Yukon Masculine Birthday Card

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

Best Wishes, Eagle Scout!

Not my Eagle Scout, but another boy in my son's troop who helped him on his Eagle Project 2&1/2 years ago, and has now become an Eagle himself. I wanted to create a card that said "Boy Scouts" with what I already had. Thankfully, I had a nice eagle image from my Our Daily Bread Designs' set, In God We Trust.

I did a decent amount of heat embossing on the card. The sentiment is HE'd on a thick piece of vellum (close-up below), the eagle is HE'd (including the marks on his brown body - seen below - which I added by hand using a stick and dipping it in Brilliance Graphite Black ink and then covering it in clear EP).

I did some paper piercing around the star.

And I folded the sentiment to where it's arched on the front and flat on the back. Then I trimmed the edge with scissors and held it together with a brad.

I used Forest Branches to emboss the side panels. I stamped the background scene from SU Yukon on the top of one panel.

Scouts are always doing things involving ropes and such, so I thought I'd carry that theme with the leather strips and the jumbo eyelets. Made me think of tents for some reason. The old kind, I guess. All the cardstock was done with direct to paper with its coordinating ink to give the feel of leather or khaki canvas.

I hope you like my scouting card! I enjoyed doing a masculine card for a change!

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs In God We Trust, SU Sincere Salutations, SU Yukon

CS: SU True Thyme, SU Chocolate Chip, White, Black, vellum

Inks: SU True Thyme, SU Chocolate Chip, Brilliance Graphite Black, Vintage Photo and Antique Linen Distress Inks, various Copic markers

Other: Cuttlebug Forest Branches embossing folder, Nestabilities Large Pinking Circle and Star dies, jumbo eyelets, khaki brad, leather strips, red grosgrain ribbon, paper piercing tool, sponge dauber, ticket corner punch, clear EP

Yukon Bear

Someone in my comments section anonymously requested that I do something with my SU Yukon set. I love requests like that! Thank you, anonymous person! So here goes...

...btw, if there's a stamp set you'd like me to play with please speak up. Sometimes these little nudges are what gets my mojo moving.

This card was done intentionally simply. After wrestling with that last card (thanks for the kind comments!) I wanted an easier design. No cuttlebugging, no designer papers (I skipped that on the last one, too, did you notice?), no paper piercing, just simple stamping, you know, like we used to do before accessory mania took over. It's funny, but I think I get more positive feedback when I go simple than when I doody it up.

So for this one I did direct to paper (basically rubbing the ink pad on the cardstock until it's fully saturated) on Always Artichoke cardstock with the Always Artichoke ink pad. It gives the cs a leathery or suede-ish appearance. It's wonderful for masculine cards.

Then on the More Mustard cs I used the Distressed Ink Antique Linen, direct to paper, and after that I stamped the SU Print Pattern background stamp in More Mustard over that.

For the bear I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored it and the main background with Copics. I touched up the background trees a bit with an Always Artichoke marker.

Well, it was fun taking out one of my least-used sets and one of my most-used background stamps to play, so thanks again for the nudge, whoever you are!

Recipe

Stamps: SU Print Pattern, SU Yukon, SU Inspired By Nature (saying)

CS: Always Artichoke, Black, More Mustard, White

Inks: Distress Ink Antique Linen, More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Versafine Onyx Black

Other: Ticket corner punch, Nestabilities dies, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Copic markers, SU Always Artichoke marker, foam tape, gingham ribbon

Yukon birthday card

Recipe:

Stamps: Paisley Print, Yukon, CTMH Spunky Greetings

Paper: Black, Bravo Burgundy, glossy white

Ink: Versamark, Basic Black

Accessories: Markers: Baroque Burgundy, Really Rust, Creamy Caramel, Summer Sun, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive; Other: Cuttlebug "Tiny Bubbles" embossing folder, black grosgrain ribbon, silver buckle charm, Dimensionals, Diamond Glaze, silver mini brads, 1/16" hole punch, 1/4" circle punch

I really do have other Cuttlebug embossing folders! I just keep reaching for the Tiny Bubbles one, though, don't I? ;) I like its versatility. The ones Provocraft makes with only words on them are cute and all, but they're so limiting on what you can do with them. The non-word patterned ones are able to be used on any card. Maybe even every card as I demonstrating. hehe

This card is for my young nephew who likes nature. It's a simple design with a few extras that make for some WOW. Of course, I used the Tiny Bubbles folder! Am I getting obnoxious about using that thing yet? :D

I stamped Bravo Burgundy cs with the retired Paisley Print background stamp using Versamark ink. Then I ran part of the front through the Tiny Bubbles folder and Cuttlebugged it. When using the embossing folders with heavy patterns, you need to consider that the cardstock will shrink a bit due to the pulling up of the cardstock into the textured pattern. I generally allow for some extra length and then trim off what I don't need after running it through the Cuttlebug. Some cutters are terrible at hacking at the Cuttlebugged cardstock. Be careful if yours is like that or you'll have a not-so-nice mess on your hands. My Cricut cutter was like that, but my new (& improved, it says) Fiskars 12" cutter smoothly cuts it.

I stamped the CTMH "Happy Birthday" word stamp on the lower front (don't you just love the clear acrylic stamps? So easy to position!). Then I added the black grosgrain ribbon and adhered the silver buckle charm thingy onto the ribbon. I'm hoping it stays put! I used a Dimensional and some Diamond Glaze, so there's hope.

For the deer feature I stamped in Basic Black on glossy white cs and let it dry. Then I did the watercoloring with markers and a water brush. I recommend that if you try this, you have a scratch piece of the same cs you're using and test the markers to see how fast they set by rubbing them on the scratch piece and then wiping over them with the water brush. Then you can figure out how soon you need to hit the ink with the water brush. Some set REALLY fast. Some give you time to blend. For those that set fast, I usually just take the water brush and rub the bristles on the marker tip and then apply it, rather than putting the marker tip directly onto the cs. I used Baroque Burgundy (don't have the marker for Bravo Burgundy yet), Really Rust, Creamy Caramel, Summer Sun, Close to Cocoa, and even some Old Olive to achieve the colors you see. I did lots of blending. Using just Baroque Burgundy would've given it a pinkish appearance. So I just kept adding colors until I got the look I wanted. After it was done drying, I used Really Rust and Close to Cocoa markers and the Inkworx air art gun to give the background a splattered appearance. I let that dry.

Then once that dried I punched 1/16" holes in the corners. I punched the same-sized holes in black cs and then flipped my 1/4" circle punch over and positioned it with the 1/16" inch holes in the center and punched out. That gave me circles with holes in the middles. I used those under the silver mini brads in the corners of the deer scene. They look like rivets. Pretty cool. And they accent the buckle very nicely, I think. I adhered that to black cs and mounted it onto the card with Dimensionals. And then it was done.

It was nice to do a simple design for a change, although I like being stretched by Amy's and SCS's challenges. It's just what I needed to help my floundering creativity along.