Stamp with Annette

A Manly Birthday Card

Will was invited to a birthday party recently, and I needed a card quickly. Since he has gotten older, cards for his friends have become more of a challenge for me. The Big Shot helps tremendously, since I can add texture so easily.

Here is my supply list:

Stamps: Bring on the Cake

Card Stock: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla

Ink: Early Espresso Classic

Big Shot: Stripes and Square Lattice Embossing folders

Accessories: Simply Scored Tool, Mat Pack and Paper Piercing Tool, Word Window Punch

I didn't take a picture of the inside, but this is actually a gift card holder. That's where the Word Window Punch comes in. Hmmm, sounds like another tutorial is in order. I'll see what I can do.

Happy stamping, everyone!

Annette

A Guy Card

Do you struggle with cards for guys? I do. Always have. Maybe always will. When I think of guy cards, these are some of the things that come to mind:

• neutral or bold colors
• stripes (not circles or dots)
• crisp, square corners (not rounded corners)
• metal (brads, clips, eyelets, etc.)
• no ribbon or fibers (twine would be the exception)

Some of these things I heard from a male demonstrator one year at convention; some are just my own ideas of what a guy card should be.

I needed a guy card last week (like, yesterday!), so I grabbed my go-to stamp set for masculine projects: Lovely as a Tree.

You might notice: stripes, brads, neutral colors, no ribbon. It says masculine to me. Of course, it could be for a girl, too, as it is quite lovely. :-)

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree
Card Stock: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Big Shot, Stripes embossing folder, brads-neutrals, Stampin' Dimensionals

Happy stamping, everyone!

Annette

Gift for a new dad

My daughter wanted me to help her make something for Zoey's daddy for his first Father's Day. This is what we came up with:

No stamping here, but we did use Stampin' Up! supplies. We inked up Z's hand and foot with Basic Black Craft ink, made the prints on Whisper White card stock, and embossed with clear embossing powder. We layered with Basic Black textured card stock. Emily printed out the name and date on Whisper White as well. The prints have a silver brad in each corner. Tip: We lifted the other two squares with two Dimensionals. One Dimensional just wasn't thick enough, so we stacked them to raise the squares more.

It really did turn out nice; this picture doesn't do it justice. If I were going to make one for me, I would add some pink. And some ribbon. And some flower embellishments. But for a guy, black and white, silver brads, straight lines.. It works! :-)

Happy stamping, everyone!

Annette

Another Motorcycle Card

 
I needed a masculine thank you card, so I immediately reached for the Motorcycle stamp from the Summer Mini Catalog.

I used Basic Black, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler and just a touch of Daffodil Delight. The words are from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I added a Whisper White layer to the inside to make writing in it easier. The bold colors and metal embellishments help to make this a manly card. :-)

Be sure to come back tomorrow for the SUDSOL Blog Tour! If you are a demonstrator, the tour will be a great resource for workshop ideas. If not, you will find lots of easy-to-do project ideas for your stamping pleasure! :-) Either way, you won't want to miss it.

Happy stamping, everyone!

Annette

Quick and Easy

That's what cards for my monthly card class need to be. We make twelve cards, 3 each of four designs. Yesterday you saw two. Here are the others we did Monday evening:

For the man in your life. We used Kraft (now called Crumb Cake - yum! And we have matching ink!), Very Vanilla and Soft Suede card stocks and Soft Suede ink. The stamp set is Birthday Bliss. We also used the wide oval punch (now the extra large oval) and the ovals die for the Big Shot. The distressing tool on the Cutter Kit helped rough up the Soft Suede oval and the bottom edge of the card front.

I used a sketch for this one, but I don't remember where I saw it. Here you have Bashful Blue and Whisper White card stocks; Bashful Blue ink; Eastern Blooms and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets; Whisper White taffeta; Word Window and Modern Label punches; Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Big Shot, and Dimensionals.

Happy stamping,everyone!

Annette

for the teen boy in your life

I know I promised a tutorial for a Big Shot card today. I should have it ready a little later today. But I was excited to share this card with you, and it's ready, and the tutorial isn't. So an extra post today. :-)

Will is at camp this week - or kind of, anyway. He's staying in the dorms at Abilene Christian University - not really camping! But he's having a great time, I'm sure. He loves to get mail, so I made a card and sent it to him yesterday:

I love this Extreme Guitar stamp, and it's perfect for my musically inclined boy. (One of these days I'm going to post a video of him playing piano. Those of you who suffered through his practicing at stamping events when he was six will be glad to see he's made quite a bit of progress! And now he also does percussion and plays around on the guitar.) Okay, enough about my boy; you came here for the card!

I stamped the Extreme Guitar stamp with VersaMark and embossed with black embossing powder on Brushed Silver card stock. Be sure to use the Embossing Buddy when you do this. No stray e.p.! Layered on Basic Black, it was very striking. The other Brushed Silver layer I ran through the Big Shot with the Harlequin Textruz Plate (comes in the Backgrounds 1 collection). The orange is a piece of Designer Series Paper from the Razzleberry Lemonade collection. I put a piece of Going Grey card stock on the inside of the Basic Black card, so I would be able to write a note. The silver Jumbo brads and the black hemp twine added just the right touch. I know we no longer sell the hemp twine in black, but you can soak the natural color in a little water that you have added a few drops Basic Black ink refill to. Let it soak briefly, then take it out and let it dry. Or if you're impatient or doing things at the last minute like me, just zap it with the heat gun to speed up the drying process. There you have it - black hemp twine!

Have a great morning! I'll be back at some point today with that promised tutorial.

Happy stamping!

Annette

June Club Project #2

When I first saw the Summer Mini Catalog, I knew immediately I needed the motorcycle stamp. Jeff got a bike a couple of years ago after not having one for... we'll say a very long time. :-) Here he is on the day he got it:

 

So this month at stamp club, we used the motorcycle to create a father's day card (or birthday, whichever they wanted). I was inspired by a card done by demo Sandi MacIver, but I did change a few things. Here is my version:

The motorcycle is embossed using VersaMark and black embossing powder then colored in with markers. We used Real Red, Basic Black and Basic Grey. The background is done with Brushed Silver card stock and the Backgrounds 1 set of Texturz Plates for the Big Shot. I thought it kind of resembled tread marks. We attached the Real Red strip to the Silver before running it through the Big Shot, so that both layers are embossed. The greeting is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Happy stamping, everyone!

Annette

Happy Birthday, Petr!

This is a virtual birthday greeting for Jeff's colleague, Petr, who lives in Prague.

Happy Birthday, Petr!

Stampers, scroll on down for more info. :-)

I don't often use retired product on projects that I post on my blog, but this was an exception. Since Jeff is my computer guy (sometimes affectionately called my "personal geek squad"), I will probably never stop using the retired Computer Quips set. And since this card is for his teammate, this set was just a natural choice. I didn't have enough notice to send a card all the way to Prague, and didn't have Petr's address anyway, so we decided this would be a fun way to send him a birthday greeting.

Besides the Computer Quips set, I used Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Brocade Blue, Confetti White and Brushed Silver card stock, Jet Black StazOn ink, Watercolor Wonder Crayons with a blender pen, a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the candle, retired Vintage Brads and some scraps of retired Designer Series Paper (which was the inspiration for my color choices!).

Since it's getting late in Prague, I better sign off, so Jeff can let Petr know about his greeting. More later!