This is another attempt at me making masculine cards. Pinstripes scream MANLY!! LOL. For directions on how to make a Criss Cross card, click here.

I used Close to cocoa card stock for the card, with Chocolate Chip DSP for the front triangles. Around the card, I tied a piece of 1/4″ Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon. I am loving the new Modern Label Punch, which I used on Tempting Turquoise card stock, stamped with “Thanks So Much”. This sentiment is from Very Thankful, with just the words inked up in White Craft ink, heat embossed with White EP. The label punch is attached using glue dots.

Inside, I have the Top Note die cut layered on Whisper White. I like the curves and stitching effect of the Top Note peeking out of the criss cross. I’m going to leave this blank for now, but I could see decorating the insert with stamps and/or eyelets/brads. Again, it’s a masculine Thank You Card Sample so I don’t want to get too frilly. I’m exercising a lot of restraint here!

This is a sample Thank You card for a male graduation party. I think masculine cards are really challenging because cards by nature are girly. My general rule of thumb for making a masculine card is no ribbon or glitter. Other than that, paper and ink should be pretty much gender neutral territory.

The Gate Fold Card (tutorial here) is a fun one to make. I started out with a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of Chocolate Chip card stock scored at 2 3/4″ and 8 1/4″. The front panels of the card are decorated using Holiday Lounge DSP. To “close” the card, I attached a square of chocolate chip card stock layered with Tempting Turquoise. In the center, I used the Scallop Square Punch and the sentiment from Lots of Thoughts stamped in Chocolate chip ink on Whisper white card stock. The square is adhered with a dimensional on the left flap only.

Inside, I lined the card with Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White, stamping the sentiment from Very Thankful using my TT and CC markers.

I REALLY like how this turned out! I agonized over the bow–should I leave it off? Big loops/small loops? Should the pieces hang past the pink card stock? This is how it turned out in the end and it’s so pretty if I do say so myself!

The only thing is, what kind of card should this be? An invitation, thank you card, birthday card, shower card, friendship card, or something else? The possibilities are endless and I didn’t want to put a sentiment on it just yet.

This dress form is from Chic Boutique (as if I’ve never used it before!) stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on Whisper White. The DSP is Chocolate Chip, which I Paper Pieced (see specifics here). I mounted it on a Regal Rose backing, adhered with dimensionals.

And the background–is it not gorgeous? I stamped the filigree image from Chic Boutique all over in Versamark and heat embossed it with Clear EP on Close to Cocoa card stock. The card base is Chocolate chip.

The finishing touch is a bow made from 1/4″ Regal Rose Grosgrain, adhered with tiny glue dots.

So what do you think is the perfect occasion for this classic card?

This color scheme came from Stampin Up’s In Color Combination Chart, which you can view here. The base is Basic Black, layered with a Bermuda Breeze 4″ x 5.25″ panel. Along the right margin, I stamped “merci” multiple times in Black ink, then stamped it once in Melon Mambo ink on White card stock. Using the Word Window Punch, I punched out the sentiment, added a Circle Fire Rhinestone Brad and cut a V-shaped notch on the other end. I attached it to the card using dimensionals.

Across the front, I punched 7 circles with my 3/4″ Circle Punch from Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, and Melon Mambo card stock. I adhered them with glue dots to the card base.

Finally, the Eiffel Tower image from Chic Boutique was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Black Embossing Powder on Whisper White with a Kiwi Kiss mat, adhered with dimensionals.

I’m going to have to apologize in advance for posting so many cards using this Chic Boutique set. It’s just so pretty and I can’t get enough of the dress form stamp. Fortunately for everyone, I’m getting a few new sets this coming week, so I may be able to pry myself away from Chic Boutique for a couple of days at least!

This card is made from a Chocolate Chip 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ base, folded in half with a layer of Sweet Always DSP on top. I stamped the dress form onto Whisper White card stock three times in Chocolate Chip ink. Then, I stamped the image again three times onto Sweet Always DSP and Chocolate Chip DSP using Chocolate Chip ink. Next, I paper pieced the dresses onto the Whisper White, which means I cut them out from the DSP, carefully following the image line, and glued them to their corresponding place on the stamped image layer. Behind the Whisper White is a square of polka dotted Chocolate Chip DSP (all the DSP here was taken from my scrap drawer).

I have such a hard time using the buttons from Button Latte! I think it’s because I like them so much I want to hoard them. They really belonged on this card, especially due to the subject matter, so I played and played with them, finally convincing myself to glue them on–AND I used several of them at once! Some were “threaded” with thin strips of card stock and attached to the card with glue dots.

Finally, the sentiment is from Chic Boutique as well, stamped in Chocolate Chip ink.

OK, that title was a cheesy joke, sorry. I like this birdcage image so much, and there is a similar one in the Decor Elements catalog as a Level 3 hostess set, free with a $500 order. Yeah right, a girl can dream!! I guess the stamp set will have to do for now. It’s called Chic Boutique and all images shown here are from the set.

First off, the card base is Rich Razzleberry card stock, layered with a panel of Crushed Curry and floral patterned DSP from Lovely Flowers. Ribbon is Crushed Curry Polka Dot Grosgrain.

I embossed the birdcage and filigree images with Versamark and Black EP on Shimmery White card stock, coloring the birdcage with In Color Markers. The “Hello” sentiment was stamped in Rich Razzleberry ink. I cut out the images with my paper snips and placed two purple Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads on either side of the filigree type image. That was adhered to the base using dimensionals.

As for the birdcage, I cut it out and punched the top with the small hole of the cropadile. Then I knotted some Silver Cord through it and looped the cord behind the Crushed Curry panel. The birdcage is adhered to the base with dimensionals.

This is a new set called Chic Boutique and when I saw it I knew it would make some pretty cards! Here, the card base is Basic Black layered with Lovely Flowers DSP (2 different patterns-one in Melon Mambo, one in Old Olive).

The image layer is watercolor paper, which I stamped with Black Stazon and used my Markers and Aquapainter to watercolor the images. For a tutorial on watercoloring with markers, see here. I also used a mask here to stamp the dress forms. I stamped the center one first (Pink/Melon Mambo), then I stamped the image again onto scrap paper and cut it out to make the mask. I placed the mask over the image I just stamped, and overlapping it a bit, stamped again to the right of the main image. This made the Crushed Curry/Yellow form. Without moving the mask, repeat again on the left side to make the Old Olive/Green form.

To embellish the image layer I added 3 Square Fire Rhinestone Brads in pink and mounted the watercolor paper to a Basic Black panel using dimensionals. The sentiment is from the Chic Boutique stamp set also, and I used my Melon Mambo marker to ink it up and stamp onto Watercolor paper matted with Basic Black.

Since I was playing with the Say it with Scallops set (see previous post) I made two similar cards. Again, very simple, and I must have autumn on the mind because these are rather fall-ish.

The first one (left) uses Creamy Caramel for the base, layered with Whisper White. I stamped the “hi” stamp in Red Craft ink and clear embossed using Clear E.P. I punched it out using the Scallop Square Punch and adhered it to the base using a dimensional. The other three scallop squares are Close to Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie, and Old Olive. Before adhering the Whisper White layer to the base, I tied some Old Olive 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon around the card stock.

Next, I flipped the card on its side and used basically the same colors in a different configuration. The background here is Very Vanilla, and this time, I used Pumpkin Pie Craft ink for the “hi” stamp and clear embossed it. The other card stock colors were close to cocoa, old olive, and real red. Real Red 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon tied up the side completes the look.

This card was made using Say it with Scallops, and while I’ve used other stamps from the set, I’ve never used this specific stamp before. It makes a fun card, especially for a graduation.

I used Crushed Curry card stock for the base, and a strip of Whisper White layered with Bermuda Bay textured card stock runs across the front. The Old Olive circle was punched out using my Marvy Mega Circle Punch. On top of that is the “Congrats” stamp from Say it with Scallops which I colored using my Bermuda Bay marker and the star was colored with Melon Mambo marker. The star is also popped up with a glue dot. Finally, the sentiment was punched out using the Scallop Square Punch (which coordinates with this stamp set) and attached using dimensionals.

Since I don’t have any religious stamps, I’ve had to come up with clever ways to make various Christening, Communion, and Confirmation cards. Here is one I made for a Christening using Circle Rhinestone Brads in shades of blue for the “cross”. I had this vision in my head and it turned out better than I hoped!

The only tricky part about this card is punching holes for the brads. My crop-a-dile wouldn’t reach past the first hole at the top of the cross, so I had to get crafty. I used the Paper Piercer and Mat to poke a small starter hole and then widened it by working the piercer around in a circle. After that little speed bump, the rest of the card came together quickly.

The card base is Shimmery White, layered with Kraft, Bashful Blue, and another layer of Shimmery White card stock. I stamped the “Blessed” from So Very, an old Sale-a-bration set (well technically it was called Sell-a-bration back then. They changed the name–I know, confusing!) I stamped it first in Versamark and then in Tempting Turquoise Classic ink so that I could emboss it.

I just learned that trick-- stamp your image in Versamark first, then ink it up with any color, stamp onto the card stock and follow with clear embossing  powder/heat gun.

I don’t know why but my Bashful Blue ink looked like it didn’t quite match the paper, so I just went with Turquoise to match the brads.

I glued all the layers together except for the top Shimmery White card stock layer, which was adhered to the base with about 20 dimensionals! OK more like 13, but all those brads were heavy!

Thanks for looking