Time for a Make-it-Monday challenge! Today’s challenge was to use Copic markers to add shading to colored cardstock (mim7). Flowers would be my first choice, but since I’ve done that (my posy) I wanted to try something else. I thought this bug would be a great stamp for the technique.

In addition, I used a Sweet Sunday Sketch (sss109) for my layout.

I’m not sure I did all that good with the technique, but I think the card is cute enough. For the headlights and bumper I used a white pencil to lighten those areas.

This week’s Waltzing Mouse sketch (wmsc39) includes a banner. I don’t have the banner set from WM (and it isn’t required to use WM supplies, but I prefer to try), so I had to come up with something a little different. I thought using the lanterns in the Asian Gardens set would be a perfect alternative.

I’m so glad I went that route – I *love* this card. I started by stamping the branches, foilage, and flowers on the main panel. Then I stamped and cut out the lanterns. I’m not sure how other folks do their banners, but for mine, I put a dot of glue on the back of each lantern then squished the thread into the glue. After that dried, I attached it to my base with dimensionals. The bows are done separately.

One note about the paper flower. Originally it had rounded petals, but the flowers in my background did not. All I did was use my snips to notch the paper flower petals – now it matches (the shape anyway; the color isn’t so obviously off IRL).

Also, the clear dot in the flower is a Hero Arts jewel (it isn’t faceted like normal rhinestones). I colored it with Copics…probably a bit too dark, but oh well.

Embellish Magazine’s latest color challenge was a masculine theme (check it out). With many nephews in the family, I can always use a masculine birthday card, so I definitely needed to participate in this challenge!

After perusing my stamp index, I decided to use the paper airplane image (my nephews are getting older, so cute doesn’t really cut it any more). As with many of my one-layer cards, the stamped images didn’t end up quite where I wanted, so I chopped it up and made a layer instead. I added the checkerboard image to help with the “racing” feel of the airplanes.

On the inside I repeated the border (along the top as well, but you don’t see that in the picture). I also used the outline paper airplane image to make it feel cohesive.

This is another masculine card I made for next month. My cousin does interior design, hence the choice of stamps. To bring a little life to the card, I chose a die shape for the focal panel and I embossed the pattern paper. The chair is paper pieced with coordinating DSP. Finally I used a sticker border from an old SU scrap kit.

A tip for matting the dies. I cut two of the same size dies – one in vanilla and one artichoke. In addition, on the vanilla one, I also used the die to emboss it. Then I just trimmed the embossed edge off and now I have a perfect mat.

I even did the inside of this one!

Basically I just brought all the elements from the front to the inside. I used a larger size of the same die shape, then added a bit of the DSP and sticker. A stamped sentiment and the card is ready to go!

Created for the Passion for Papertrey blog challenge (Piece Out).

There are a few birthdays in early April that are for some of the guys in my life. My standards for masculine cards are pretty simple – no frills, no flowers etc. That doesn’t leave a lot to work with! I wanted a simple layout and thankfully this card came together quickly.

I started with the Crazy 4 Challenge #78. The challenge was to use a tree on a card (for Earth Day). I pulled out a set that hadn’t seen ink in a while. For the layout, I took a tip from a PTI designer (I think it was Dawn) and made the card base skinnier so the over-hang bit would still fit in an envelope. I do like the way it turned out.

PTI’s recent challenge to do partial embossing has got me looking at the impression plates differently. I managed to emboss the top of the card base by using a chipboard shim like I did for yesterday’s card.