Woodsy and wonderful

Earlier this fall I met up with a former coworker for lunch, and I wanted to bring him a set of cards. I needed images that were a little more masculine than the floral stamp sets I often reach for, so instead I went with the Snailed It stamp set from Ellen Hutson. I absolutely adore this stamp set. It has a variety of bold woodsy images and, although I didn't use them this time, a number of punny sentiments.

Supplies:
Stamps: Snailed It (Essentials by Ellen), Shiplap Background (Taylored Expressions), A Few Words (The Stamp Market)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Real Red, Mossy Meadow, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, (Stampin' Up!); VersaMark (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Snailed It dies (Essentials by Ellen), white embossing powder (Hero Arts), Regals Candy Dots (Stampin' Up!), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

I chose four images from the set -- a mushroom, tree stump, leafy branch, and simple flower -- and stamped and die cut each one four times. Then I simply played around with the layout until I had an arrangement I liked. I adhered the die-cut images to Crumb Cake card bases stamped with a shiplap background image and added the sentiments with white embossing powder.

I don't know that I would say these cards are definitely masculine, but they aren't overly feminine, either. I used bold colors, an "unfrilly" background image, and sentiments with a classic type-style font to keep the cards neutral. To add a little embellishment I used two dark green enamel circles in the upper right corner of each card.

I really liked how these cards turned out, so I decided to keep playing and make a few cards to use myself.

Supplies:
Stamps: Snailed It (Essentials by Ellen); Hardwood, Tree Rings (Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Whisper White card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Snailed It dies (Essentials by Ellen), Happy Birthday die (Stampin' Up!), Scripty Hello die (Lawn Fawn), Brights and Regals Candy Dots (Stampin' Up!), linen thread (Stampin' Up!), white crochet thread (DMC), gold sequins (The Makery), All Year Cheer washi tape (Stampin' Up!), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

To start these cards, I chose my color pallet and images, and then I stamped and die cut a bunch of the images. I sorted the die cuts into piles so I had a mix of colors and images for each card. I stamped two different wood-themed background images on Crumb Cake card bases, die cut sentiments and then assembled the cards. (Confession: That took longer than it sounds. I had a hard time deciding on some of the layouts.) I added a few simple embellishments, and there you have it!

Thanks for stopping by!