WWC95 - Libby's Masculine Challenge

It's time for another Masculine Challenge, hosted this week  by Libby. The theme is "Anything Goes". That leaves it wide open to do anything you want. Can be any colour scheme, for any occasion. Doesn't even have to be a card. You could do a 3-D item, such as a gift box or a framed home-decor piece.

I decided to do a Christmas card and had a clear idea of how I wanted it to look. Even though it is a simple design and uses only stamps and ink, I did use 4 different stamp sets and 2 different techniques to make it.

The techniques are Masking and Off-set Stamping. For the masking technique, I stamped the car image from Guy Greetings onto a piece of scrap paper and cut it out. After placing it where I wanted it on the Crumb Cake card stock, I inked up the trio of trees from a retired stamp set (wish it hadn't retired!) from last year's Holiday Catalogue - Wonderland, with Always Artichoke ink and stamped to look like they are behind the car.

With the mask still in place, I cleaned off the stamp and re-inked it with Whisper White Craft ink. I didn't want to stamp the Whisper White image right over-top the Always Artichoke, so I move it slightly so the green would still show and the white ink would like like snow sitting on top of the branches.

Craft ink doesn't dry quickly, so I gave it a few minutes to make sure it was completely dry. After removing the mask, I stamped the car image into its spot using Early Espresso ink. Then I stamped a few random snowflakes with WW Craft, using the snowflakes stamp from the Christmas Pines stamp set.

I also used 3 different mediums for the white areas of this design. As well as the WW Craft ink, I coloured the snow under the car with the Whisper White Watercolour Pencil from the brand new Watercolour Pencil collection that will be available in the 2017 Occasions Catalogue. So happy we have Watercolour Pencils back!

To do the snow on the car, I used a Krylon White Paint Pen. I've been dabbling in Mixed Media and watching a lot of videos on YouTube - a lot! Many of the artists use paint pens, so I went looking for some to try out. I also have a Sharpie White Paint Pen, but it soaked into the cardstock - not the effect I was going for. Here's a close-up of the car:

The sentiment, also in Early Espresso, is from another sadly retired set - Endless Whishes. As a finishing touch, a bit of Clear Wink of Stella on the windows gives them a frosted look. Also, I sponged the edges with more WW Craft ink and then mounted the image panel with Dimensionals onto a Whisper White Thick card base.

I'm really liking the vintage-y look of this and think it could also work well for the men in ones life who have winter birthdays.

To see the wonderful project done by the other Watercooler Artists, visit the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Blog. You have until Monday to link up your project. We hope you will play along - we love to see all the creativity!