Anniversary

Our 27th anniversary. Again, by shopping my stash, I pulled together a look from a variety of manufacturers. 

This manly card began with CTMH Seaside papers. The ship is a Cape Arago stamp which I embossed with Chestnut embossing powder, and then watercolored around it with blue ink. 

Many years ago, I showed those Cape Arago stamps to dear hubby while shopping online. He admired them and said, buy them, so I did!  I try not make all his cards with ships, but they definitely come in handy for masculine cards.

I inked the sides of the ship panel, the basketweave paper, and the sentiment banner with Tim Holtz distressing ink in Walnut. I often forget to ink the sides of paper, and it really does make a difference in how the papers stand out from the background. 

The little sentiment is a Rubber Soul stamp which I've been saving for a while just for this purpose!!!  Twine is also a good masculine accent.  I bought a large ball of hemp twine and use it quite often.

While we are discussing masculine cards...another theme is trains... 

I didn't post last year's anniversary card which was also a hit with hubby! He loves trains, and they are a good focal point for any masculine card. 

This one used Tim Holtz stamps from Stampers Anonymous, Here and There. The railroad crossing and the train itself.

The paper is in a 6x6 pad, 7gypsies, Venice. The design could be adapted to any masculine papers in your stash!  Banners are easy, and help use up scraps, too.  You can see that I didn't ink the edges of these banners, and I think it would have looked better with the edges inked. My handy hemp twine and a button finished this card nicely.