SSINKspiration Mystery Challenge #SSINKMC33: The Open Sea

Good morning!  It was another cold, rainy weekend here (this really is getting old) but at least this was the perfect opportunity to relax at home and spend some time in the studio (time spent creating always makes me happy, and relaxed) and I'm excited to share some of what I came up with.  Today over on the SSINKspiration blog it's time for this month's Mystery Challenge (I always have fun with these) and was able to incorporate 5 of the 6 listed items for this fun, masculine card that is packed full of retiring items getting some last love before we say goodbye at the end of the month.

I started with Lost Lagoon cardstock for the cardbase (this is one of my favorite of the retiring In Colors) and then added a piece of Basic Black cardstock that was embossed with the Big Shot and Elegant Stripes Embossing Folder (retiring).  Next I added a piece of designer series paper from the Going Places Designer Series Paper Stack (retiring) and matted it with Hello Honey cardstock.  I took a piece of Gold Foil Paper and cut it out with the Big Shot and Circles Collection Framelits (retiring) and then embossed it with the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder (retiring).

For the stamped image I used The Open Sea (retiring) stamp set and stamped the ship image on Very Vanilla cardstock using Basic Black ink.  Then I took the log image from the same stamp set over the ship using Crumb Cake ink (I stamped off twice to get a nice light effect) and then cut it out with the Circles Collection Framelits (retiring) and sponged around the edges with Basic Black ink.  For some decorative touches I took a piece of 1 3/8" Burlap Ribbon (retiring) and cut it in half (I actually decided to make two of these cards at the same time so I didn't have any waist left.  Next I took a piece of Hello Honey 5/8" Stitched Cotton Ribbon (retiring) and attached it to the cardfront with Fast Fuse adhesive and then added a couple staples with the Mini Stapler.

The final touch was to add the greeting which is from the And Many More stamp set and after stamping it was punched out with the Word Window Punch (retiring).  I punched a second layer out of Basic Black cardstock to offset behind the greeting.  Dimensionals were used to attached the ship circle and the greeting to the cardfront to finish off the card.

I really love these stamp sets and DSP, they really do make it easy to make masculine cards, which can always be a struggle.  The other design team members are sharing some great cards using the same mystery challenge so go check them out and then come play along and share what you created, can't wait to see it!!

Below are easy ordering links for the products used on today's card:

Enjoy,

Diana