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