Happy Birthday, Man!

I struggle with masculine cards....but this month's release at Papertrey Ink was all about masculinity and with some fabulous man-card tips I was easily on my way to create this birthday card for my Father-in-Law or "Grampy" as we affectionately call him. We're heading over to celebrate his birthday today and thankfully I had a little window if time today to get card making.
I haven't yet purchased any of this month's release sets from PTI, but my cart is full I'm just waiting for the $$ to arrive....could be months ahahahha!!! But man o man do I wish I had the new Background Basics: Woodgrain set! Here's my take on some of the tips the PTI Design Team had to say about creating masculine cards. You can read their fab tips HERE.

Looking at these photos uploaded, I wish I had stamped off and stamped more, lighter leaves in the background. Hmmm, I wonder why this didn't occur to me at the time?
Ahh well, I'm still happy with the results.
Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients
Stamps: Piece of Cake, Turning a New Leaf(PTI)
Paper: Kraft, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla(SU!)
Ink: Craft White, Note Quite Navy, Old Olive
Accessories: Argyle texture plate(SU!), jumbo brads(Making Memories), corner rounder(Marvy), Labels One Nestabilities(Spellbinders)

Found, Not Lost & A Thank You

Well, I have a good news. I was so devastated to have lost my font collection it lead to a bit of investigating. Carbonite does in fact back-up your Windows directory and it's saved into a file called Windows.old which is where I found ALL OF MY FONTS!!! 871 of them to be exact!!! Apparently, I am more of a computer nerd than I ever thought because I'm celebrating having found my fonts!
On to my latest project....as many of you know we recently moved. Over the Christmas holiday the local real estate agent (who was the seller's agent) dropped off a beautiful Christmas card wishing us well and a delicious box of Christmas cookies. I thought that was really so kind and thoughtful that I had to of course reciprocate with a handmade thank you. It had to be somewhat masculine and QUICK as time is of the essence these days. Little Keith, who is now 22 months, is only sleeping about 40minutes during the day which leaves me enough time to check my e-mail and make a really quick card. So here it is. I would love your thoughts!! Thanks for visiting!
Ingredients
Paper: Very Vanilla, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!), decorate paper is "Florentine" from American Crafts
Stamps: Bella Blossoms (SU)
Ink: Stazon Black (SU)
Accessories: button from my stash, Old Olive striped ribbon, modern label and word window punches, linen thread (all SU!)

Dad's Birthday

Here's a little something I made for my dad's birthday. We gave him a dozen of his favorite golf balls so I thought this was a fitting card.
I took my inspiration from my fellow blog buddy Laura. Her creation can be seen here and be sure to check it out because hers is actually a golf tee holder and card which would be AWESOME for father's day.
I used my Nesties to cut the golf ball and used my texture plates to make the divets and just used the negative side. To make the tee I used my round tab punch and just cut the bottom off into a point (also from Laura).
I wrapped the golf balls in brown paper bag and adhered the card in a plastic envie to the front. I'm going to have Little Keith walk it over to Grampy today when we go to work to visit him.
Ingredients:
stamps: All Holidays
paper: Good Morning Sunshine dsp, kiwi kiss
accessories: nesties, texture plates, paper piercing tool, sponge, distress ink