A Masculine Birthday Card

Today we celebrate our brother, Jordan on his 31st Birthday! Jordan is a smart geologist, currently working on getting his PhD. He loves all things rocks and gems. Last year, for his 30th birthday, I made a card in the shape of a rock and on the inside put little 'gems' (rhinestones). Unfortunately, I can't find the picture of it! This year, I had a bit of a tough time thinking of a new design, but knowing that he also loves nature, I pulled out my "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set and made this card:

Masculine cards are not always the easiest to design, but I just love how this one turned out! I used a past sketch from "My Favourite Things" as a guide.

I first coloured the stamp with Chocolate Chip and Old Olive markers, stamped it and cut the image into 3 panels. The background is embossed with a square lattice pattern and cardstock and DSP is layered on top of it. I completed the card with a simple birthday sentiment.

Thanks for visiting! Stop by tomorrow for a new KCRR challenge!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, All Holidays (ret.)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Neutrals DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Tools: Square Lattice embossing folder

Seize the Birthday #13: A Masculine Birthday Card

It's been a great weekend so far. Yesterday I crafted almost all day! I stayed motivated and got a lot of papercraft projects completed and ready to go for the craft fair. I took a little break in the middle of the afternoon and went shopping with my hubby. We went to his favourite store - Costco - ate some samples, did some browsing, and managed to walk out of the store without buying anything (that's a first), unless you count the hot dog that Kevin bought... We then headed over to Winners where I found an awesome pair of navy shorts! Looking forward to the day when it's hot enough to wear them! It seems like Spring is taking it's sweet time to get here (we had another snowfall yesterday morning!).

I noticed that I have very few masculine greeting cards, so I took advantage of the Seize the Birthday challenge this week.

This is a nice, clean and simple sketch, but still has just the right amount of layers. I pulled out one of my favourite stamp sets - Lovely as a Tree - and used one of the tree stamps as the central focus of the card. I paired it with woodgrain embossed paper and a touch of Old Olive to tie it all together. Here's how it turned out:

 

The part that took the longest was fussy-cutting the tree. But I love the look of a cut-out stamped image! I popped it up to give the card some dimension and completed the card with a simple sentiment.

 



 

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Ingredients:
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Natural Composition DSP
Ink: Early Espresso, Old Olive marker, Early Espresso marker
Tools: Ovals nestabilities, Word Window punch, Scallop Border punch

PP#138 {Happy Father's Day}

1 day down, 3 more to go! Looking forward to a relaxing long weekend!
Last night I made some delicious ribs for dinner. We are making a point of going through our freezer and finishing up frozen foods that we didn't even know we had :) I followed this recipe for oven-baked ribs and they turned out great! So delicious! After boiling the ribs, I used the boiling, seasoned water to cook my potatoes in. The only thing I would change is to use less salt than what the recipe calls for. The potatoes turned out to be really salty! But, I would definitely cook ribs again using this recipe!

Today's card is clean and simple. I love the sketch at The Paper Players this week, so I thought I'd play along!

I've been wanting to get a headstart on my Father's Day cards, and this was a perfect opportunity! Here's my card:

 

I kept the layout quite simple with no added embellishments. I stamped a tree from "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set (one of my favourites!). This stamp set is perfect for masculine cards. I found some retired designer paper with a woodgrain design on it and thought it matched perfectly with the stamped tree image. I fussy cut the tree and popped it up to give it some dimension. The flag sentiment is also popped up. You can see it better in these photos:

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Neutrals DSP, ? DSP (ret.)

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive marker, Chocolate Chip marker

Tools: Circles Nestabilities, Scallop Edge Border punch

Margaritas and "Inspired By..." Challenge

Oh, how I love the weekends! Last night, I spent some good quality time with my hubby :) We made our own margaritas and watched "The Notebook".

The margaritas turned out sooo delicious! Here are the ingredients:

- 1/8 cup of water
- 90 mL tequila
- 30 mL Grand Marnier
- half an orange, peeled
- half a lime, peeled
- half a lemon, peeled
- thin slice of ginger
- a handful of spinach
- 3 tbsp honey
- 3 cups of ice cubes

We blended it for 45 seconds in our wonderful Vitamix....

 

...and voila!

Now for a new card challenge!

 

Karly chose a photo that she took just outside of Prince George as our inspiration for this week:

IB #5

What a gorgeous sunset! As soon as I saw this photo, the lovely stamp set "Lovely as a Tree" came to mind -- one of my favourites! I used the masking technique to create a landscape with a sunset:

 

I LOVE how it turned out! The sky is a vibrant orange/yellow and after looking at it again, it almost seems like the sun is shining a glow on the grass underneath the trees. The sky is created by sponging Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie and So Saffron ink. I sponged Old Olive and Always Artichoke for the grass. The landscape is cut into 3 panels to make it look like window panes and a simple "happy birthday" sentiment is added to complete the card.

Hop on over to Karly's Creations to see how this photo inspired her!

Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, All Holidays (ret.)
Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White
Ink: Staz-On Black ink, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Early Espresso

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Celebration!

It's been a great weekend of birthday celebrations! Saturday night, my hubby, Kevin, and I  dressed up and went out for a delicious dinner at Ric's Grill. Kevin had his favourite seafood meal - Alaskan King Crab legs and prawns, and I had a delicious Italian sausage pasta dish. We enjoyed white and red wine and completed our meal with ginger cake and vanilla ice cream. It was scrumptious!

I promised to share the birthday card I made for my hubby's 29th birthday... It's a side-step folded card with an outdoorsy theme - perfect for my hubby! He loves the outdoors!

 

I got this idea from a card I found online and decided to CASE it. To see the original design visit Creative Corner Studio. I added my own touch to this card. The tent on the back 'step' is cut free-hand. I added eyelets and bakers twine to the open door flaps. A sleeping bag sticker is added to the inside of the tent. On the 2nd 'step' i created a campfire and marchmallow stick using punches. On the front 'step' I created a bush with the Little Leaves embosslet die from Stampin up and added the sentiment 'happy birthday'. On the larger side panel I stamped trees to make it look like a forest, added a stamped bunny, and cut a sign post shape using my cricut.

 

If you would like to try out this card fold, click here for some great instructions. I found these instructions were very easy to follow.

 

Some other highlights from Kevin's birthday:

 

Turtle Brownie Ice Cream Cake -- yumm!

I made the pennant banner using the Pennant Punch and cut the letters out using my cricut.

 

I spoiled him this year! Got him a couple merino wool t-shirts, the 75th anniversary edition of "The Hobbit" and a portable JetBoil stove. He was thrilled!

 

Had quite a few phone calls/skype calls today. I think he had a great birthday!

 

 

Card Ingredients for the Side-Step Card:

 

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Forest Friends (ret.), Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Whisper White, Certainly Celery DSP, Always Artichoke DSP, Crumb Cake DSP

Ink: Early Espresso, Always Artichoke

Tools: Bird Builder punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Snowflake punch (ret.), Little Leaves embosslit, Campin' Critters Cricut cartridge

Accessories: Brads (Michaels), Eyelets, Bakers Twine, Sleeping Bag sticker

 

Thanks for stopping by!