You're a Winner Masculine Card

This is my final card for the "Cutting Edge" Blog Hop, hosted by Paulina at Pretty Pink Posh this weekend.

I decided to do a definitely masculine card this time. I would call it "clean & simple," but I don't know if all the inking & spatters make it especially clean! LOL My design is (somewhat loosely) based on Operation Write Home's Sketch #180:

I stamped the Hero Arts "Designer Woodgrain" background on kraft cardstock using Walnut Stain Distress ink. I had initially tried using Gold and then Espresso Adirondack acrylic paint daubers on the stamp, but neither one provided the clear image with enough contrast that I wanted. So finally my third try with Walnut Stain proved successful.

For the greeting, I used one of the stamps from this set, & again stamped it in Walnut Stain, this time on a lighter tan cardstock. I "separated" the stamp, by masking off the "winner!" with a piece of tape and inking up only the "you're a" part. I removed the tape, stamped, and then repeated the process to stamp the "winner!" portion. I used a paintbrush and clean water to flick water droplets on the stamped words. Distress inks react with water, so that caused some bleeding and a bit of very subtle fading in some of the letters. I also applied a little ink to an acrylic block, thinned it with water, and used the same brush to spatter the ink onto the cardstock. Finally, I cut the words into banner shapes and inked the edges with more Walnut Stain.

Instead of a vertical strip of cardstock, as in the sketch, I decided to use a row of hexagons. So I used one of the dies from the Lifestyle Crafts "Nesting Hexagons" set to cut 5 hexagons out of scraps of various patterned papers I had left on my desk from other projects. I glued the green one in the horizontal center of the card, 1/8" in from the left edge, and then glued the rest above and below that. I did have to trim off a little from the top & bottom ones. These provided a bit of color to an otherwise monochromatic card.

After gluing down the hexagons, I glued the greeting banners to the panel. Finally, I adhered the front to a card base, which I'd inked with--yep, you guessed it--Walnut Stain, to create a dark brown mat. A simple card, but one that took a lot of thought on my part. I will be sending this one also to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

I'm also entering this in the following challenges:

a2z Scrapbooking Blog's August "Encouragement"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Witch Kraft"