Medallion Sympathy

I never like making sympathy cards, but this one was particularly difficult to create. My brother-in-law's sister, only 44, died Tuesday morning. When you live far away from your loved ones, it's more challenging to communicate adequately your care and concern, so I wanted to get this right.

I thumbed through my archive of cards for inspiration and came across one I'd made using the Medallion background stamp inked in earth tones. Finding a suitable color palette for a sympathy card is a struggle for me, so I took this as direction and pulled out More Mustard, Cajun Craze, and Bravo Burgundy, all from the Regals Collection. I patted each pad directly on the stamp, layering color and creating some interesting texture. I used Very Vanilla card stock for this image.

I chose More Mustard for the card base because the darker colors are harder to read handwriting on, and pulled out my retired Linen background stamp and added Bravo Burgundy to it to give the card base a textured look.

I only had 3 scraps of Cajun Craze and none of Bravo Burgundy, so I went with a simple layout. I crumpled the strip of CC and then ran it over the same color ink pad. I like that it looks a bit like leather. At the last minute, I felt it need something to soften it a bit, so I added some Victoria Crochet Trim.

The sentiment is from Word Play and it said just what I wanted to say. I used Bravo Burgundy ink to coordinate with the rest of the color palette.

Builder Wheel Birthday Card

Hey all! Happy Friday! SU! has a new product I want to give you the skinny on today. They're called Builder Wheels, and there are 6 styles available in the Summer Mini Catalog on pages 8 and 9. These wheels are designed to be used with the Jumbo Wheel handle. They make quick work of card making, and allowed me to create a great masculine birthday card. But first, a bit more detail on these wheels.

The wheels coordinate with each other and have two themes: friendship and birthday. The three I bought were the birthday set, which features Candle Crazy, Birthday, and So Many Stars. They do not have to be purchased as a set; they are available for mix and match. I liked the Candle Crazy so much that I bought 2 of that wheel and the Birthday wheel to create my border/main image.

The wheels must be purchased with a Builder Wheel Spindle and Spacer pack, which allows you to attach them to the handle. The spindle and spacers also allow you to use each wheel by itself (like I did for the envelope) or together as a set in the handle. You can purchase an uninked cartridge and juice it up with whatever reinker color you want, or you can roll it on an ink pad. Because of the length of the Birthday wheel's message, I would recommend the cartridge. All that said, I didn't use one for this project because I didn't remember I had any until after I was done! The cartridge insures even ink distribution without running out before you're done rolling.

Enough talk, here's the card! I used Not Quite Navy classic ink to roll the wheels. I started with a full, 8.5" width of Very Vanilla card stock because I wanted to get the entire "Happy Birthday to You" message to see how long it is. It's about 7", so I trimmed off the "to You" part and went with the rest as my main image.

Some quick coloring of the candles with Soft Suede and So Saffron, mounted it on Kraft and attached both layers to another mat of NQN that I used eyelets in the corners to allow me to thread Linen Thread through to create a frame. The Linen background stamp (retired) inked in SS helped add some texture to the VV base, and before I knew it, the card was complete.

My fellow partner at Starbucks and videographer Aldo had a birthday yesterday, so this card will circulate among us for wishes and be given to him next week. I think I'm doing pretty well with the manly birthday cards this month, but there's one more to go. Be looking for that next week--have a great weekend!

A Man's Man's Card

My husband's brother's birthday is later this week, and my dear man asked me if I had a card he could send him. Well, of course! Honestly, I had it on my "to-do" list to make him one, but, as I have already revealed, I am challenged in terms of stamp sets that provide inspiration for cards for men.

So, I was surprised when this turned out to be one of the best cards I've ever made for a guy. I started with a bunch of 1" square pieces of retired Designer Series Paper called Outlaw. I'm really trying to use what I have, and this paper coordinates with several colors that are being retired at the end of June, so it's time to stop saving it for a later day! That day is NOW!

I attached the squares to a 4" x 5" piece of card stock. Normally, I wouldn't put Really Rust and Going Gray together, but because it was already paired in the DSP, I took courage and went with it. Another thing I did that I haven't ever done before is stamping on DSP. I took my Wanted stamp set, which this paper was designed to pair with, and stamped a variety of images from it on the DSP in Going Gray. I stamped them off once, so that they wouldn't overpower the pattern in the paper.

I distressed the edges with a pair of kid scissors I have specifically for this purpose. Then I wrapped the whole thing in twine. For the main image, I took the horse stamp and stamped it four times, starting at the right side of the piece of Going Gray and moving to the left without reinking. Then I distressed this piece too and crumpled it up to make it more rough.

Then I got the idea to stamp the large Linen background image on the Going Gray base. I did it first with Really Rust and then again with Going Gray ink.

I carried the theme inside by using the largest image from the set and stamped it off along the edges. The sentiment is from Full of Life, and it's just something I know Bob's brother will resonate with.

What stamp sets are you drawn to when making a card for a guy? How do you choose a color palette? I'd love to hear how you manage this challenge. In fact, if you are inspired to make a card for a guy because of this post, include a link to your picture of it in the comments!