden
Sweet Slumber Textured Designer Series Paper
Whisper White

Accessories:
Hooray Designer Hardware (Autumn/Winter 2010 Mini catalogue)
Clear Rhinestone Brad

Tools:
Crop-a-dile (for the jumbo eyelet)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

Do you find yourself a little stumped at making cards for the men in your life?  Attend my Masculine Card Class to learn how to create these cards and also pick up tips along the way to help you make cards for all the men in your life.

Class to be held on the Lower North Shore of Sydney on 4th June 2010, 7:30pm to 9:30pm.

Email me now for further details and to secure your spot.

I’m not sure what I’m going to use this card for but I feel it could make a masculine card or sympathy or thinking of you or just ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’ for someone who enjoys warm autumnal colours.

It’s coming into Autumn now in Australia and the day I made this card was quite a gloomy cool day so I felt like using some warm rich colours for a change.  The tree image I’ve stamped here is from the Le Jardin Botanique stamp set by Stampin’ Up! and I’ve stamped it using Basic Brown inkpad onto watercolour paper.  To colour in the stamp I simply applied some watercolour crayon onto my aquapainter and then dabbed it randomly over the tree.  The colours I’ve used to watercolour are: Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy, Ruby Red and More Mustard to try and give the tree an autumnal feel.  For the background I stamped other images from the same stamp set randomly over some So Saffron cardstock then scrunched the cardstock up several time to create lots of creases on the cardstock and then ran the So Saffron inkpad lightly over the top of the cardstock to ink up any creases that were prominent – this gives the background a worn vintage feel and it’s just so easy to do.

I feel like I’ve warmed up a bit now so I’m off to make myself a coffee and pull out some more warm colours to see what else I can make.  Do you find you start to use different colours in your cardmaking depending on the weather or season? Please comment and let us all know if you do or don’t.

(All products used to make this card are by Stampin’ Up! and can be ordered through me – just email me for more details.

Rubber Stamps:
Le Jardin

Inkpads & Colouring:
Basic Brown
Creamy Caramel
So Saffron
Watercolour Crayons

Cardstock & Paper:
Watercolour paper
So Saffron
Old Olive (smooth and textured)
Bravo Burgundy (textured)

Accessories:
Playground Designer Buttons
Linen Thread

Tools:
Aquapainter

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals
Glue Dots

Have you ever had to make a masculine birthday card and not know much about the man you were making the card for? or maybe he just didn’t have any hobbies which means you can’t just stamp a golf club or tool set on the card. I had to make a masculine card this weekend but really didn’t know much about what the recipient enjoyed doing in his spare time so I decided to make something a bit more generic and this is what I came up with.

The centre of the card is two separate rub-ons, one is the martini glasses with ‘party’ under them and the other is ‘it’s your birthday’.  Here’s the interesting thing with the paper I’ve used – one side can be used for masculine cards and the other for female cards.  It’s awesome!  In fact, I could make this card into a feminine card simply by using the other side of the paper and changing the twill to ribbon and the grommet to either a white grommet or some pretty buttons.  What you can also do is pair up the floral sides with the stripes and dots and checks on the back to make cards that are elegant but with a bit of a shabby chic look.  To top it off the patterned paper is textured.  Sigh.  This paper only has two weeks left before it retires so I’m going to stock up on it.  The metal grommet you see there is new and is a little bit of a sneak peak of what’s to come in the new Australian Stampin’ Up! Summer Mini catalogue (I’m not going to show stamps though, you’ll have to wait for those!)  I didn’t press the nails right into the card because I made a knot in the twill so it kind of stood up.  Unfortunately I had to take a quick photo before leaving for the birthday party so I didn’t get to check the photo but in real life the metal grommet does sit straight but slightly popped up from the card.. not sure what was happening when I took this photo!

Like this card? Leave me a comment, I love hearing from you.  If you have any questions about Stampin’ Up! products or would like to order any Stampin’ Up! products please email me.

Cardstock & Paper:
Not Quite Navy
Very Vanilla
Chocolate Chip
Parisian Breeze (patterned paper)

Accessories:
Fashion District Rub-Ons
Twill
Jumbo Grommet (Stampin’ Up! Australia Summer Mini Catalogue)

Adhesives:
SNAIL Adhesive
Stampin’ Dimensionals

Another card for the Twilight fans out there, if hope you like it and that it gives you a giggle.  If you’re not a Twilight fan and you’re scratching your head over this card then please pretend that instead of ‘tofu’ that the message on the card reads “For You”.

It’s a bit cool here today in Sydney, seems like Winter is really on it’s way and using these colours on my card warmed me up somehow.  I love the rich tones and I feel that the colours go well with the theme of my card.  If you’re wondering how I did the centrepiece of the card, that’s gloss cardstock which I sponged with ink and sponge daubers.  I simply dabbed my sponge dauber into my Sahara Sand inkpad and then using a small circle motion, I sponged ink into the centre of the card.  I was going to use a template to get a perfect oval in the middle then decided I wanted it to look more natural.  The outside of the main image is sponged again with a sponge dauber but this time Ballet Blue ink… an odd colour combination over all with the other colours but I think it works well.  After I sponged the gloss cardstock completley I went over the edges of the cardstock again just to give definition then stamped the script (En Francais background stamp) using Sahara Sand ink over the top of the background – I only stamped it lightly though so that it wouldn’t be too bold.  Next I stamped the tree image (Le Jardin Botanique stamp set) in Almost Artichoke and the (rein)deer from the Winter Post stamp set is stamped in Bravo Burgundy.  Actually, after I stamped the deer I dabbed it’s body a little with a blender pen so that it would look more ‘furry’ rather than a solid image… just to give it some texture and then under the deer I used a blender pen with some Almost Artichoke ink to ‘ground’ it so it didn’t look like it was floating.  So then the main image was adhered to a piece of textured Sahara Sand cardstock.  The word “tofu” was printed out on my computer as out of all the alphabet stamps I have (around 30 of them… cough, cough), I couldn’t find the size and font I wanted to match my card so I just typed it on my computer and printed it onto Very Vanilla cardstock then adhered it to the oval bookplate.  So, under the main section of my card is a piece of Almost Artichoke cardstock and Mellow Moss cardstock.  You’ll notice the Artichoke and Moss cardstocks are distressed, I did this using Stampin’ Up!’s cutter kit.  A little while ago Kathryn and Julie asked me about the Cutter Kit and this is one way to use it – to distress cardstock. Yes I could have used my fingernail to do this but I find that apart from it being damaging for your nails, you seem to bend the cardstock more than distress it if you use your nails, so I like to use the Cutter Kit for that.  As an aside, I will make some more cards using other parts of the Cutter Kit to show you what else it can do but this is a start.  Back to my card… the base of the card is Bravo Burgundy textured cardstock and I’ve also added some piercing to the top and bottom corners as some added interest.

Here’s a list of all the products I’ve used on my card, let me know if you have any questions – of course I also supply all these Stampin’ Up! products, so if there’s something you’d like then feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com

Le Jardin Botanique stamp set (tree)
Winter Post stamp set (deer)
En Francais background stamp
White gloss cardstock
Sahara Sand textured cardstock
Bravo Burgundy textured cardstock
Almost Artichoke cardstock
Mellow Moss cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock (just a scrap to print the word ‘tofu’ onto it)
Sahara Sand, Ballet Blue, Almost Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy inkpads
Sponge Daubers (to sponge colour onto the main image and also sponge ink onto the edges of the green cardstocks)
Styled Silver Hodgepodge (bookplate)
Earth Elements brads (Artichoke brad)
Hemp Twine
Cutter Kit (to distress edges of cardstock)
Crafters Tool Kit (Paper Piercer and template to make holes)
Blender pen (to add texture to the deer and add grass under it’s feet)

Hmmm, I don’t know whether I should post this as a masculine card or not.   I think it could be for either a woman or a man, it could be ‘thank you’ or ‘sympathy’.  I purposely left off a sentiment so that I could make up my mind later what I want it to be.

I just wish I could take photos so that the colours show true to life – this is sooo much nicer in real life.  But right now I’m just happy I could take one that’s not got a big shiny patch in the middle from the flash.  I still struggle to take photos of cards using gloss cardstock.  Aaaanyway, on to the card….

The trees in this card are gold embossed onto white gloss card and then I sponged some Sage Shadow for the grass, Soft Sky for the Sky (genius!) and then sponged some Blue Bayou over the top half of the sky to give some depth and extra colour.  When I finished sponging I just ‘buffed’ up the card with a tissue to remove excess ink on the embossing.  The background on the left is my old favourite that I can rely on anytime – Weathered background – I find as long as I have a crackle-type background and a script background then I’m confident I can make any type of card.  The Weathered background stamp was stamped in Blue Bayou over Soft Sky cardstock and then sponged around the edges with Blue Bayou.  The striped paper on the right is from the Spring Silhouettes Designer Series paper and I sponged the edges of that too then pierced holes around the border.  The golf dots on the background are simply made using a Blender Pen very lightly dipped into Encore Gold reinker – you only need a tiny bit and I’m amazed at how well it cleans off the Blender Pen too… I’ll definitely be using the gold a lot more in the future now I know how easy it is to use.

So that’s it.  I hope you like today’s effort.  As usual, here’s the list of products I’ve used and if you have any questions about the card or the products I’ve used then please feel free to email or phone me (details on the top right hand side of this page).

Lovely As A Tree stamp set (ye olde faithful that gets dragged out over and over and over again)
Weathered Background stamp (another work-horse)
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Soft Sky Cardstock
Blue Bayou cardstock
Blue Bayou inkpad
Spring Silhouettes Designer Series Paper
Brushed Gold cardstock
Gloss White cardstock
Versamark inkpad
Gold Embossing Powder
Heat Gun
Encore Gold Reinker
Blender Pen
Sponge Daubers (to sponge colour on the background of the trees and around the cardstock)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (to make holes around the patterned paper
Antique Brass Hodgepodge (square metal clip)
Soft Sky Double-Stitched Ribbon
SNAIL Adhesive
Glue Dots (to adhere the ribbon with the clip)
Stampin’ Dimensionals (to mount the centerpiece onto the card)

Masculine birthday card – the three words that often sends cardmakers into a frenzy of “OMG all I have is flower stamps”.  Well I managed to make a birthday card for my dear long-suffering husband that I think is masculine without being overly ‘brown’.  The hubby is extremely supportive of my hobby and business so I hope he likes my card.

Here’s some simple instructions if you’d like to also make this card.

1.  Adhere a piece of striped patterned paper to some Sage cardstock

2.  Using a template and paper piercer, make holes around the top part of the Sage cardstock

3.  Attach some twill where the paper and cardstock meet.  Thread the twill through a piece of Pewter Hodgepodge and secure the ends with pewter brads as shown in the photo.

4.  Stamp the birthday sentiment in Chocolate Chip ink on Very Vanilla cardstock, punch with a large oval punch then chalk around the edges.

5.  Mount the sentiment with Stampin’ Dimensionals to give some ‘pop’.

6.  Stamp the three stars in chocolate chip ink on Very Vanilla cardstock and punch out using a small star punch (note, the Stampin’ Up! star punch matches perfectly with the stamps).

7.  Chalk the edges of the stars with chocolate chip chalk and mount using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

8.  Mount the whole piece onto an A5 folded Chocolate Chip card using Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here’s a list of the products I used: (all products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com)

Wanted stamp set (stars)
Sincere Salutations (Birthday greeting)
Chocolate Chip cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Outlaw Designer Series Paper (stripy paper)
Sage Shadow cardstock
Very Vanilla cardstock
Stampin’ Pastels (chalks)
Sponge Dauber (to apply the Pastels)
Twill
Pewter Hodgepodge (metal embellishments)
Crafter’s Tool Kit (Template, soft mat and paper piercer to make holes)
Stampin’ Dimensionals

If you’d like some more ideas on what you can use to make masculine cards just click here for a heap of great ideas:  Masculine card ideas.

Ever nearly burn your kitchen down in the name of craft? Okay, so I got it in time but I did panic. I had this cool idea (well I thought it was) to burn the edges of my stamped cardstock. Anyone old enough (and I’m really showing my age here) will remember that great Western TV show called Bonzana – at the beginning of each episode, they’d show the map of Ponderosa (the name of the ranch) and it would burn slowly from the edges. So I thought it would be cool to emulate this on a birthday card that I was making for a friend. I like the effect, but next time I won’t hesitate to turn on the tap to douse the fire rather than worry about having to start again. LOL.

I really enjoyed making this card and although I will say “don’t try this at home kids!”, here are the instructions: I started with a piece of Naturals Ivory cardstock and randomly stamped the swirly smokey stamp around the card using River Rock ink then overstamped with the Marlboro Man (that’s my name for him) in Chocolate Chip ink. Next I lit my gas stovetop and carefully (ahem) burnt the edges of the cardstock. This was then adhered to a piece of Close to Cocoa cardstock on which I dragged Close to Cocoa inkpad over it then distressed the edges. This was then adhered to a piece of Sage Shadow cardstock which I distressed the edges of and also ran the Sage Shdow inkpad around to define the edges. The embellishment on the top right is a piece of Close to Cocoa cardstock punched out with the Designer Label Punch then stamped with the swirl stamp and edged in Chocolate Chip ink. On top of the punched label is a 1″ circle punched from some of the Outlaw Designer Series Patterned Paper and on top of that is a star stamped onto Sage Shadow cardstock with Chocolate chip ink which has been cut out and affixed with an Antique Brass Brad. On the bottom left hand corner I simply added a piece of metal hardware with some twine tied around it. The base of the card is some more of the Outlaw Patterned Paper with a sponged and pierced border and wrapped with twill to ‘ground’ the main section of the card. The whole piece was then adhered to a piece of textured Chocolate Chip cardstock.

So that’s it – quick easy instructions, I decided not to stretch it out and bore you too much this time but if those instructions aren’t clear enough then please feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com to ask me any questions.

If you’ve made it down this far, it’s your turn to tell me, have you ever nearly burnt your kitchen or done any damage to it (or yourself!) in the name of craft?

(All images copyright to Stampin’ Up! 1990-2008 – Card designed by Angela Sargeant)

All products by Stampin’ Up! and available for purchase through me at angelasargeant@gmail.com

Here’s a list of the products I used:

Bronc Buster (man on horse stamp)
Wanted stamp set (star stamp)
Natural Ivory cardstock
Sage Shadow cardstock
Close to Cocoa cardstock
Chocolate Chip Textured cardstock
Chocolate Chip inkpad
Sage Shadow inkpad
River Rock inkpad
Close to Cocoa inkpad
Outlaw Designer Series Double-Sided Patterned Paper
Crafters Tool Kit (for the paper piercer, mat & template to pierce the holes around the perimetre of the patterned paper)
Designer Label Punch
1″ Circle Punch
Sharp scissors
Antique Brass Hodgepodge (brads and fastener)
Hemp Twine
Twill
Cutter Kit (for distressing the edges of the cardstock)

Just when you thought I was going all pretty-girly on you I’ve made another masculine card. When I started this card I intended to give it to my husband this evening for our Wedding Anniverary (13 years today!!!) but now I’m looking at it and wondering if it would make a better Father’s Day card or Birthday card. If I get a chance this afternoon then I might try to russell one up with hearts on it or something. I don’t know – I thought that “The One and Only” that’s on the stamp would suit… anyway, just rambling now.

So I actually started this card by stamping the “Genuine” stamp (from the Bronc Busters stamp set by Stampin’ Up!) onto some Brushed Silver cardstock with Versmark then silver embossing it, though you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at it. I altered the colour of the silver cardstock by swiping my Blue Bayou inkpad over the embossed silver card and then used a sponge to work the colour in – this changed the silver to a sort of metallic denim. I then used a sanding block to sand the edges of the card then edged the card with a bit of Night of Navy ink to give it some definition. Some paper piercing around the border of the card finished it off by adding some extra texture and interest.

The background is one of the sheets from the ‘Outlaw’ Double Sided Designer patterned paper by Stampin’ Up!, it’s a lovely pale green with a bit of a rustic feel to it. I was going to use the patterned paper on it’s own (it has a bit of a light print on it) but I do love the look of stamping on patterned paper so I overstamped it with the star and swirl motif (which has a real cowboy feel to it) using River Rock ink. To finish the background I lightly sponged some Blue Bayou ink around the edges to give it only a touch of colour and depth. I then adhered some twill to the right of the patterned paper and used the Crop-a-dile to punch three holes in it and set three jumbo pewter eyelets. Yes! the Crop-a-dile punched right through the twill and cardstock together. Granted it wasn’t the cleanest of holes but it certainly worked… I just had to trim a little bit of the excess twill on the back of the paper with some small sharp scissors to neaten it up so you wouldn’t be able to see stray bits of twill thread through the eyelet holes. This whole piece was then adhered to a piece of Blue Bayou cardstock folded in half and then I mounted the silver stamped piece on top using Stampin’ Dimensionals to give it some lift. By the way, I know in the photo it looks like that piece of metallic cardstock is cut crookedly, it’s very straight – it’s just an optical illusion because of the dark blue ink with which it’s edged with.

Well now I’m officially in love with Blue Bayou and River Rock. I’ve been using Purely Pomegranate and Wild Wasabi to death and although I still love those, I really enjoyed using the Blue Bayou and River Rock – they’re awesome colours for masculine cards although I’m sure if I challenged myself I might be able to use them in a girly card too.

If you liked this card then you’ll want to sign up for my newsletter by entering your email address up the top right hand side of this page. My newsletters go out once a month and there’s always more cards, ideas and tips along with regular competitions.

As usual, if you have any questions please feel free to email me on angelasargeant@gmail.com. Of course I’m also happy to help you if you would like to purchase any of the Stampin’ Up! products I’ve used here:

Bronc Busters stamp set
Brushed Silver cardstock
Outlaw Double Sided Designer Patterned Paper
Blue Bayou cardstock
Blue Bayou inkpad
River Rock inkpad
Versamark inkpad
Night of Navy inkpad
Twill
Jumbo Pewter Eyelets
Crop-a-Dile (to make the holes and set the eyelets)
Paper piercer and template (to make holes around the centre piece)
Silver Embossing Powder
Heat gun
Sponges