Football and Other Fun

I am definitely ready for some football! My plans for this evening include watching my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, play its first game of the season on the Big Ten Network (3 cheers from me for the BTN—it’s a great way for Big Ten fans who don’t live in the Midwest to keep up with their favorite team--I just wish they showed more college hockey, but that's another story . . .). So, with football on my mind, I made this card using Mercy’s Tuesday sketch challenge.

I started with the fun Fancy Pants patterned kraft paper and worked from there. I colored a trio of football images from the Football set from Clear & Simple Stamps and arranged them on a solid cardstock panel. I added the “are u ready for some football” sentiment on a banner underneath the footballs, accented with a single copper brad.

The panel underneath the footballs is embossed with a herringbone pattern. I have a feeling this embossing folder is going to be one of my go-to items for masculine cards for a while . . . After I was finished, I realized that I’d used the colors of my hometown football team for the base and layers on this card—totally unintentionally, I swear. I will admit that I made this card while watching the team play on Thursday night, so maybe it was a subliminal influence??

Materials Used:
Football stamp set (Clear & Simple Stamps); Soft Sand and white cardstock (Gina K Designs); Tuxedo Black and Rich Cocoa ink (Memento); markers, colorless blender solution (Copic); Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, and Kraft cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); patterned paper (Fancy Pants-Kraft Kuts line); copper brad (Making Memories); Herringbone embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

I have one more CSS card to share with you. It’s a perfect fit for this week’s Three Clovers Thursday Challenge. I don’t usually get a chance to play along in this challenge, but I always admire the projects that Kerry and her talented design team share. This week’s challenge was to create a project in primary and secondary colors. The images in the CSS ABC . . . 123 are perfect for using with these colors!

Here, I used the masking technique to “stack” the trio of crayon images. The crayons are colored with Copic markers. I paired them with some boldly colored American Crafts designer paper and the “make your mark” sentiment from the CSS DIY Darling set. To keep the focus on the brightly colored crayons, I added a simple ribbon tab behind the sentiment panel and a trio of clear dome embellishments to finish the card.

Materials Used:
ABC 123 and DIY Darling stamp sets (Clear & Simple Stamps); White Pure Luxury cardstock (Gina K Designs); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers (Copic); Ballet Blue and Real Red cardstock, 1 ¼” and 1 3/8” circle punches, dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!); designer paper (American Crafts-Celebration line); clear dome embellishments (Michaels)