Masculine Cards

(Originally posted on 02/21/2017)

Hello, I hope you are having a good week; thank you for stopping by.  It has been a while since my last blog post so I am thankful that you have taken the time to drop in today.

Here is a look at the card that I am featuring today. 

I made this card for my husband for Valentine’s Day.  He enjoys everything rustic, country, western or cowboy related.  Sometimes I think he was born in the wrong era but I digress.  My passion is making scenic cards and since my husband has a love for the old west and for horses I thought that I would make him a scenic card with horses running wild. 

To make the card I began with a 4.25” x 5.5” piece of Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock.  Using my eBrush airbrush machine and my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers I airbrushed the background.  I started by using a very pale golden brown (GB1) to lay down an oval halo of color leaving the center of the cardstock white.  Switching to a little darker color (GB3) I layered on another halo of color around the outer edges first color overlapping most of the first color but leaving some of the GB1 in the center.  I continued to build layers of colors concentrating mostly on the bottom half of the card progressing darker by two tones deeper each time until I had reached GB8.  At this point I thought that the background looked pretty good.

Next using some stamps sets from Gina K Designs designed by Theresa Momber I stamped the images.  The first stamp I used was Theresa’s Winter Trees Framescape set but I didn’t want the whole scene of the stamp and I didn’t want the lines of the frame so using my stamp positioner and a piece of acetate laid over my airbrushed cardstock in the positioner I began testing my scene.  After a just a couple of tries I had a layout that I was happy with so I removed the acetate and began by inking up just the left bank of trees from the framescape stamp in Gina K Dark Chocolate Brown ink.  I wiped off any ink that was on the edge of the stamp that I didn’t want and stamped it to the left side of my cardstock.  Then I moved onto the rocky ridge stamp that is in the same stamp set as the Winter Trees framescape and again stamped it in GK Dark Chocolate Brown ink.  Once I had the mountain ridge and trees stamped out I stamped the horses from Theresa’s Out West 2 set.  At first I stamped them in the same dark chocolate brown ink but I didn’t like it so with the magic of my stamp positioner allowing me to re-stamp in exactly the same place I chose to stamp the horses again in Gina K Block Onyx ink.  This made the horses appear more in the foreground than the brown ink did.  At this point I pulled my cardstock out of my stamp position and placed a post-it note in and stamped off the horses to use as a mask with the residual ink that was on the stamp.  I fussy cut the horses and put my cardstock and with the mask in place back into my positioner and using a texture stamp from Stampscapes and GK Warm Cocoa ink I stamped all around the foreground creating the appearance of grass around the horses.  I also used the two grass sprig stamps from the Winter Trees Framescapes set for added interest.  Using a few of my markers I also added some shadowing to the ridge lines and the land around the trees.  I also added a bit of shadow behind the mountain peaks for depth and a little shadow under the horses’ feet and tails.  I didn’t want to add too much color because I wanted to keep to the monochromatic look.

Finally I added a Valentine greeting and a few birds to the sky.  I ended up cutting down the image to 4” x 5.25” so I could have a dark brown card base and matted look.  I finished the inside with a sentiment I printed directly onto cardstock from my computer about how grateful I am for helping me through some rough times and always being there with his love and support.  Not exactly those words but you get the idea.  The card brought a small tear to his eye which really touched me.

In the same theme of rustic I also made this card for his birthday which was just a couple of weeks ago.  He has placed both up on the entertainment center to enjoy which if you know my husband is somewhat of a compliment since he usually just leaves his cards laying on the coffee table until they are buried by other junk or mail and forgets about them.

If you have any comments or questions, I’d love to hear them. 

Thank you for visiting me today.

Disclosure:

     All products used in my blog posts and videos are my own and purchased by me.  My blog posts, videos and opinions are not sponsored, and I am not paid by the product companies to create these posts and videos. The information provided in this video is my own personal endorsement and choice.