NBD: Masculine Blog hop

Good morning!

Today, I'm joining the designers from NinaB Designs for our monthly blog hop event.  This month's theme is Masculine.  Fun, right?  Easy, right?  not so much, right?  lol!  If you're following along on the hop, you should have arrived here from Jenny's blog.

I'm of the mind that when I make masculine cards I am not so worried about making it plain or without any embellishment.  My husband knows my style in card making and if I make a card too dark or plain, he always seems a bit disappointed, and will ask why I didn't put much 'effort' into it, knowing all the supplies I have in my stash.  (well, not ALL of them, lol - most of them though!)

So, I made these cards with Brad in mind - adding some texture and embellishments to them but making sure to not have anything to 'feminine' on them.  

My first card uses Nina's TCM Mother and Father stamp set.  I used both of the masculine sentiments and paired them together to mimic the super hot chalkboard type stacked sentiments that you see everywhere.

I chose some 'stately' patterned papers from a My Mind's Eye paper pack and added some buttons with a thin paper strip for 'faux thread.'  I added a doily, but shaded it with a light blue chalk ink to tone down the normally white doily and I think it even made it more masculine!  lol!  That's my story anyway!

My next card was made after I watched the Kentucky Derby with my family.  My family just recently visited the Kentucky Horse Center in Lexington while on our Spring Break vacation, so we've been pretty interested in horses lately.  I thought TCM's Giddy Up stamp set would be fun to make a card with, especially with horses on the brain and the TV.

I was thinking this would be a fun retirement card to have on hand but will probably end up saving it and giving it to my husband or son.  I love the horse in this set with the flourish saddle.  I was pleased with how nicely the star flourish looked stamped in white ink along the bottom of the card for a border.

This time I inked the white doily with a yellow chalk ink.  I was thinking of a sun in the background with this card and echoed it a bit with the yellow button 'threaded' with a strip of patterned paper.  I wrapped the card front with some charcoal twine for texture and color.

Now, for the fun stuff!

The NinaB Designs team is giving away these TWO PRIZE PACKAGES:

Prize #1: Spellbinders Fancy Tags Two Dies

   Prize #2: $20 Gift Certificate to Want2Scrap.

Winners will be picked randomly from 2 of the designers' blogs:

Nina Brackett * Clare Buswell * Jennie Harper * Jessica Fick * Lea Lawson * Linda Lucas * Rae Barthel *Viola Mahr

Everybody is welcome to comment and be eligible to win. The winners will be announced on May 22 on Nina's Blog, where you will also find all the relevant info regarding the giveaways. Finally, please consider liking the following Facebook pages that are represented on today's hop, so you don't miss the latest news and happenings:

NinaB Designs

Spellbinders Paper Arts

The Craft's Meow

Penny Black Inc.
 Want2Scrap 

Next up on the hop, is Lea!

Thank you for joining us today!

Jessica