Well, hey! Haven't been doing much stamping until recently, so let me share with you a card I made.
This birthday card is for my grandson who turned 21 last month. He's a quiet, gentle young man, and this noble elk makes me think of him.
The elk is from the SU! Yukon set, and was chosen as my focal point.
I wanted to keep to a forest/wilderness theme, so I used the Cuttlebug Forest Branches embossing folder on the grey-green outside panels. But before embossing them, I rubbed them (direct-to-paper) with my SU! True Thyme and SU! Close To Cocoa ink pads to give them more visual texture. Then I stamped the wilderness image from the same set in black ink on the bottom of each panel. The grey-green cardstock is one I've had for a long time. I'm not sure of the color's actual name or its maker. But it fit well with the look I was going for.
I used the gatefold cut to create a center-opening style. It's my favorite card style. To hold the card closed, I used a little bronze lever, held in place by a bronze mini-brad. It was very challenging to work with, so I'm not sure I'll do that again. I used one of the Nestabilities Pinking Circle dies on black cardstock to frame the center design and added foam tape under the white circle to give more dimension.
I double-stamped the elk image on white cardstock. I cut one out with a circle die and the other one using craft scissors and a detail knife. Then I colored everything with Copics. Cutting out those antlers was a challenge! No die cuts to make it easier! After cutting it out, I lined the edges with a black Copic. Then I adhered it over the other elk image with foam tape to add even more dimension.
On the inside I carried the forest theme further by using the Taylored Expressions Birch Tree Cutting Plate die, cutting it in half to use as inner side panels. I used the same grey-green cardstock, inked up with True Thyme and Close to Cocoa to texturize it. After the ink dried, I ran the tree pieces through a Xyron 510 sticker maker to apply adhesive to the backs. It was a bit messy because of all the nooks and crannies of the image, but it was fairly easy to clean up with a rubber cement eraser afterwards.
I used a 1/2" circle punch and a corner punch to get the corners and middles of everything a bit fancy. Another of my favorite things to do on my cards.
I used a tree stamp from SU! Lovely As a Tree and the numbers were from SU! Letterpress Numbers. The birthday stamp was from Fiskars Make a Wish Quotes. Everything was stamped in black ink using a Stamp-a-Ma-Jig to align everything properly.
So there you have it. Thanks for coming by for a look!
Recipe:
Stamps: Stampin' Up! Yukon, Stampin' Up! Lovely As a Tree, Stampin' Up! Letterpress Numbers, Fiskars Make a Wish Quotes
CS: Black, grey green (unknown source), White
Inks: Stampin' Up! True Thyme (2007), Stampin' Up! Close to Cocoa, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
Copics: 110, E33, E35, YG93, YG95, YG97
Other: Taylored Expressions Birch Tree Cutting Plate, Nestabilities Standard Circle Small, Nestabilities Large Pinking Circles, Cuttlebug Forest Branches embossing folder, Xyron 510 sticker maker w/permanent adhesive, rubber cement eraser, Stamp-a-Ma-Jig, Corner punch, 1/2" circle punch, 1/16" hole punch, foam tape, bronze mini-brad, bronze mini lever, craft scissors, Fiskars Fingertip Precision Detail Knife
