Masculine Monday - using Neighborhood wheel

Good morning! Welcome to Masculine Monday, my weekly series to inspire you to make cards for the male people in your life!

Today, I've been using my Neighborhood wheel, which I haven't used for a little while and which is on special offer during the month of March - £5.95 instead of £8.50! I have to warn you, I have completely fallen in love with this wheel all over again and you may be seeing quite a lot of it over the next few days! Here's a card that would work as an anniversary card - or whenever you'd like your man to know you love him!

My starting point for the card was the image of the semi-detached houses on the wheel which would be 'together forever'. I don't have that sentiment in stamp form so I decided to make one on my computer, but then decided 'I'm VERY attached to you' was less of a cliché. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out but I have to say that a stamped sentiment is a lot less trouble!

I chose to use only black, white and red for the card which makes it look very graphic and left the houses uncoloured for that sketched look. The red 'fence' behind the houses is another wheel - the railway image 'Right on Track'.

Here's how to make this card:

• Design a sentiment using your computer. Print it out on the bottom half of an A4 piece of Whisper White card stock on either the right or the left. (You'll need to work this out for your own printer/computer/software.)
• Cut the printed A4 sheet in half lengthwise. Score and fold in half to make a card base with the sentiment on the card front.
• Stamp the Right on Track wheel above the sentiment using Real Red ink.
• Stamp the Neighborhood wheel on a spare piece of Whisper White card stock using Basic Black ink. Cut out the semi-detached houses with sharp paper snips and attach it to the card front over the top of the 'fence' and above the sentiment. Add a heart cut out of textured Real Red card stock with the small heart punch.

Supplies
Stamps: Neighborhood, Right on Track wheels
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Card stock: Whisper White, Real Red textured
Other: Small heart punch

Well, you'll be glad to know that the temperature DID rise above 2 degrees at the weekend so I did leave the house! My husband and I went to see the brilliant and moving film 'The Kings Speech' and then had dinner at Café Rouge, where our charming young waiter offered me a large chocolate sundae on the house as the creme brulé I'd ordered wasn't available. It would have been churlish to refuse and of course I didn't want to be rude...

Don't forget to check the special offer list for the Neighborhood wheel and all the other bargains and, if you'd like to buy anything, just click here to email your order to me.

Thanks for joining me for Masculine Monday today. I'll have something much more feminine to show you tomorrow, so I do hope you'll join me then.
Happy Monday!

Forest Friends birthdays

It's the school holidays here and I like to start work early so that I have some time with my family. It's very peaceful first thing - my husband doesn't come down until about eight o'clock and the two older children don't surface until later. But my youngest son is an early riser (and also a sociable personality!) so we sometimes craft together until the hustle and bustle of the day begins.

Do you remember the adventurous Mr Rabbit, who found himself adrift on the high seas? (He's on this card on the left.) Well, you'll be glad to know, he was rescued by friendly fish and found himself a new home in the Warbling Woods. Here he is on his way to a birthday party!

The card came together very quickly. I wheeled Funky Forest across a Whisper White card base, then adhered Patterns DSP in Old Olive below it. The Right on Track 'fence' was wheeled across that and across a cut-out Mr Rabbit (oops! he's the wrong colour!) and then he was attached to the matching part of the fence so it looks as if he's behind it. Some balloons coloured in with a blender pen, a sponged sky, some cut-out Trendy Trees for the woods, a sentiment - and voila! It was done!

I can't resist showing you the card my son made this morning. His Mr Rabbit IS the right colour and look - he's having another adventure! My clever boy - he did everything himself apart from the matting. Just look at that professional sponging!

Crafting is a lovely activity that all ages can enjoy together. And if you do it with someone under ten you might get a story thrown in for free!
Have a good day.

Tutorial - Autumn Days emboss resist

The holidays are here and everyone's having a well-earned break. Since they all seem happy and busy I thought I'd put together that emboss resist tutorial I mentioned yesterday. I've made another card using the Right on Track wheel because I'm fascinated by the idea that it makes a good fence!

It may look complicated but it's actually much easier than you think. Don't be daunted by the long list of instructions - it's long because I've tried to be thorough! If you click on the pictures you'll find it makes them much bigger.

This is what you need:
Whisper White card stock 13cm x 9cm (3 1/2" x 5")
Right on Track wheel with Chocolate Chip ink cartridge
Autumn Days stamp set
The trees from the Lovely as a Tree stamp set
Versamark pad and versamark pen
Clear embossing powder
Heat gun
Ink: Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Bashful Blue
Markers to colour the pheasant: Really Rust, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa

First use markers to apply colour directly onto your pheasant stamp. I used Really Rust for the head, breast and wing of the bird, More Mustard for its speckled back and tail and Close to Cocoa for its legs (although with hindsight I should perhaps have used Chocolate Chip!)

Breathe onto your stamp to remoisten the ink and stamp it onto the bottom right-hand corner of the card stock.

Now go over the whole image with the Versamark pen. Then get a piece of scrap paper, fold it in half and then open it out again. Put your card stock onto the paper and cover the pheasant with clear embossing powder. Tip the embossing powder off the card stock onto the paper and return to its pot using the fold in the paper as a pouring channel.

The pheasant will look all pale and powdery - but not for long! Heat it with your heat gun, holding the gun about 6cm above the card stock and keeping it in motion to avoid scorching. The image will suddenly come to colourful life when it's embossed. Make sure it's all done.

This is what it looks like when it's done. It's gone shiny! More importantly, it's become waterproof so any ink stamped over it will simply wipe off. That means that what you stamp over the top will look as if it's behind the pheasant.

Now get your foliage and grasses stamps and an Old Olive ink pad. Load the stamp with versamark first, then tap it into your ink pad to load colour and then stamp it onto your card stock. (Yes my versamark pad is covered in ink! I have a clean one  that I use for watermarking pale card stock and this one that I use for emboss resist.)

Now repeat that step with the other two grass images loading the stamp with versamark first and then with ink. I used Always Artichoke for one of the grasses and Creamy Caramel for the other.

Okay! It's time to heat emboss again. Put your card stock on that piece of paper with a fold in it, cover the stamped grasses with clear embossing powder, tip the powder off onto the paper and pour it back into the container. Then heat the image as before until the colour comes through and it becomes shiny.

Next, wheel the Right on Track image across the card stock to make a fence. Don't forget to start wheeling just off the paper so that the wheel has a chance to get inked up. Some of the ink will get on the pheasant and grasses so you need to wipe it off carefully with a cotton bud or a bit of tissue.

Now go over the fence image with your versamark pen, cover it with clear embossing powder and heat it with your heat gun. (I haven't shown a photo this time because you know how to do this by now!) Now your card stock should look something like this.

Time to stamp the trees! I used Chocolate Chip ink and because the image didn't reach all the way across, I stamped it again to fill in the gap.

Stamp some more foliage and grasses 'behind' the fence and carefully polish off any ink that goes on the fence or the pheasant.

Now add some colour. Take a sponge dauber and sponge Always Artichoke on the bottom of the card stock going darker at the edges.

Daub a little Certainly Celery in the branches of the trees with another sponge dauber. Add the colour gradually - remember you can always add more but you can't take it away! Then lightly sponge the sky with Bashful Blue, again concentrating on the edges of the card stock.

I smudged a little Chocolate Chip ink on my card stock by accident so I doodled some birds in to disguise it! Who was it that said that mistakes are just an excuse to add an embellishment...?

To finish the card, I added a sentiment from Happy Moments punched out with the word window punch and sponged round the edges with Creamy Caramel ink. This was fixed to the image with a copper coloured eyelet from the Metallics assortment and a piece of Linen Thread was knotted through it. The panel was then adhered to a card base made from half a sheet of A4 Whisper White folded in half.

I hope this tutorial has inspired you to try some emboss resist.
Thanks for spending your time with me.
Happy Easter!

Right On Track fence

The Right On Track wheel makes a great railway track but I've often wondered what else you could do with it. Well it came to me the other day that it could turn into a fence. I had a go at it today using the emboss resist technique and here's the result:

This looks complicated but it's quite easy. You just stamp the things you want in the foreground first - in this case some leaves and two flowers. Load your stamp with versamark, then with ink, sprinkle with clear embossing powder and set it with a heat gun. (I used to worry that putting a versamark loaded stamp into my classic ink pads would hurt them, but it doesn't at all.) Now you can add the fence with the wheel, go over it with a versamark pen, sprinkle with clear embossing powder and set that layer with your heat gun. Anything else you stamp now will look as if it's behind these two layers. The ink that gets onto your embossed images can be carefully wiped off with a cotton bud or a wisp of tissue.

Supplies: (all Stampin' Up unless specified)
Stamps: One of a Kind, Autumn Days, Touch of Nature, Sincere Salutations
Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Versamark pad and pen, clear embossing powder, Right on Track wheel, Funky Forest wheel, Corner rounder

When I first came across the emboss resist technique I thought it looked terribly advanced and wouldn't try it for ages - but once I'd given it a go, I didn't look back, and now it's become one of my favourite techniques! I shall post a tutorial in the next few days so look out for that - and do have a go!
Thank you for visiting today.