Lex and Company: French Foliage Birthday

It was my dad's birthday a few days ago and I wanted to share the card I made for him this year. I usually have a hard time coming up with a design for masculine cards but it's usually just because most of the stamps I own are more on the girly side. I decided to use Stampin' Up!'s French Foliage stamp set because I love it so much. Here's what I came up with:

The French Foliage stamp set is a great set to use for a variety of cards but it especially is good for masculine or neutral cards. There are so many ways to show off this beautiful set.

For this card I started with a Basic Black card stock base. I actually did stamp one of the leaf patterns onto the black base with Always Artichoke ink just to see if it would show up but I couldn't see the pattern after the ink dried. If you try it, my suggestion is to try it with StazOn Jet Black ink; I have a feeling that will give the subtleness I was looking for. I then cut a mat using Cajun Craze card stock. On the Whisper White layer I stamped the water droplet stamp several times using Sahara Sand ink and the for the green leaf I used Always Artichoke ink. Since I didn't have a "Happy Birthday" sentiment that fit the mood, I just typed this one up on the computer and printed it directly to the card stock. I stamped the two other leaves on a separate piece of Whisper White card stock then cut them out using my Paper Snips - they are seriously sharp and have a small tip which is great for getting into tight spaces. Then, using a combination of different inks, I sponged the leaves which gave me the color variations you see above.

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