Art With Heart Monthly Blog Hop - February 2020

Masculine Cards for Fellas

How can the year be passing so quickly? February is almost at an end and I've been creating masculine cards. I am so glad you have dropped by to see some cards to give to fellas.

Welcome to the second Creative Showcase for 2020 with the Art With Heart Team. Yes, we have changed the name from a 'Blog Hop' to a 'Creative Showcase'. This month we are featuring Masculine themed projects. We have many masculine themed products in the Stampin’ Up! range including Stamp Sets and coordinating Dies, Designer Series Papers, Embellishments and Embossing Folders. The Art With Heart Team have a wonderful selection of projects to inspire you to create Masculine Masterpieces.

Tonight I am sharing three cards. I don't find creating masculine cards particularly easy, so  I took this Creative Showcase Theme as a challenge that I was determined to meet (I do like a creative challenge that stretches me). My February Paper Crafting class on the first Monday of the month occurred before Valentines Day so my mind went to creating a Valentines Day card to give to a fella. Something simple with neutral colours, dry embossing (I love this technique to add texture and interest without clutter) and a simple heart or two. Then the Sunday morning prior to class I was talking to a delightful lady who would be coming to class the following day, who said she really needed two birthday cards - one for a special female friend and one for a male friend that she had known for many, many years. One of the cards that had been planned for class would be just right for her female friend, but the masculine Valentine's Day card I'd designed wouldn't be right. So ... arriving home mid Sunday afternoon, I set about designing a masculine card - its the second card in this blog. The third card is hot off the press and has been made with my brother in mind.

I will detail the cards in the reverse order to the way they were referenced above. This initial card has been created with my brother in mind. He is a dedicated golfer, so I was really excited when I first saw Stampin' Up!'s Mini Catalogue and that there was a golfing suite of amazing products. I have featured the gorgeous Country Club Designer Series Paper (DSP), the Absolutely Argyle 3D Embossing Folder and a piece of the Night of Navy Bakers Twine (from the Country Club Twine Combo Pack), with 2 of the sentiments from the Clubhouse Stamp set. The whole stamp set is fantastic and there are also delightful wooden Country Club elements that are also part of the Country Club Suite.

The DSP includes 2 sheets with black lined images that can be coloured. I chose one of these images and coloured it with Stampin Blends. The image was then cut out using a die from the Stitched Rectangle Die set and mounted on a die cut piece of Sahara Sand Cardstock. Some Night of Navy Bakers Twine was wrapped around a couple of times and tied with a simple knot. The card base and card front were both cut from Night of Navy  cardstock with the card front dry embossed using the Absolutely Argyle 3D Embossing Folder. This picture doesn't really show the embossed paper well. It is really gorgeous. The other side of the DSP lined images has a colourful stitched diamonds design. A small rectangle of this DSP was adhered near the left side of the embossed card front and then the coloured and mounted picture of a golfer was adhered using Dimensionals. A sentiment from the Clubhouse Stamp set was stamped in Night of Navy on Smokey Slate cardstock. The sentiment was also embossed with Clear Emboss powder to give it some extra impact. and then was cut with a circle die from the Layering Circles Die set, to be reminiscent of a round golf ball.

I always like to decorate the card inner. My sincere apologies for the quality of this picture and others in this blog. I have been house & dog sitting elsewhere and only arrived back early afternoon, so the lighting for my photos was not as good as photos usually taken in the morning.

The second card shown in this blog is the card that was designed, created and prepared for a card class the following morning. At that time I was extremely thankful for a layout by one of Stampin' Up!'s amazing Artisan team, Narelle Farrugia. I altered numerous components to personalise the card. Here it is:

The card base is Thick Whisper White cardstock and the Whisper White card front was cut a little smaller than the card base and dry embossed with an amazing embossing folder that is only available during the Sale-a-bration promotion - this Stone 3D Embossing folder comes together with the lovely Power of Hope stamp set and they are free with a purchase of Stampin' Up! products to the value of $180. 

Some "cogs" were die cut from Night of Navy cardstock with the Garage Gears dies. Parts of this cog image were pressed into a Versamark ink pad and then sprinkled with Gold Emboss Powder and heat set to give a "shabby" look. It was then adhered directly to the card front. Two small pieces of Come Sail Away DSP were adhered with Dimensionals and a very thin strip of Gold Foil was added on top. A circle of Vellum that was die cut with one of the Stitched Shapes dies was layered over. The car was stamped using the Geared Up Garage stamp set and heat embossed in Versamark and Gold Emboss powder. It was raised on Dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped in Night of Navy and then fussy cut into 2 pieces. This was adhered with Mini Dimensionals. As a final touch, a little key embellishment (with a little gold heat embossing) from the Classic Metal elements, was tied with a piece of Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Bakers Twine and adhered with a couple of Glue Dots.

The card inner used another sentiment and the toolbox from the Geared Up Garage stamp set and a very thin strip of navy cardstock was added at the base.

My last card for this blog was designed as a masculine card for Valentines Day. As mentioned, I wanted something simple with neutral colours, dry embossing to add texture and interest plus a simple heart or two. Here is what I came up with:

The card base and the card front is Crumb Cake cardstock, with the card front (cut a little smaller than the card base), die cut with a stitched curve and dry embossed with the Stone 3D Embossing Folder. The Whisper White Craft Stampin ink pad was lightly dragged across the embossed card front so the raised sections picked up some white ink. One of the wooden elements from the Country Club Elements was tied around the card front with Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Bakers Twine and the ends were frayed a little. The sentiment from Heart to Heart stamp set was gold heat embossed on the lower un-embossed piece of the card front. Both these pieces were mounted on a piece of Night of Navy that was also gold heat embossed around the edges. The embossed card front was adhered in place with Dimensionals. Finally, hearts were die cut using the Stitched Be Mine stamp set from Night of Navy cardstock. A number of hearts were glued together to create 2 thick hearts. One heart was gold heat embossed across the front and the other heart was gold embossed around the edges. Then they were adhered together leaving some of the lower heart showing. The two hearts were adhered with Dimensionals to further highlight them.

Thank you so much for calling in to check out the Valley Inspirations Blog, as part of February's Art with Heart Creative Showcase. I would love to hear your thoughts - please comment below. Let me know if you would like further details on the projects shown here. Also, I would love to earn you business, so please contact me if you have any queries about Stampin' Up! or if I can help with a purchase of any Stampin' Up! products.

The next demonstrator to share their Masculine project with you is the very talented Sharon Davern. Click on the arrow below to be taken to Rhapsody in Craft to discover Sharon's creations. I am looking forward to see her projects.

  

If you have a broken link or have come to this Creative Showcase midway, you can view all the participants by clicking on their names below:

Christina Barnes

Kate Morgan

Andrea Sargent  - you are here

Sharon Davern

Tina Gillespie

Vicki Boucher

Catherine Proctor

Rachel Woollard

Rebecca Jacovou

Sujatha Harding

Michele Taylor

Caroline Manwaring