MONOCHROMATIC MALE CARDS

That title was a bit of a mouthful!  We all like to see new ideas for Male cards and The Male Room challenge is a great place to start.  Their challenge this week is to make a card without any papers.  Not too difficult for me as I don't always use them.  I decided to add this challenge to the one over at The Paper Players which is Monochromatic - Shades of the same colour.



My card uses the Stampin Up Set High Tide.  I have used an old ink I think- Always Artichoke and my ink pad is quite old and quite dry - however using Tim Holtz stamp positioner is a great way to bring life back to old inks.  You can stamp them as many times as you like and as the stamp is always in the same position the ink gets darker.  I'm sure that's not what they all had in mind when the various companies developed the stamping positioner tools but it's what I use mine for the most.

I did add black as an extra colour so I hope that was ok.  The centre was punched out with a stitched framelit and I sponged the edges and popped it on dimensionals.  The button and thread is from my stash and was inspired by one of the cards from the DT at the Male Room.  I like to use buttons and it's nice that they seem to be having a revival.  


 

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Don't you find it amazing how the internet works?  How everything is connected and you can start somewhere and end up somewhere completely different!  It never ceases to amaze me how time consuming it can be also - surfing - no wonder I'm tired lol!  So what am I on about?  Well I started having a look at Retro Rubber today to see what goodies challenge wise they had for us and I ended up on YouTube discovering a new technique I'd never heard of which in turn led me to someone's blog which in turn led me to a new challenge blog I'd not come across before.  A bit like Snakes and Ladders!  Retro Rubber Challenge #93 has a tic tac toe - I love these.  I chose to go with the bottom layer for my card.



The new technique I came across is called Retiform.  I've been crafting for over 20 years and have never come across this idea and I had a lot of fun with it.

My retro stamps are very old sets from Stampin Up - one called Autumn Days, where that majestic pheasant is from, and the other is A Touch Of Nature offering up all those lovely leaves.

My choice of inks for this technique were Tim Holtz Bundles Sage Distress Ink, SU More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso.  The twine is from my stash and the sentiment is non SU.  I've also coloured in the pheasant with some SU marker pens adding a touch of green, red and cold for his plumage.

So, as I said on my travels I found The Male Room - a challenge I'm guessing all about cards for men.  They are celebrating their 5th Anniversary and I've just found them. As I'm reusing an old technique which I'm sure goes back further than 5 years I'm all about the Retro.