Masculine Designs

Great Explorer

Happy Thursday, everyone! Whew — it’s been a rough week as we have all transitioned back to normal life after the Winter Storm Fern. Work and school and all of the things are back in full swing, and I guess I just wasn’t ready. Hopefully next week will go a little more smoothly.

But all that aside, I’m back with some more tips & tricks for those masculine cards. This week, we’re looking for those shortcuts to make cards for the fellas come together a little quicker. We started by using a sketch with geometric patterns. Today, we’re focusing on color palette as we take our cues from the new Nature Walk paper released by Stampin’ Up! This gorgeous paper combines hues of blue and brown and green to create perfect subtle patterns. We’re pairing it up with the newer Outdoor Adventure stamp & die set to make our adventure-themed card.

We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock and then add a sheet of the Nature Walk patterned paper as our backdrop. We cut an accent piece from a sheet of Timeless Plaid using the Textured Notes rectangle dies and adhered on the left side of our card. I stamped a stand of trees on white cardstock in a combination of Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, and Soft Sea Foam using the Outdoor Adventure stamp and then cut it out with one of the smaller Spotlight on Nature dies. It’s adhered over a bow of Secret Sea cardstock with dimensionals. Our wolf is stamped in Smoky Slate on Cloud Cover cardstock and then cut with the coordinating die from the Outdoor Adventure die set. It’s adhered at the bottom of our tree panel with several layers of dimensionals for some extra depth in the scene. I stamped the sentiment from the Outdoor Adventure set onto vellum with Versamark and then heat embossed with silver embossing powder. It’s cut out with the banner die from the Stylish Shapes set using the extension method to make it long enough to capture the full sentiment. The sentiment banner is adhered at the top of our focal panel using glue dots on either end to make it look like the banner is rippling in the wind. We finish things off with some Mossy Meadow and Secret Sea embellishments from the Moody Palette and Sparkle dot sets.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see a clean and simple design that comes together in minutes.

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Winter

Warm Hello

Welcome back, friends. I got a little side-tracked during my afternoon crafting session and suddenly realized I hadn’t gotten my project posted. This card is inspired by a cute card made by fellow demo Bree Renwick over at Craft-somnia. It’s always fun to start with an inspiration and see where the variations take you. I paired the Outdoor Adventure bundle with the Soft Waves embossing folder to create this snowy scene. And I recycled some scraps of glimmer paper from another project using the Lovely Arrangements dies — can you spot them?

We get started with a base of Secret Sea. I think it’s the perfect blend of black and navy and certainly sets the scene nicely here. Our scene is built on a base of Cloud Cover, which peeks out at the top to create our snowy-looking sky. Next up is our stand of evergreens created using Soft Sea Foam as the base and then we use the Outdoor Adventure stamps to create the tree line with Soft Sea Foam, Old Olive, and Mossy Meadow inks. I fussy cut around them and adhered them to a strip of white cardstock. To create our snow in the foreground, I embossed a piece of vellum with the Soft Waves embossing folder and adhered it over a scrap of white cardstock. This is adhered over the bottom of our tree panel with dimensionals to create the look of the snow being in the foreground. Our elk is stamped in Crumb Cake on Crumb Cake cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. I fussy cut a little closer to the elk image and then adhered it over the snow with glue dots. The whole panel is wrapped in Secret Sea bordered ribbon tied in a knot and then it’s adhered to the card front with tear-and-tape. The sentiment panel is cut from vellum using one of the sentiment dies from the Lovely Arrangements die set and then the sentiment from the Snowy Delights stamp set is stamped in Secret Sea. I used my heat gun to speed up the ink drying process so the sentiment panel could be adhered to the card front with glue dots. I pulled the Secret Sea sparkly diamonds from my scrap pile and adhered them with glue dots.

Schools are officially closed in our area for the next two days, so all of us working folks have to figure out how to “work” from home productively the next couple of days. Here’s hoping! *wink* And speaking of days like this, we’re going to be working with the Days Like This Memories & More pack this coming week. I hope you’ll drop in and see all of the fun projects you can create with this set of cards.

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Outdoor Adventure

Great Adventure

There is no greater appropriate post title than today’s. Wouldn’t you agree?! Life is truly a great adventure. And every day is a surprise. Will it go as planned or will something off-the-wall come up? Adventure indeed!

Speaking of adventures, this week we’re taking a trek through our crafty stash to create outdoorsy-themed projects. And today we’re getting a better look at the brand new stamp and die bundle that released this week called Outdoor Adventure. We have another clean and simple design today — just combining our new bundle with ink and paper to create this fun design.

We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. I had a small mountain panel leftover from a card-making session several weeks ago using the Light & Wonder dies that works perfectly with the design I had in mind today and it just so happened to be the perfect size to serve as the focal panel. We stamp some stands of evergreen trees using the new Outdoor Adventure stamps. They’re stamped in Pretty Peacock on Lost Lagoon and then cut with the coordinating die from the Outdoor Adventure die set. Next we stamp our focal point — the wolf — with Gray Granite ink on Smoky Slate cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. I arranged the sentiment from Outdoor Adventure on a single block and stamped all at once in Secret Sea in the bottom-left corner of the focal panel. And then we set to work assembling. I alternated the trees behind and in front of the focal panel and adhered the panel to the card front with dimensionals. The wolf is positioned below the center set of trees and above the sentiment, giving the look that our majestic wolf is strolling across the flat at the base of the rise of the mountain. A few iridescent frosted dots finish things off perfectly with an ethereal twinkle in the opposing corners.

What do you think of this clean & simple design? I was tickled when my scrap turned out to be an even better element in the design than I thought it might be! I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see where else we might go on our woodland trek this week.

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Online Exclusives · Outdoor Adventure

Let’s Explore

Howdy, friends, and welcome in! Today is an exciting day. It’s new product release day! Have you checked out all of the new Online Exclusive items in my store? So much good stuff there!

As we continue our trek through the woods this week, we’re getting another peek at a *new* bundle of products — the Outdoor Adventure stamps & dies. We’re pairing up this new set of products with the Timeless Plaid paper to create a fun masculine design.

We get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. Our backdrop is a sheet of the Timeless Plaid paper cut with the largest Perennial Postage die. The focal panel is a sheet of the Gathering Together paper cut with the Textured Notes dies. The two panels are adhered to our card base with dimensionals. We create our trekking footprints with Crumb Cake cardstock and the Outdoor Adventure footprint dies. They’re adhered to our focal panel with glue dots. The sentiment panel is a sheet of Cajun Craze on which we stamp our sentiment from the Outdoor Adventure stamp set in Cajun Craze ink and then diecut with the Textured Notes dies before adhering over our footprints with dimensionals. I used a twist of Cajun Craze linen thread to create a bundle of climbing rope that is adhered in the bottom-right corner of our focal panel. The sign post is created with a combination of Crumb Cake and Country Woods papers using the Outdoor Adventure dies and then adhered to our focal panel with dimensionals. A few Cajun Craze & gold dots finish things off with a touch of sparkly interest.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what else some of the new SU! Online Exclusives can lend to our trek through the woods!

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