More Birthday Cards

(Upfront apologies for the photos in this post - I am still working on how to get decent shots on cloudy days...)

August is filled with family birthdays - including both of my bothers and one of my brothers-in-law - so that's quite a few masculine Birthday cards that I need inspiration to create. In the past I have always tended to create cards featuring gears or Tim Holtz stamps but this year, I wanted to challenge myself to do something a little bit different... 

This first card was for my youngest brother - his favourite colour is red so I wanted to use that but not too much. Here is what I came up with:

I used the Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit and chose an assortment of patterned papers and the navy cardstock. The first die-cut was the patterned paper "Happy". I then mounted that on the white cardstock and die-cut the Star Parade out of the card front, white cardstock and navy cardstock. The pattened paper stars were inlaid where they were partially "covered" by other stars and popped up where they were not to create some dimension. Here is a view of that from the side:

For finishing touches, I went crazy with the Glossy Accents and I also added a few of the red star gems that were included in the kit.

The supplies used for this card:

Dies: Simon Says Stamp - Star Parade; My Favorite Things - Celebrate Die-Namics

Stamp: Cocoa Daisy

Glaze: Glossy Accents

Embossing Powder: Stampendous Detail White

Everything Else: Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit

The next card that I made was for my brother-in-law and it also featured die-cutting. I started with a standard panel of white cardstock - and I blended in three colours of Distress Inks -  started at the top with Peeled Paint - worked into some Weathered Wood - and then into some Faded Jeans. I went around the edges with some Vintage Photo and then flicked some water and Distress Stain onto the panel. I then die cut the panel using the Full Card Hourglass die from Simon Says Stamp. I took out the triangles and inlaid them back into the card at the opposite end of where I had taken them out to create the reverse gradation of colour. 

I finished the card off with some black gemstones (origin unknown), washi tape, and a greeting on a piece of cardstock blended with the same colours of Distress Inks.

Supplies used:

Die: Simon Says Stamp - Full Card Hourglass

Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood

Washi Tape: Black - Cosmo Cricket; Green - Prima

Stamp: Cocoa Daisy

With all this die-cutting, I will link my cars up to the Pretty Pink Posh Blog Hop:

Thanks for looking :)