Masculine Happy Birthday Card by Katelyn Grosart

Katelyn here, and I'm back on the blog today to share with you some inspiration for our current monthly challenge which is "Anything Masculine". With this month's challenge in mind, I created a masculine Happy Birthday card. I will show you below how I transformed my chipboard pieces into grungy masculine masterpieces.

To start, I cut apart all the gears found on one of the Gears Corners so that you end up having a variety of sizes for the corners behind your stamped image. Once all the gears have been cut, select six of your favourites. 

For the first two gears that you want done in the metal finish, apply VersaMark to both of them and then cover each gear in a layer of Hammered Metal Embossing Powder. When embossing the gears with the heat tool, make sure that you keep some of the bubbles formed in the embossing powder, that will give them more of a textured look. Once both gears have been embossed and have cooled, with a blending felt, apply randomly on the two gears some Adirondack Alcohol ink in Gold. Set both gears aside to dry.

For the other four gears, cover each gear in a layer of VersaMark. Once each give has been covered with VersaMark, cover each gear in a layer of Burnt Copper Leaves Embossing Powder. When embossing with the heat tool, make sure that you keep some of the bubbles formed in the embossing powder,  that will give the gears more of a textured look. Set aside all fours gears to cool down.

The last set of chipboard you will work with is the Honeycomb Pattern. For this card, just randomly cut off pieces from the honeycomb pattern, they don't have to be the same size. Once the two pieces of honeycomb have been cut, apply a layer of VersaMark to them. After the VersaMark has been applied, cover each piece in a layer of Burnt Copper Leaves Embossing Powder. When heat embossing them with the heat tool, make sure that the embossing powder goes smooth on them. Set the pieces aside for a few minutes to cool. Once the pieces are cool, with a blending felt, randomly apply Adirondack Alcohol Ink in Gold to the honeycomb pieces. Set aside to dry.

When assembling the card, make sure to place the gears underneath and around the top right and bottom left hand corners of the stamped image.

To show the honeycomb pattern, rip the top two layers of the top and bottom of the paper, so that you have two spots to showcase your honeycomb pattern. Adhere the honeycomb pattern to the first bottom layer of patterned paper.

The finishing touches that I added my card was the "Happy Birthday To You" at the bottom right side of the card as well as adding the film strip ribbon and the little memo pin above the stamped image.

Southern Ridge Trading Company Products Used:

- Gears Corners

- Honeycomb Pattern

Other Products Used:

- Emerald Creek Craft Supplies: Hammered Metal Embossing Powder and Burnt Copper Leaves Embossing Powder

- Ranger Ink/Tim Holtz: Distress Collage Medium - Crazing, Vintage Photo & Antique Linen Distress Ink, Distress Markers - Black Soot, Rusty Hinge & Gathered Twigs , Distress Crayons #3 - Walnut Stain, Picket Fence & Vintage Photo, and Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Gold Mixative

- Ranger Ink: Black Archival Ink

- Tim Holtz/ Ideaology: Small Talk - Occasions, Memo Pins, Film Strip Ribbon and Paper Stash 12x12 - Dapper

- Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Industrial Blueprints Stamp

- Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts: VersaMark

- Prima Marketing: Water brush

- Bazzill Cardstock: Brown Cardstock

- Crafters Companion: Watercolour Paper

Remember to play along in the monthly challenge over on the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog. Each month enter for your chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca -$20 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING! 

Until Next Time!

-Katelyn