Resting my eyes ....

...  Hello again!  I've another masculine themed retirement card for you today.  I had the stamps on my desk after making my earlier DT card for The Male Room challenge - theme Retirement, and decided to make a fun one this time!

Stamps: Papermania - It's a Man's World Couch Potato
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy; Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Spellbinders - Squares Lg (S4-126) #6, Squares Sm (S4-128) #6
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Papermania DP - It's A Man's World; Clear Embossing Powder; Copics

I really like the image of the guy asleep in his armchair, and it reminded me a bit of my grandfather after he'd retired.  He'd always tell us that he wasn't asleep at all, "just resting my eyes!" he'd say.  He is very much missed.

I stamped the image onto white card, marked the die position and then cut out the feet, so that they would hang off the edge of the square.  I stamped the image again onto striped paper for the chair, blue paper for the trousers and white card for the man's body and also the newspaper, and fussy cut the layers.  I used Copics to colour the man and add a touch of colour to the paper.  I added shading around the image and then layered it onto a backing square.  I stamped a few sentiments randomly over the background.  On the inside I cut a mat layer to match the armchair and on the white panel I stamped a bit of the man asleep and a simple sentiment.

I'm submitting this to this week's Less is More challenge - LIM#159 where the theme is masculine cards.  I'm not sure whether there is enough white space for Chrissie and Jen, but it is quite clean and simple!  I'm off to watch the Olympics - it's the Ladies short programme in the ice skating - should be very interesting too!  Bye for now.

TMR - Retirement ....

....  Good morning everyone!  It's time for our new challenge over at The Male Room.  We have some news - from now on we will have a thumbnail display for your submissions using inlinkz.  Our theme this time is "Retirement" - you can make a card, scrapbook layout, 3D project - anything so long as it has a masculine feel and is based on the retirement theme.  Here's my card:

Stamps: Papermania - It's a Man's World Couch Potato
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Not Quite Navy
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Core'dinations Black Magic; Cuttlebug EF - D'Vine Swirls; Kanban - Fishing

I have some Kanban toppers, a set especially for men, that I got years ago and have hardly used at all.  But they are just perfect to make a retirement card.  I had a selection of images - golf, fishing, darts, music, walking - and I decided on a fishing theme.  I used the layout from CAS - Colours & Sketches - CASC&S#61, except I didn't actually notice the bit about it being non-rectangular!!!  I really should read things more carefully!  However, that's where I got the layout!

I embossed some core'dinations card with swirls, sanded to reveal the blue core - and I think it suggests waves!  I layered the image onto some more core'dinations card and finished the front with a simple, elegant sentiment which I adhered with dimensional tape.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of blue (the reverse side of the core'dinations card), cut a panel of white and added a simple sentiment and another fishing image.

For more inspiration cards based on the retirement theme, check out the cards from the rest of the team.  You have plenty of time to play along, deadline is Tuesday 4th March, midnight GMT.  Have fun!!

I must say that we had so many fabulous entries for our Valentine theme - it's going to be so, so difficult to pick the Top Three!   See you soon.