Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Cards for the Men

Those of you who know me well, will know that I am very outnumbered in my family, so I am always needing cards for men. I find these quite hard to do especially when I have left it to the last minute to make them, so this week I decided to make a few in advance. 
I raided my digi stamp folder and chose three images- Kingfisher in the rushes, In the harbour, and A Scottish castle, all purchases from Stitchy Bear. (Their site has changed considerable since I bought these, and they no longer seem to have these images, so I have not included a link).

I printed the Kingfisher out twice and coloured them both the same with copic markers. I cut them with a Spellbinders deckle edge rectangle die. For the mats I chose two different blue snippets - both saved from brochures of a well-known high street bank! - and cut them with deckle edge scissors. The background is a photograph, sized to fit the front of the card, and faded out so that it compliments the image without over powering it. I finished these with a Signature Die sentiment cut to match the image mat.

I printed out, In the Harbour, and then I altered it so that it was the right size and in the right position to  fall across the centre of a card, and printed it again.

Because this second print was for an ´almost´ one layer card, to save on weight for international posting, I couldn´t use my copic pens to colour it as these leak through the card, so I used coloursoft pencils instead. The waves, anchor and sentiment were all cut using my silhouette cameo machine.

As the second image was to be layered up, I did colour this one with copics, and hand-cut it, and its blue mat, using the inner and outer edges of a Labels 8 die. (I often resort to this because the gap between one die, and the next size up, is just too wide). I set this at an angle on a cream textured card, and stamped the sentiment - from a Crafty Individuals word set - with brown archival ink. The seagull on a post is a Chocolate Baroque stamp that I stamped on a snippet of white card, coloured and then cut out.

The final image I only printed once because I felt I was more limited in what I could do with it. In the end I added some subtle colour with copics, using warm greys for the rocks and bridge, and cool greys for the castle, and then a range of greens for the vegetation and blues for the water. I cut a light grey frame using the largest die from the Spellbinders Radiant rectangles set. I didn´t want to put a sentiment on this image, but I may add one at the last moment, or else print it on the insert instead.
As I used a lot of snippets for the mats in these cards, I will link them up in Pixie´s Snippets Playground.
As my first two and last cards all fit their colour challenge, I am also entering this at The Male Room, where all entries have to be for men or boys.

16 comments:

Di said...

Fabulous cards Kate - your colouring, as always, is stunning! I think you and Jean deffo. share the artistic gens in your family!

Hugs

Di xx

Unknown said...

They're lovely Kate - really like the kingfisher ones with the photo background, works beautifully. All nice images, pity they don't seem to be available any longer

Unknown said...

They're lovely Kate - really like the kingfisher ones with the photo background, works beautifully. All nice images, pity they don't seem to be available any longer

Jenny L said...

Hi Kate,
these are gorgeous.
Love them all, but the Kingfisher ones are my fave.
Your colouring of these fab images is ace, and wonderful designs too.
Lots of crafty love. Jenny L.

Jean said...

Lovely set of mens' cards Kate, they should keep you going for a while. The kingfisher cards turned out really well and I like the photographic background.
The two cards with boats are my favourites though, they both look good coloured with the different media.
Jean x

Veerle said...

Fabulous cards Kate, they all are awesome, great colouring skills.
Hugs, Veerle x

Di said...

Hi Kate

It's Di again! Yes, I think I did happen to be at the laptop as you posted earlier - I think that sometimes spooks folk a bit :) And I had to get back about your comment re. dies as I've noticed it a lot recently as well. I think it could be due to the variety on the market now, so many shapes and pretty things to choose from, although (possibly like you?) my first love is still stamping and colouring - given the time :)

Hugs

Di xx

kiwimeskreations said...

What amazing cards Kate - I love that you combine stamping, colouring and at times photographs digitally altered in your card making.
I too have used the inside and outside of dies for layering when the sizing was not what I wanted.
Blessings
Maxine

Kathy said...

Wonderful cards! I really like the way you used a printed photo for the background of the Kingfisher card. My fav is the two boats. I love the way you used the soft, weathered colors on the boats. I saw your card on Pixie's Playground and had to come over to visit. I'm your newest follower. Hope you will visit my blog sometime. Ta Ta For Now, Kathy

Sarn said...

Hi Kate . . . wow . . . you certainly achieved your brief with these fabulous masculine cards. Top marks. (I always find male cards difficult to make.)

Hugs, Sarn xxx

Vicki Dutcher said...

Amazing masculine cards -- your coloring is just stunning! Thanks for joining in at TMR~

Virginia said...

Fabulous cards - all of them!

Pat said...

Four wonderful masculine cards Kate and I love your colouring using the pencils and the pens and you are great at using both. I think my favourites are the boats with the Kingfisher a close second. I too have lots of men in our extended family to make for and it is always quite difficult to get enough ideas to make a variety as I don't like to use the same images all the time, but you have achieved this so well here as the two boat cards look entirely different. x

MaryH said...

Some brilliant fella cards here. I am loving the bold colors of your kingfisher, and the way you used the background was just fabulous. Really added so much atmosphere to a beautiful theme. The pencil colored boats looked wonderful. The muted coloring was so vintage looking - very calming scene. Loved the more bold look on the copic colors too,but again, a different feel to each of these cards. And the castle is probably my fav (just 'cause I like castles!). Loved the shadowed sky and the soft green of the country side. Some very realistic looking rocks too. Again, liked the brighter shade of the old wooden boat. The opening in the pierced mat framed this wonderfully well. I do the same with the faux matting. Additionally I usually will use a smaller die in the set to cut out the backing, and use that piece for another 'snippet' card. Really enjoyed all the lovely cards. TFS & Hugs

Joan said...

Wow! Fabulous cards all of them but my favourites are the boats, what a shame they are no longer available, the colouring is wonderful, great cards

Joan
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Deborah Frings said...

Wow, you've rocked our colour challenge with a selection of lovely cards. I do like the castle! Thanks so much for playing along with The Male Room this week!