A Classic Masculine Card

Would you like to create this? You'll find a supply list below, including a link to the stencil I used from A Colorful Life Designs . Follow the link below and use discount code ChrisFan10 to save 10% on your entire order! (Master Creator Bundles are excluded as they already have a 20% discount built in.)

Card Base: 4.25 x 11, scored and folded at 5.5

Card Face 4.25 x 5.5

Beige or Craft Card stock 2.5 x 5.5 (final size)

Beige Cardstock:

• For this strong linear image I used a stencil from A Colorful Life Designs. I love all the angles in the Random Stripes stencil and was excited to give it some time on my desk.

• The stencil is 3 x 6, so I secured it to a slightly larger piece of cardstock and got started. I knew I was going to heat emboss this piece, so I had prepped the piece well with anti-static powder before securing it.

• I used archival black ink on the entire stencil, giving a very good, intense coat of colour. I blended copper and clear embossing powder together over the black. After setting with the heat gun I was left with a sort of a stippled look, which I hadn't planned but it's a great texture on a masculine card.

• Once cool I trimmed the panel down to the final size mentioned above and added adhesive foam to the back.

• I used my Big Shot to die cut the word "happy" from a small piece of copper metallic paper, and I cut a second one out of adhesive foam and set them aside. (I used the same foam that I had on the back of the stencilled piece.)

• Once I had cut the word out of the foam I realized that the pressure from the Big Shot had compressed it a bit. So I ran the stencilled piece through the Big Shot as well, to equalize the depth of the two pieces.

• I found a masculine font for "birthday", stamped it in archival black and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder on the same beige cardstock, and cut it out with a rectangular die.

Note on Technique:

To achieve the mixture of embossing powders I sprinkled copper embossing powder here and there randomly across the black ink while it was still wet. Then I used clear embossing powder to fill in the remaining spaces on the design. (note: archival ink takes a bit longer to dry than dye based inks, and will hold embossing powder for a short time, like versa mark does.)

After giving it a tap to remove any excess powder I used my heat gun to melt the two powders together . The two colours blended together seamlessly during this process.

Assembling the card:

• I glued the black cardstock to the card base.

• I glued the stencilled piece to the left of the card face, leaving a narrow border on three sides.

• I experimented with the placement of "happy", and once that decision was made, I attached the foam die cut to the metallic die cut - but only on the portion of the word where the additional depth was needed for support on the black card stock. I literally tore the foam off at the appropriate point, and then glued it so that the foam butted up against the raised layer. (Anything glued to the stencilled piece was already popped up via the foam on the back of that piece.)

• I glued "birthday" directly to the black card stock.

• I added some copper coloured gems to the black cardstock.

Final Thoughts: I was so happy with the mix of copper and black on the stencilling. I didn't expect the stippled effect but it looked fabulous . I couldn't wait to use it on a card.

Supplies:

stencils: Random Stripes, A Colorful Life Designs

card base: Accent 100 lb, Amazon

card face: black cardstock, Stampin' Up

stencilled layer: beige cardstock, Stampin' Up

die for "Happy", sadly retired

rectangle die: Stitched Rectangles, Stampin Up

Archival Black ink: I use an ink from Stampin Up that has retired, but any archival black will work for this purpose

Copper Embossing Powder: Stampin' Up

Clear Embossing Powder: Wow, Simon Says Stamp

Copper Dots: Brushed Metallic Dots, Stampin' Up

Foam: Self Adhesive Foam Sheets, Amazon

adhesive: Tombo Aqua, Amazon

Thanks for popping by!

a close up showing the shine on the embossing powder, as well as the seamless blend and the stippled appearance

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