An Old Friend For A Masculine Card

Hi everyone and happy Monday!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Well my sister now has her hard cast on her foot.  She chose purple for it.  I think it is more comfortable but still not fun to have on.  I spent my weekend visiting with her and taking care of my hubby.  He often suffers from neck pain and this past Saturday was no exception.  I am happy to report that he is feeling better now and I hope it continues.

For my share today, I have made another masculine card.  I have often talked about how I always run short of these.  Since I love to do punch art, I have decided to make several of the same characters for cards for men.  Today's card features one of those character.  I do actually think this card is very similar to one I made before.  I do apologize for that but hey it works and I like it.  Let's just jump in shall we?

 

It's our old friend Yosemite Sam from the Looney Toon family.  I started him with a base card of Cherry Cobbler measuring 4 1/4" x 11".  I scored this at 5 1/2", creasing my score line with my bone folder.  I then stamped the background onto a piece of Very Vanilla and prepared it for the card.  I took another piece of Very Vanilla measuring 4" x 5 1/4" and ran it through my big shot using the top note die.  I used the negative piece, the frame, from this and set the top note aside for another day.  I then ran the negative through the big shot using the impression folder called Chevron.  I glued this using a liquid glue to the stamped image and attached the entire piece to the base card using glue dots.

 

Here is a closer look at the stamped image.  Now I stamped this using StazOn ink onto Very Vanilla card stock.  However, this image turned out fairly light and I did not think it would look good.  I could have stamped it again but I decided to take a fine tip black marker and outline all the lines instead.  I think it looks just as good and saved card stock by doing this.  I colored the image in using colored pencils.  I always think about using markers, but sometimes, it just does not seem like the right medium to use.  I was afraid it would take away from the actual image and not allow Sam to stand out.  I added what looks like red water drops to the corners of the vanilla frame just for added color.

 

Now for the star himself.  I first learned to make Sam from Ellen Kemper.  I used Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, So Saffron, Night of Navy, Soft Suede, Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Brushed Silver and the retired Blushing Bride card stock.  Here is the list of punches used for all the pieces of Sam:

Hat - 2 1/2" circle trimmed on the sides

Head - 1" circle in black

Eyebrows - narrow heart from the retired Heart to Heart 

Eyes - plus sign looking flower from the itty bitty punch pack trimmed 

Moustache - full heart cut in half and trimmed 

Nose - word window re-punched to make it shorter

Ears - small heart from the retired heart to heart punch cut in half

Body - full heart trimmed

Arms - wide oval punched around the retired small oval hole

Hands - modern label; punch the ends of this using the 1/2" circle punch

Legs - 1 3/8" circle punched near a 1" circle hole

Belt - large oval punched near a large oval hole

Buckle - scrap of card stock; draw detail on if you would like to

Kerchief - 1/4" circle and the small heart from the retired heart to heart punch (cut heart in half)

Boots - smallest heart from the retired heart to heart punch trimmed

I adhered all pieces of Sam using a liquid glue.  I also added crystal effects to the boots to make them shiny.  The finished Sam is attached to the card using dimensionals.  

I do hope your week is off to a good start.  I am hoping to spend time doing things I love.  I guess we will see how it goes.  Thanks for dropping by today and I will see you tomorrow. 

Here Comes That Famous Wabbit!!!

Hi everyone.  I am glad we have made it through another week.  At least my family seems to be almost all well.  True to form, I woke up yesterday morning with a scratchy throat and a runny nose.  I attribute it to the wild weather we had Wednesday.  I think its just a cold so it will go away in its own time. 

I did find time yesterday to get into my craft room and make a Bugs Bunny to share with you.  So let's just jump in and get started. 

 

I started with a base card of Daffodil Delight cut at 4 1/4" x 11", scored at 5 1/2".   I added a layer of Basic Black to this with runner adhesive.  It is cut to be 4 1/8" x 5 3/8",  The final layer of the card is a piece of 4" x 5 1/4" Tempting Turquoise.  I ran this piece through the big shot using the chevron impression folder.  On the raised chevron lines, I used my 2 way glue pen to add glue and then sprinkled on an aqua glitter.  I wanted to make the background pop a little and thought this would be a way to do it.  I attached it to the black using runner adhesive. 

 

The greeting is from a stamp set I bought years ago at a craft store.  I stamped it using Tempting Turquoise ink onto Whisper White.  I then cut it out using the framelits itty bitty banners set and the big shot.  I used a pencil to curl the center and the edges of it and attached it to the card using glue dots.

 

Now for the star himself.  The colors of card stock I use to make my guy are Brushed Silver, Melon Mambo, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White and Basic Black.  You can use a gray card stock for him but I like the look of the silver.  The base piece of his head is a 3" circle which I cut out with my big shot and 3" circle die.  I trimmed the sides in at an angle and made the top hair by snipping out little parts.  I traced the edge of the hair with a black marker to highlight it.  Here is list of punches used to make the rest of him:

Ears - large oval punch; you will need 2 silver or gray for each ear

Pink inside of Ears - full heart punch; I cut it in half and trimmed it to round the edges

Eyes - the retired small oval punch; you will need one white and one silver or gray for each eye; you could trim the large oval down if you do not have the retired small one

Black of Eyes - word window punch

Cheeks - wide oval punch; you will need 2

Chin - 1 inch circle punch

Mouth - wide oval punch; trim it to narrow on each side

Teeth - 1 inch square punch; I offset it from the card stock so that it punched a smaller rectangle

Piece above Teeth - 3/4" circle and curly label punch; punch out a curly label and set it aside.  You will not use it.  Then offset the 3/4" circle from the curly label hole and punch again.  If you do not have the curly label punch, you can punch a 3/4" circle and cut a little bigger that half.  Add the small indentation in the center and your all set.

Nose - the retired small oval punch; you will use only the tip of it for this.  If you do not have this, you can used a 1/2" circle in its place.

And there you have it.  I attached all pieces together using my 2 way glue pen.  Once everything was attached, I used a fine tip black marker to draw the lines above the nose and the one down the teeth.  I attached the completed bunny to the card using dimensionals.  

I hope you can understand and use my directions for him.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I am so happy I have finally made this fellow to share with all of you.  

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and I will be back on Monday with another card for you to see.  Thanks for dropping by today!!!!

Back to Manly Cards

If you are anything like me you know it is extremely difficult to come up with ideas for cards that are more on the masculine side.  I do pretty well and usually make a few at a time but find that I run out of those faster than anything else.  So the other day I needed a card to mail to my father in law for his birthday.  I did have one ready for him but realized that it really depleted my man stash.  Of course that means it is time to start making a few of these again.

I decided to turn to some of the punch art I have come to love for inspiration.  I went with a character straight out of Looney Toons and I really hope you can identify who it is.  I learned to make this guy from the former punch queen Ellen Kemper.  I say former only because she is no longer punching right now and is not sure if she will ever go back to it.  I was truly sad to hear this.  She has been a real inspiration to me.  Anyway let's get on to my card shall we?!

Please tell me you recognize him?  Well if not, I will reveal his identity in a few minutes.  But first we must start as always at the beginning.  The base card for this one is a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" card made from Crumb Cake card stock.  It is scored at 4 1/4". Second, I added a layer of Night of Navy card stock measuring 4 1/8" x 5 3/8".  Next I added a layer of Whisper White which was cut to be 4" x 5 1/4".  I ran it through the big shot using the stripes impression folder and then sponged a little Crumb Cake ink onto the raised stripes so the white was not so bright.  All the layers are attached to the base using runner adhesive.

 

I wanted to put something in the background of the card and a cactus just seemed perfect.   This is so easy to make.  All you need is your large oval punch.  I used Always Artichoke card stock and punched several ovals.  I ran the ovals through the big shot using the perfect polka dots impression folder and then layered them together using liquid glue.  I attached it to the card with the same liquid glue.  For a nice highlighting touch, I added Always Artichoke ink to the dots using my Stampin' Up! marker of that color.  It just helped you to be able to see them better. 

 

For the greeting, I searched and searched through my stamps and could not find one that I wanted to use.  So I decided to create my own.  I used the set of alphabet letter stamps I bought years ago and stamped the individual letters using Night of Navy ink onto Whisper White card stock.  I punched these out using the circle from the itty bitty punch pack.  I then took a scrap of Night of Navy card stock and punched out 1/2" circles.  I layered these together using liquid glue and then attached them to the card using glue dots.  

 

Finally we come to the main character, Yosemite Sam.  Did you guess right?  Of course you did.  As I said I learned to make him from Ellen Kemper.  I will try to make this as easy as possible for you to understand so that you can make him yourself if you choose.  The colors of card stock I used are Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Basic Black, So Saffron, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Brushed Silver,  Night of Navy and the retired Blushing Bride.

Now I am going to link you to Ellen's blog but I will also list the stamps below.  Click here to visit her blog or you can follow the list of punches to make your own:

 

Hat - 2.5 inch circle trimmed

Head - black 1 inch circle

Eyebrows - narrow Heart to Heart (retired punch)

Eye - plus sign from the itty bitty punch pack - trimmed

Moustache - part of Full Heart

Nose - word window re-trimmed to make shorter

Ears - small Heart to Heart (retire punch) cut in half

Body - Full Heart  - trimmed

Arms - Wide oval offset from a wide oval hole

Hands - 1/2 circle at ends of modern label

Legs - 1 3/8 circle near 1 inch circle hole

belt - large oval near a large oval hole - trimmed

buckle - scrap of card stock

kerchief - standard hole punch (1/4" circle), small Heart to Heart (retired punch) cut in half

boots are the smallest Heart to Heart (retired punch) - trimmed

 

I used Ellen's list but made sure to indicate anything different that I used such as for the arms as well as indicated if a punch is now retired.  To add even more to him, you could make guns for him to hold.  I did not feel that I needed them for my card.

Well that's it for this week.  I want to wish all the veterans out there a very happy Veteran's Day.  Since Monday is a holiday, I will not be posting but I will be back on Tuesday!!  I hope you will stop by to see me then.  Have a terrific weekend everyone!!!

He's Out Of This World!!

Thank goodness it is finally Friday.  Okay it is Friday the 13th but I personally don't buy into the theory that it is a bad day.  As far as I am concerned, it is the end of another week.  It has been a really long week.  My husband has been gone a lot and extremely busy.  I do miss him when he is not here.  I am so proud of all the work he does.  He is truly a remarkable human being and I am blessed to have him in my life.

Now on to a fellow who is not a human.  He is rather cute though!!  Again he is part of the Looney Toons family and if you watch the cartoons you probably already know who I am talking about.  Let me introduce him to you.  Ladies and gentlemen, meet .........

 

......It's Marvin the Martian!!!!!  I just love this guy.  He makes me laugh every time I see him.  So let's get started on this card.  I used a Whisper White card stock for the base of my card.  I then added a layer of Basic Black to it.  I chose to use Marina Mist for the top layer.  Prior to attaching it, I punched out circles in Whisper White, Basic Black and Basic Gray.  I used the 1", 3/4", and 1/2" circle punches to do this.  I then laid the circles in a random pattern on the Marina Mist paper until I was happy with how it looked.  Then I adhered them down using runner adhesive.  Next it was time to texture the card stock.  I chose to use an impression folder from Cuttlebug called Spots & Dots.  I liked the look of all the circles behind Marvin.

 

He has the sweetest little face don't you think?  Once again, I learned this punch art character from Ellen Kemper, and again I would suggest you visit her blog for instructions on how to create him and the correct punches to use.  This was the second one I made and he looks really good in my opinion.  

 

Do you like his shoes?  I love them!!  They are just too cute for words.  I just wanted to show you a close up of them.  

As you head off into the weekend, I wish you one filled with happiness.  Since Monday is a holiday, I too am going to take the day off from blogging.  With a little luck, maybe I will get some much needed time with my husband.  I have missed him so.  I will be back on Tuesday with a new card to share.  Thanks for dropping in today and I will see you Tuesday.

"My Biscuits Are Burnin'"

Have you ever heard that phrase before?  Do you know who said it?  Well if you do then you know which Looney Toon character I will be sharing today.  I will admit, I made this one before about a year ago.  However, I did not take any pictures before giving it to a friend for his birthday.  So this is actually my second time making him.  Of course, it had been a year so there are flaws.  It was just like making him for the first time again.

I have rambled enough so let's get started for today.  Ready to see him?  Here we go!!

 

It's Yosemite Sam himself!!  I bet you knew that already though.  Once again, I turned to the punch queen Ellen Kemper to learn how to make him.  But as always, let's start at the beginning and move to the character himself.  My base card is Always Artichoke.  I have to tell you, I was really stumped on what to do for his backdrop.  As I was taking a shower it hit me.  I remembered the beautiful desert scene stamp I bought to do the stain glass technique with.  I decided to just stamp it using StazOn ink onto Whisper White card stock and color it in with colored pencils.  The scene seemed to suit him.  I layered it on a piece of Basic Black and then adhered it to the Artichoke card. 

 

I bet you see my flaw already.  When I was attaching his whiskers, I got a little glue on the top of them.  I tied to erase it with my adhesive eraser but it did not work so well and the result is what you see.  So Be careful when putting those pieces on but at the same time always remember the flaws simply add character to your card.  Overall lesson:  don't sweat the small stuff.  As I said earlier, I learned this from the queen of punching herself.  If you would like a list of punches and instructions on how to make him, simply email me or visit Ellen's Blog.  Look on her list of topics for people and you should find him.  The card stock colors I used are Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Blushing Bride, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, and Night of Navy.  I do like this guy to give to men.  He always tries to act so macho.  Let's face it, don't all men try to act macho at one time or another?  Sam here is just more up front about it. 

It has been a busy week so far.  I am glad tomorrow is Friday.  I hope your week is moving along smoothly.  I will return tomorrow with one more character for you.  Until then, thanks for dropping by today and I'll see you tomorrow!!