It is Sunday which means it is time for another challenge over at Cupcake Inspirations.  This week we are hosting a color challenge, and want you to whip up a design featuring the colors ocean, kraft, and chestnut.

(On a random side note, I think I’m going to have to make pancakes this morning cause my mouth is watering just looking at this cupcake.)

This week we are sponsored by Frantic Stamper who is offering a $20 gift certificate for one random participant this week.  And let me tell you they have the best dies.  I mean their whole website is great, but their precision dies are really just amazing.  I am not a huge user of die and die cutting, and their dies make me want to become a die focused crafter.

Frantic Stamper was kind enough to send each of us on the design team a die to play with for our color challenge this week.  Initially, I was a little hesitant.  I am a coloring focused crafter, and get a little nervous when I need to craft something that is heavy on paper piecing.  But this die I got, A Day On the Lake, inspired me in ways I can not begin to say.  There are very few dies and stamps in the crafting world that say ‘masculine’ right off the bat, but this one is absolutely for the men and fathers in our world.

I pulled out some Distress Inks and started blending some Broken China across the bottom of my card stock, using some post it notes to make a solid line.  Then flipping the post it notes, I blended frayed burlap, vintage photo, and ground expresso across the top half of the card trying to get a blend and at the same time displaying the challenge colors.

I turned to my die cutting machine and die cut the frantic stamper die on both black card stock and some kraft/tan colored printed paper.  I layered the die cuts so that the black fell like a shadow behind the printed paper.  With a colored pencil and a watercolor marker I highlighted certain areas of the die cut.

I pulled out a Riley & Company Inspirations stamp and stamped it out in some dark brown ink.  I love that sentiment and thing that every father should remember, that one kind word is all their son ever really needs.  At least in my house, where I have an exceptional husband and a son who can sometimes be very uncertain about who he is in this world, a kind word from my man, is all my boy ever needs to know who he is and how much he is loved.

I die cut out the distressed image with a pierced die and attached the boat and boys die onto the paper.  Then I took some of the kraft and tan printed paper under the blended card stock.  Then under all of that, I placed some kraft paper.

I’m going to hold onto this card saving it for the day I need to remind my husband (who does not read this page, so please keep it a secret) how much I love him.

Take a moment and visit the other Design Team Sweaties because not only do they have amazing designs this week, you have to see all the other cool dies that Frantic Stamper sent out team to play with.

Amy

Birgit

Carol

Debbie

Deborah

Ek

Eva

Jen

Jennifer

Kamila

Naki

Nina

Sandy

That’s all for now.  I am off to make some pancakes.  Till next time make something masculine for the men in your life that you love.