On a different note

I have been busy with sketch challenges I thought it would be good to throw in something different.  I needed a birthday card for a boy and was inspired by one of my boys shirts to put something together.  I thought I would give you a little more of an idea into how I go about making my cards.

Once I have the colour sorted I start with the stamp images that I want to use.  From there I dip into my colour drawers to find embellishments that I could use.  So the creating begins.  For this one I started with building up the layers with the grunge stamps and then added the words with ink and then embossing. A little stitching and finishing touches - Done.

Colours: basic grey, going grey, green galore
Stamps:  all about me (kaiser), grunge me (PTI)
Finishing touches: stitching, black embossing powder, stone bakers twine (the twinery), washi tape, brad and anchor, button

Skater Dude

I came across the ribbon for this card in my stash and thought the colours would team up well with Boy basics - skater dude from Papertrey ink . My second son Logan is doing well on his wheels. I had him in mind when putting together the different elements.

Colours: white, pumpkin pie, brocade blue, wild wasabi
Stamps: boy basics - skater dude and grunge me (PTI)
Finishing touches: diamond plate and pop culture embossing folders (cuttlebug), ribbon, apricot embossing powder (american crafts)

Game on

Wanting to put together a pick me up card for a teen I had a chance to play with my new Papertrey Ink set Game on. Love the elements. I teamed it up with the grunge me set to add more colour. I am enjoying having the stamp sets to create the cards that I want to do.

Colours: basic grey, black, cherry cobbler, white
Stamps: boy basics - game on and grunge me (PTI)
Finishing touches: spiral punch (SU), red embossing powder

A chance to have a play with my PTI goodies

The grunge me set from PTI is definitely one of my favourites. You can see here my attempts at putting together grunge style cards wtih what I have. This set adds so many possibilities. So my first card I actually went with a girl theme. Works just as well. Perfect for teens.

Colours: white, pink pirouette, rose red, chocolate chip
Stamps: grunge me (PTI), le chateau (kaiser)
Finishing touches: grosgrain ribbon (SU), button, clear embossing powder, large corner rounder (fiskars)

May Stamp Club

Despite completing a few projects of late I have been feeling a bit flat in terms of getting into my scrapping space and creating. So what better way to get going again than a challenge. Seeing as we got our next months challenge for stamp club I thought I would get onto it early. This one is take the sketch and see what we come up with. I have several boys cards to make and like to use my challenges for something I need. After pondering for some time as to what to do, so that I stick to using mainly Stampin Up products, I started with the buttons. More mustard isn't particularly a favourite of mine so it added more to the challenge. Playing with a few different combos came up with grey and black. I added to it the inspiration from Papertrey Inks April 2011 release which you can find at Nicoles blog here. In particular this jeans card from Betsy Veldman. . I love their stamps and one day will get on to getting some. In the meantime the challenge as always to create with what you have.
After lots of playing and adding bits {I even used my sewing machine!} I was very pleased with the end result. So much so that I made two more in different colours to make use of all the things being out and the effort that goes into one card.

Colours: more mustard, bravo burgandy, old olive, basic grey and black
Stamps: in the stars, sanded, little pieces, background sampler, cirle of friendship, rough type
Finishing Touches: stitching, black embossing powder, colour spritzer, star punch, buttons, linen thread, distressing tool

Another attempt

I had another attempt at my graffiti grunge look with a bit more success. Here are others I have tried. Using the Kaiser papers was definitely helpful.

Colours: going gray, basic black, pumpkin pie
Paper: rewind collection (kaiser)
Stamps: All about me (kaiser)
Finishing touches: black brads and colour spritzer (SU) distress tool, large corner punch (fiskars)

More grunge

In the next couple of months I have some older boys/teenage birthday cards to make so I thought I would get back into a grunge/grafitti style. Several of my boys tee shirts have these designs on them. Check out this one that I did when I first had a play. I used the sanded background stamp (SU), colour spritzer tool, and sponge daubers to start. The overall effect wasn't quite what I was after so I think I will go with the less is more theory and try that one again.

Colour:Taken with teal, black, white
Stamps: sanded, background basics and in the stars (SU)all about me (kaiser), stripes (own design)
Finishing touches: black and white embossing powders, colour spritzer tool, sponge daubers (SU)

Grunge style

With all the goings on in December there are also a lot of birthdays in our family. So it was great to have a card already made that I had put aside for this special birthday. My nephew turned 13 this year a big milestone. Hard to believe that he is off to high school this year.
This was a card that I had made for one of our stamp club challenges - the theme black and white only. I had been trialling the bits and pieces that I had put together from stampn up to come up with a grafitti style that would suit cards for teenagers. Using my sanded background stamp (SU) together with my colour spritzer tool, sponge daubers and alphabet stencils I had a play with the look that I was trying to create.

Colours: black and white
Stamps: sanded and in the stars (SU)
Finishing Touches: black and white embossing powder, black brads (SU)