Crazy Birds cards

I haven't had the fabulous Tim Holtz' Crazy Birds out for a while!  And I needed a whole stack of masculine cards for a bunch of November family birthdays, so I stamped and coloured up five of them with Copic markers in a rainbow style. 

 I pulled out the remnants of some Doodlebug and Echo Park papers that I've used with the birds in the past, and set about making five variations, depending on what paper pieces I was using.  I also grabbed the Crazy Birds Add-On set, which has the hats, bow tie and balloons.

I would've loved to have a few of these in my stash, but they're all making their way out the door asap, all over western Canada!  Links to the stamps are below if you're interested!

O Canada Birthday card

I am playing along with the Inspired By challenge today... I couldn't resist the inspiration photo, especially when I saw Laurel's card that used the O Canada collection from Photoplay.  I love this paper pack, and haven't used it as much as I'd like.  Since I needed a birthday card for my brother-in-law, this is what I put together:

I of course, loved the buffalo plaid in the photo, along with all the little trees... and went with a moose instead of a bear or a fox.  The moose is from the stamp set that matches the papers, and he's actually holding a Canadian flag, so I put a little "Celebrate" banner to cover the flag, and make it a little more birthday-appropriate.

Masculine Fishing Card

I have a brother-in-law with a birthday this week, so I did a remake of a card that I made a year or so ago.  This time I added some mountains and a few bubbles to the water, otherwise it's pretty similar - but worth reposting!  The stamp set is Reel Great Guys from Art Impressions:

I am going to play along with the current challenge on the Ai blog: Summer Vibes!

Gordon Golfer

I am using one of my favourite male stamps... this is Gordon Golfer from Art Impressions.  My papers are the fun "Chill" plaids from Lawn Fawn, and I added a little zigzag stitching with my sewing machine.  I fussy cut Gordon out and mounted him & the sentiment with pop dots.  I love when I can add a masculine card to my stash!

Reel Great Guys

 I have a wonderful masculine card to share with you today!  I reely (pun intended) love this Art Impressions stamp set - it comes with all the right stamps/sentiments to customize it for your favourite fishermen.  I was completely inspired by the talented Sandy Allnock, who has a tutorial on creating this card with a realistic background on her blog.  Here's my attempt using Reel Great Guys (Sku #4900):

After stamping my image and colouring it with Copic markers,  I used my blue marker to sketch in the shore line, and then used the black water lines from the image as a guide to add some swirls and ripples to the water.  I used my "00" Copic blender, to add some water dots and spray as well.  Using several shades of green, I added just the suggestion of trees along the shore and added some colour to the sky.  I stamped the fish separately, coloured and fussy cut him, then used pop dots to attach him to the base.  There is another large image included in this set, so I made a second card:

Isn't he cute?!  All of the sentiments in Reel Great Guys are fishing themed, but I wanted something more generic, so I used the "Keep Calm and Float On" sentiment that comes in Stayin' Afloat Set (Sku #4239).

Happy stamping!
Copics used: Skin tones - E13, E11, E00, E000, R30
Blues - B26, B24, B23, B21, B02, B00, B000, B0000
Reds - R35, R32, R30
Greens - YG03, YG01, YG00, YG91, G66, G63, G61
Greys - W5, W3, W1, W00, C7, C5, C3, C1
Yellows - Y35, Y32, Y11
Browns - E57, E55, E53, E51, E50

Alex's Birthday Card

Alex & I have never met.  He's a university buddy of my daughter, who somehow knows that I'm a cardmaker?  So he told Paige that for his birthday, he'd kinda like to receive a card that was handmade by her Mom.  Paige helped me select the design, and since they're in Business school and often have to wear business attire, we thought that this would be perfect.  If you've been around my blog for a while, you may recognize this as a knock off of a card that I made several years ago (which happens to be one of my most-pinned cards ever!):

 I used my Cricut Artiste cartridge to cut out the bow tie, and for this version I added a poof in a little breast pocket.  Here's a side view that shows the dimension of the card a little better:

 And I decided to customize the inside a little:

Happy Birthday, Alex!  From Paige's Mom.

Nephew Birthday card

I have a nephew, brother-in-law and husband all with birthdays this week... so making a few masculine cards was the order of the day.  I pulled out the awesome Hello, Life stamp sets that Close To My Heart came out with for National Scrapbooking Month in September, and made three of these:

Patterned papers are Marjolaine, Basic Grey; Cardstock is Whisper & textured White Daisy, CTMH; Stamp sets are Hello, Life - CTMH: Inks are Whisper, Slate & Pacifica, CTMH; Matte silver sequins, CTMH; Stitched Oval STAX die, My Favorite Things.