Masculine Birthday Cards

Birthday card for a great nephew!

SUPPLIES:

Stamps - Stampin' Up! CATCHIN' AIR

Inks - Staz On Black

Other - Ranger Alcohol Inks and Blending Solution, Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen, foam mounting tape or fun foam and glue

Cardstock - Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb, glossy white, colored

TECHNIQUE: (TIP: Make a larger piece than you think you will use as you only have partial control over wher ink/color ends up, and it will be nice to have something to choose from :-)

1.  Open windows and ventilate well!  There will be fumes.

2.  Spread blending solution on glossy cardstock.  Drop colored inks onto surface. Add more solution to further blend. Allow to set up a bit in between applications to achieve crisp edges of color. 

(TIP: I found it worked best to add metallic pearl in between color for best visual depth of field.)

3.  Use black ink to stamp image and sentiment. 

4.  Use gel pen to add snow droplets.

5.  Mount image panel to colored cardstock, and mount that to white cardbase using foam tape or fun foam panel.

Playing along with Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #450 Create Your Own Background

Special-order card from hubby for son, who is a huge Twins fan!

SUPPLIES:

Stamps - Stampin' Up! sentiment

Inks - Stampin' Up! blue, Distress brown

Markers - Tombow red

Pencils - Prismacolor gray

Other - Sakura  Gelly Roll white gel pen, wood veneer paper

Paper - colored cardstock, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb cardstock

TECHNIQUE:

1. Use a small plate rim and pencil to lightly draw in two circle arches as shown. Cover with line of red marker, and draw in 'stitching'.

2.  Use paper piercing tool at each end of stitching to add life-like stitch holes.

3.  Shade center line with gray colored pencil.

4.  Freehand draw a bat shape on wood veneer paper and fussy cut. Shade edges with brown inkpad.

5.  Stamp sentiment in blue ink on white cs scrap and mount to colored cardstock as shown, adding white dots.

6.  Adhere sentiment panel and bat to image panel, and this to colored panel. Mount on white cardstock base.

Alcohol Ink Peppers

The holidays are coming and many of you probably have friends and relatives with special dietary needs. I have a delicious quick and easy recipe for you that will fill the bill nicely for vegetarians that won't have the meat-eaters turning up their noses ;o) I found this basic idea under Sweet Bean Burritos in a wonderful book called Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely.

My secret ingredient is Kuner's canned Black Beans with Lime Juice. If you can't find this, any canned black beans should work fine. Okay, I pop a medium size sweet potato in the microwave for about 7 minutes, and meanwhile I heat a T of oil in a pan, add 1/2 a large chopped onion, and a clove of minced garlic. When the onions turn a bit soft I add one can of the beans mentioned above (drain off excess liquid), about 1 t of cumin, and the sweet potato which I've skinned. I mash the sweet potato up in the pan but you can do it before adding. Just heat thru and you have a VERY delicious filling for burritos. We like to add fresh cilantro, shredded cheddar cheese, fresh chopped tomato and lettuce to our extra large tortilla before rolling it up. I've actually never met anyone who didn't like these!

Card measures 4 7/8" x 5 3/8"

To make this card I started with a sheet of glossy white cs, and three colors of Ranger alcohol inks (Oregano, Lettuce and Meadow). My method is to put a little strip of each color on the felt applicator, each going the short way, about 2-3 drops each, and spaced equal distances apart. Then I soak the pad liberally with the Blending Solution and start to pounce on the cs. I just continue these steps till I like the coverage and pattern.

*tip*

Be sure to use these products in a well-ventilated area - the fumes will build up otherwise

For the center panel, also glossy cs, I inked the pepper stamp (A Stamp in the Hand) with Adirondack inks (Lettuce, Pesto and Mushroom), swishing them all on at random. When this dried I used Versafine black to stamp the words (A Stamp in the Hand) and edge the panel with a sponge. I punched holes on either side of one pepper with a needle and tied linen fine weave cord around it before mounting the main panel to a tan piece of cs stamped with Stampin' Up!'s chicken wire background in Adirondack Mushroom. The cardfront is actually a dark green cs.

Thanks for looking!