Mrs. Pickle Stamps: Masculine Cards

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Hi there! How are you today, friends? :)

I am a little behind on my post for the current A Muse Studio Challenge, but I always say better late than never! The challenge theme is Father's Day. I have said before that masculine cards are NOT my forte', but I like the challenge. It makes it that much harder because my dad is not the easiest to create for. I aim for humor when I create for Dad and I thought my card turned out rather cute... *ahem* FUN. :) Here is what I created!

My Father's Day Card:

So my dad is a 'grill king' - this is what I call all men who master the art of the grill! He is not a hot dog eater, but 'Here's To The Burger King' isn't an A Muse sentiment YET. :) Still - isn't it fun? Gotta love the ketchup red and mustard yellow chevrons! I stamped this on kraft because it is eternally masculine AND I didn't have to color the hot dog buns. There is a method to my madness. :) The yellow pennant seemed to fit in perfectly. Since A Muse doesn't have 'Dad' as a sentiment, I took another stamp that said Happy BirthDAy and used the letters to create it as well as the exclamation point. Ah, the art of crafty improv!

Here is the inside of the card:

See the beer foam? That's Le Pouf, a dimensional 'paint' that puffs when you heat it! LOVE that stuff - great for Santa hats and snow on Christmas cards, too! :)

Stuff I Used (All A Muse Studio Products):
Stamps - Hey, Man!, Say It With Style, Birthday Greetings (letters used for DAD)
Cardstock - Kraft,Buttercup, Cherry
Ink - Papaya, Cherry, Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics - hot dogs Y17, R24 beer E33, E37
Other Stuff - Cupcake Toppers Dies, Le Pouf Dimensional Paint

I hope you will enter your Father's Day creations into the challenge - you don't have to use A Muse products, but if you do, you get two entries per link! So come on over and join in the fun for your chance to win some A Muse goodies of your very own!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I really appreciate you being here! :)

Hi there! I realize I have been VERY absent lately...gotta get back into the swing of things!

I decided I am going to title my posts as Pickle Posts and number them. It helps me see how far I have come and it helps to simplify my post titles. :)

So let's start with BLESSINGS. I love those! Since last week, I found out I won won won - all over the place! LOL!

Let me start with last week - I was named a Fav for this Some Odd Girl Challenge for my card featuring cutie little Mooey! Talk about THRILLED...THUD! Pick me up off the floor! What an honor!

I also got my new Chibi - yeppers, that's a caricature of ME created by Kristy at Some Odd Girl! How many ways can I say LOVE?! :)

Then I won a couple more things - the Gnomies stamp set from a brand new company, Sweet Stamp Shop and a fabulous prize pack from SRM Stickers & Bazzill Paper. Talk about WOW...

On Monday, I won prizes for Sketch 'N Stash Challenge# 67, The Greeting Farm Blog Hop AND Sparkle Creations Blog Hop.
SERIOUSLY ... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I told Hubby we better go stock up on some lottery tickets LOL!

Now, on to birthdays - August has lots of family birthdays. My family is my biggest blessing! There was a big family birthday party last Saturday and I was burning the midnight oil making cards. Masculine cards aren't my forte' cuz I like cute and blingy stuff. You can't create those for the men in your life - well, Hubby appreciates those, but that's a different story! I thought I would share what I created - nothing fancy but they were created with lots of love!

Dad's Card 'You're A Classic':

For Dad's card, I kept it simple and classic! I stuck with grays, blues and reds in my color scheme and kraft as my base. This cool cat is colored with Copics, the Nesties label and tag are distressed with Weathered Wood Distress Ink and the sentiment is just typed in typewriter font (LOVE) from my computer. I finished it off with red satin ribbon and nailheads to embellish the card. Inside it says - 'Nope, not old...just a classic! Happy Birthday!' :) I love you, Dad!

My Nephew's Card 'Worm Birthday Wishes':

For Shea's card - I wanted to keep it simple and funny. How hard is it to create something for a 14 year old boy? So I pulled out my fave Paper Smooches stamps and paper pieced a simple scene with this cute worm. (My SIL thought it was a pickle LOL!) This patterned paper from My Mind's Eye was perfect - I love their Lime Twist collection! Inside there is a money pocket stamped with 'Celebrate with a few bucks for you!' Paper Smooches has so many options for mixing and matching sentiments between stamp sets - GOTTA LOVE THAT. The thing that made me so happy about this card was my nephew told me he normally hates cards (most teenagers think they are pretty pointless - they want the gifts), but he loved this card so much that he was going to keep it. Talk about making his auntie smile! That was MY gift for the day! :) I love you, Shea!

One thing I want to mention is my nephew Shea is an identical twin - his sweet twin brother Trevor passed away when he was 6 from an unexpected, sudden and very cruel illness. Our family has been blessed with few tragedies, but this was heart breaking and so very difficult for us as you can imagine. I keep that sweet happy little boy in my heart and remember him often, especially when I am around Shea, his mirror image. I love you and miss your smile, Trevor!

Stuff I Used:
Dad's Card -
Image - Pink Cat Studio 'Cool Cat' Digi
Paper - AMuse Studio Sugar & Blueberry, Gina K Kraft
Nesties Dies - Labels 18, Ribbon Tags Trio
Copics: C0, C1, C3, C5, C7, C9, 100, R12, R39 Ink: Weathered Wood Distress Ink
Other Stuff - Nailheads, Ellen Hutson Red Satin Ribbon

Shea's Card -
Stamps: Paper Smooches ' Birthday Buddies', 'Sentiment Sampler' & 'Santa Paws'
Paper - AMuse Studio Sugar & Grass, Gina K Kraft, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist 'Fly a Kite' 6x6 Paper Pad
Copics - Party hat B28, R27, G05 Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Other Stuff - Bazzill 'Worth Remembering' Adhesive Pearls

Thank you for stopping by today - it makes me happy to know you are out there supporting me!