Clockworks in black and grey

Over at Dynamic Duos this week the colour palette is a minimal Basic Black and Basic Grey and there's the optional additional challenge of making a male card. As if that weren't enough, I notice this week's Paper Players challenge is to make a one-layer, CAS card. So, never one to shrink from a tricky moment, here I am picking up the gauntlet... Come and see what I've come up with:

I chose Stampin' Up's wonderful Clockworks stamp set to make my card. This is one of those sets that is so easy to layer you could almost do it with your eyes closed! (But you'll be glad to know that I didn't!)

I started by making a card base with Naturals White - it has lots of speckles which I thought would work well for a masculine, collage-style design. Using sticky notes to mask off strips, I alternated sponging and stamping to form a background and then built up the elements of the pocket watch using my trusty stamp-a-majig to get everything where I wanted it. The watch was coloured by sponging Basic Grey ink through a mask made with a circle punch.

A few cogs were added to the design and the sentiment was stamped in versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder. Finally, the centre of the watch face was decorated with a pearl coloured with a black permanent marker.
Edited to add: Thanks to Jane for pointing out that my pocket watch is obviously from Topsy Turvy land as there's an 8 where the 12 should be... I can't tell you how carefully I stamped it there using my stamp-a-majig!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Clockworks, Made for You
Ink: Basic Grey, Black stazon
Card stock: Naturals White
Other: Versamark, Black embossing powder, heat tool, 1 3/4" circle punch, Basic Pearls, stamp-a-majig
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Yesterday, my daughter found my youngest son at the hall mirror making adjustments to his hair and felt he needed some encouragement. "I think your hair looks nice today," she said kindly. She needn't have bothered. "I know," said my son complacently. "It's looking better than it's ever looked before, ever!" Hmm. I think he may have been in the loo when the modesty gene was being handed out!

Do join me again tomorrow for a little punch art!