Oh Man by Jo Simons

#couturecreationsaus

Hi there paper friends.

Today I decided to step out of my comfort zone a little. My work is predominately very girly and pretty but every now and then we need man cards. So I pulled out a couple of dies and some super cool embossing folder and this is what I have come up with.

With just a couple of embossing folders and some inks and white cardstock you can create some cool background effects.

Here is a quick run down on the cog card using the Grungy Cogs and Gears embossing folder from the Mikashet collection teamed with the Gears 2 dies set from the Kalini collection

Using some distress inks I have blended 3 colours over my white card base. I then ran it through my machine with the embossing folder.

After it has been embossed, I gently hit the tops of the embossed areas with a little bit of darker ink just to give it more definition.

Now for the gears. I cut a few of the gears from old cereal boxes and cut them twice and layered them. Just makes them a little stronger and also creates a bit of added texture to your card.

I then pressed them into my VersaMark ink pad and then heat embossed them with some gold embossing powder.

Just give them a couple of minutes to cool down then with a Stazon black ink pad (Stazon is the best for this as it doesn't smear) gently swipe it over the gears to give them a more aged look. I have also used the Feathered Arrow die and some of the 2mm black gemstones just to finish the card..

Here's a closer look at my second card.

To create the background for this one, I have used the Chain Link embossing folder from the Hearts Ease collection.

This time I have again used distress inks but have used a sponge dauber to gently sponge some areas on the folder and then placed my paper in the folder and ran it through your embossing machine.

The super cute diecut (perfect for Fathers Day) is called Father and Son Fishing and is from the Kalini die collection. I have cut it out twice. Once in black and once in the same blue that I matted my card on. I then used the blue negatives from the die to piece back into the die to create a little scene.

Too easy! I always struggle with masculine but am really happy with how these turned out.

Until next time