A Masculine Heart

My friend who buys several Valentine cards from me each year likes at least one of them to be quite masculine - not my favourite thing to create and I find it challenging.  So I went grunge, thinking that would be pretty masculine!

The image and background are all one stamp.  I stamped it on masking paper and cut out the heart so that I two separate masks.  Using my MISTI, I put the heart mask on watercolour paper, inked up the background of the stamp with Distress Black Soot, spritzed with water, and stamped.  Let it dry, then removed the heart mask, and put the background mask down.  Inked up the heart with Distress Candied Apple, spritzed, and stamped.  I got a little bit of red seepage under the masking paper but not too bad.  I used a red marker to define the edges of the heart where needed.

Stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, bordered with black cs, and popped it up on cream cs.

It's for the following challenges:
 
The Male Room Challenge "Love You"
 

Double D Challenge "Hearts"

CAS Watercolour Challenge "Red and Black"
 

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!

Supplies:
Stamps - SU sentiment, Impression Obsession heart
Ink - Distress Black Soot and Candied Apple
Paper - cream and black cs, watercolour paper
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - clear embossing powder, masking paper, fun foam

Joy of a Little Dog

The CAS Christmas Challenge is asking for "Joy" this month.  One of the great joys in my life is Tessa, my sweet English Cocker Spaniel.

Penny Black makes some lovely stamps that have a very spaniel-like dog that reminds me of Tessa.  One of them is a very tiny stamp, with the dog wearing a collar with a star.  The star, in my mind, makes it suitable for a Christmas card.

I have a great little tag die that has "joy" as part of it.  And the dog fits right on it perfectly.  I stamped the dog, coloured the collar and star with sparkly gel pens, and die cut it with the matching die. 

I die cut the "joy" tag three times and glued them together to give it dimension, stamped a few little stars on the top in gold, and added the die cut dog to it.

I added it to a gold shimmer stitched rectangle die cut and popped that up on fun foam.  I'd meant to put a brad through the tag's hole but forgot so added a red gemstone instead.

I'm also linking it up to the Less is More Less (Tiny and Few) challenge where they want you to see how small you can go with your images.  My dog and the stars are pretty tiny!  And there's only one dog and three stars.

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black dog, Stampendous star stamp
Ink - Delicata Gold Glitz, Archival Vintage Photo
Paper - gold shimmer and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Penny Black matching dog die, Impression Obsession joy tag die, Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, red and gold glitter pens, fun foam

Timeless Heart

I have a friend who always orders a few Valentine cards from me.  This is one of the ones I made for her.

I sprinkled red and pink Brushos on watercolour paper and spritzed with water.  When dry, I die cut the heart, and used Distress Black Soot to stencil over it.

Initially I was just going to pop it up with fun foam on the wonky stitched background rectangle but it looked too plain - just needed a little more so I stamped Timeless Texture stamps behind it in very pale grey (by stamping off before adding to my background).

A simple die cut sentiment finished it off.

It's going to be linked up with:

The Paper Players Color Challenge - Red, Pink, Black, and White

Supplies:
Stamps - SU Timeless Textures
Ink - Distress Black Soot, Memento London Fog
Paper - watercolour paper, white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - heart die cut, MFT wonky stitched rectangle die, TCW Confetti stencil, fun foam,

An Elephant Never Forgets

Seize the Birthday's challenge is "Creatures Great and Small".

 

I did this card with an elephant:

I stamped the elephant and sentiment, then coloured with coloured pencils and Gamsol. Trimmed the panel with a wonky stitched rectangle and popped it up on fun foam.

Given my aging memory, it's always good to have a few belated birthday cards on hand!

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Rubber Dance African Animals
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper - white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Gamsol, MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die, fun foam