Masculine Monday - Nature Walk coordinated gift set

Good morning! It's Monday and that means a male card on my blog! So today I'm showing you the card I made for my brother's birthday. My lovely brother is an outdoors kind of a guy and a keen gardener, so I immediately turned to those gorgeous nature-inspired Botanical Gazette papers I was using on Saturday and the Nature Walk stamp set that goes so beautifully with them.

I cut some of the misty blue bird print paper from a corner so that I got this fabulous frame effect on two sides. The stamped plants on the other two sides and the sponged edges really draw the eye in to the focal image - the bird and the sentiment.

I love this bird and won't ever part with him! I like the way he's eyeing the sentiment as if he thinks it might be a tasty worm! (Apologies if you were just eating something nice when you read that!)

National gardening vouchers are just the thing to give to my brother and look much more exciting in a box than in an envelope. I made the box lid out of the same paper as I used on the card and the base out of Early Espresso card stock. Click here for my simple box tutorial.

I finished the gift with a length of Crumb Cake seam binding and a tied a matching tag onto it with Early Espresso grosgrain ribbon. I don't know if you can see the top of the label? Its curvy shape was made using a corner of the curly label punch - and I got quite excited about it!

So here's the card and the box together and I can report, since he has now opened them, that my brother was delighted with them!

Here's how to make this card:

• Cut a 8cm square piece of the bird print designer paper - taking it from the corner.
• Keeping the 'frame' on the paper on the right and the bottom, stamp the plant several times on the left and top of the square using Early Espresso ink. Sponge the edges of the card stock with the ink, paying particular attention to the edges you just stamped.
• Using the same ink and a stamp-a-majig, stamp the bird just off the left of the square and the sentiment in the bottom right-hand corner.
• Cut a 9cm x 18cm piece of Crumb Cake card stock. Score and fold in half to create a card base and attach the stamped panel to the card front.
• Stamp another bird in Early Espresso ink on a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock. Add touches of Crumb Cake to it with a blender pen and cut it out - no need to cut out the fiddly legs. Fix the bird on top of the bird you stamped onto the paper using dimensionals - you'll notice the stamped legs look as if they're part of the popped up bird.

Supplies
Stamps: Nature Walk, Plane and Simple (sentiment)
Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Card stock: Crumb Cake, scrap of Very Vanilla
Other: Botanical Gazette designer paper


I can supply everything you need for this project and have it delivered direct to your door. Click here to email me, or give me a call on 01280 820593, and I'll be happy to help.

Well, that's another weekend over! As our children have grown older, they tend to go off socialising for some of the weekend but we still manage to spend some of the time together as a family. On Saturday morning we went to a local car boot sale and had a lovely time strolling in the sunshine and browsing for bargains. It was a very windy morning and we were much entertained by the sight of a space hopper bouncing into view by itself, followed a few moments later by a large man in hot pursuit!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

I'm thinking about bling at the moment... see you tomorrow!