This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon! *I have gathered links to all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience, using affiliate links at no extra cost to you. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*
Hi friends! Do you ever have days where you want to be creative, but just aren’t sure where to start? I had one of those days recently, and so I started organizing my stamp bins. They’ve been a bit of a mess over the last few months, and so I pulled them all out and started tidying. While I was tidying, my creativity was sparked, refreshing my mental catalog of products and pairing up stamps, dies, and embossing folders for new projects! I always enjoy “technique-y” cards, especially with embossing folders. I used the newer Cedar Sprigs embossing folder with some fun inky techniques to create this masculine encouragement card. Let’s get started with the details!
To begin, I ran a panel of white A2 cardstock through my die cutting machine using the Cedar Sprigs embossing folder. I then flipped the panel over so that the debossed side was facing up, with the patterns debossed down into the cardstock rather than the raised texture of embossing. To create my ink-swiped background, I used a blending brush to blend CabbagePawsitively Saturated Ink over the sprigs of greenery that were debossed into the cardstock, not worrying about any ink spilling over into the solid areas. Luckily, the second step covers up any over-blending; I placed the Kale ink pad directly onto the debossed panel and swiped over the solid, raised areas. The result is a lovely, multicolored patterned paper that is full of texture! To add even more interest to this panel, I used a paintbrush to splatter some Simon Says Stamp Gold Splatter Medium. I love the mixed-media feel this additional step adds to the card.
Next, I used two coordinating shades of green cardstock to die cut the Curled Fern Frond die set. When working with a single die set, I like to layer multiples of the same die in different colors to make a lush and full “bouquet,” creating a pretty focal point for my card front.
For the greeting, I heat embossed a chunky sentiment and coordinating sentiment strip from the oldie-but-goodie Well Wishes stamp set, using Platinum embossing powder on coordinating deep green cardstock. I used my trimmer to cut down the sentiment strip and the coordinating die for the chunky sentiment. I adhered the sentiment pieces to the card front with foam adhesive squares, then tucked the greenery behind the sentiment, adhering each piece with liquid adhesive. Finally, I added a double twine bow and some Gold Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for even more texture. I think this makes a perfect masculine encouragement card!
Well, that’s all for my project today! If you struggle with masculine cards like I do, hopefully this gives you some inspiration. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!
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