Mr Cardmaker Gets All Man-Style with 12 Kits of Occasions

Well, I was SO tickled and honored to have Jeanne at A Kept Life ask me to join the 12 Kits of Occasions crew for the May Kit. I have been no where near my blog for AGES, due to our big move to Massachusetts in June. What with cleaning up for showings, and cleaning OUT for the move, my days have been full ones. I had no idea whether I would be able to take the time to make anything, but when things like that are offered, it is hard (and somewhat stupid, really) to say no. So, I said YES!

Anyway, I was able to make a few not-so-short stops during all this madness to make a few cards using this amazing kit.
Oh, the KIT! There were beautiful papers, different and wonderful diecuts, twine, sequins, stamped sentiments and images, and SO MUCH MORE...A veritable cornucopia of fun, inspiration-stimulating goodness! Jeanne, FAB job!

Be sure to go see previews and links to all the rest of the great work  at the 12 Kits page by clicking HERE!

So, I guess I will start with what I made first, and go in that sort of order.
I made this--

Can't get much more masculine that this without adding real DIRT. Note how much good COLOR you can cram onto a man's card with it remaining just as masculine as you please...

I love the detailing on those boot diecuts. I popped out the details, watercolored them with ink, and popped them back into the boots.

The silver foiled horseshoe diecut goes so well with the silver stars, and the wood grain sequins are perfect with the veneer stars. I also hand colored the image with colored pencils.

Next up, I made this--

These birds on this oh-so-graphic background look so hot. Reminds me of city birds perched on some abandoned metal works.

Now, the gems are not the first thing I would reach for when doing a man's card, but they look so SMART here (if I say so myself), I had to do them. I think the dark blue makes it all okay...(these were from my stash. I hope that's allowed...)

Then, off to this--

Now, these lure diecuts were done in these bright, happy colors, and while they didn't exactly go with any of the papers, I loved them, so I had to make them work in a card.

I started with the "dad" diecuts, and originally, I layered up the three that you see behind the red one, and it was looking pretty good. Once the card was just about finished, though, I found them just a bit flat by themselves, so I colored and triple clear embossed the red one, and that puppy WORKED!

Some Glossy Accents on several of the lures really helps give this card some life. Oh, and, more veneer stars, because Dad deserves them.

Oh, and this one has a good inside, too--

And finally, this one--

 

I HAD to use that "epic" diecut collection. HAD. TO.

More triple clear embossing on that top one. SO rich and shiny looking.

More colored pencil on the image. My eraser was as big a tool here as anything else. Softens things up perfectly.

Oh, and since I COULD. NOT. leave the candle flame as the only yellow on the card, I stamped a little banner piece and slid it in. Now I can breathe again. (Of course, I COULD have just made the flame orange instead, but, well, now, that would take some SENSE.)

 

And, the inside of that one, using a couple stamp sets in my stash--

 

 

 

Well, I am sorry that I couldn't devote more time to this kit, but I will definitely be digging into some of my leftovers when I finally get into my new space.

 

Huge thanks to Jeanne for the invitation to play and for the kit! I don't know how you all manage such collections of fab things!

 

I'll leave you with a pic of my collection of cards--

 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All Best-

Richard