Masculine Birthday cards

Well, it's still snowing here. Got about 12" over the last 24 hours. At least the winds have died down a bit. I can only just see out the bottom  my kitchen window because of the drift down from the roof of the house:) There was no school today again. Last week they had a couple days off because of the bitter cold temps and high wind windchill factors. At least today the kids at home can go out to play a bit - lots of nice fresh new snow  on the hills to go sliding. So glad I don't have to go out in it. 

I have 2 cards to share today, for a couple of different challenges, so be sure to scroll down for the second card. February is a big birthday month for my family-My birthday is Sunday, then both Sons-in-law, one grandson, brother-in-law, 2 nieces and 2 friends-Holy Cow-I better get going, because, of course, they all have to have special cards, don't they?  :D

So, this first card is for the Paper Players sketch challenge #130 

The card base is SU Naturals Ivory. I distressed the edges a piece of DP from Paper Pizzaz Masculine paper pack. I distressed the edges of a scrap cardboard and taped it over the DP. The image, Mark's Finest Papers 'Hello Trucks', is stamped on  a scrap of ivory cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black. I colored it with Copic markers, then tore the edges and  sponged the edges with Memento Rich Cocoa. I adhered the image over the cardboard by using tape on the left side and foam dimensional under the right side. The sentiment is from Sweet N Sassy's 'Happy Birthdays' set, stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Stampendous Chocolate EP. I added a knotted piece of brown macrame cord to finish it all off. 

Card #2 is for the Dynamic Duos challenge #37. to use Crumb Cake and Soft Suede; and also for the Card Makin' Mamas, a Clean & Simple card.

This is a simple one layer card. I stamped the Impression Obsession 'Lighthouse & Boat' on SU Naturals Ivory cardstock with Crumb Cake craft ink. I then stamped the Happy Birthday from The Crafts Meow 'Retro Foundations' with Soft Suede craft ink. I lightly colored the H B-day in with a Prismacolor Pencil that matched the Crumb Cake. To finish it off, I stamped some birds from Sweet N Sassy's 'Serene Silhouettes' stamp set with Soft Suede craft ink. CAS-but it still took me foreveh to make the darn thing. I keep wanting to add more, like maybe a piece of that brown macrame cord, or another bird in the open space-arggggh, clean and simple just goes against the grain for some reason. But I will just leave it like it is and deal with it. I just might have to try this again-but with color, and layers and and and ....... you get the idea! 

Oh, and yes, the winds have picked up again and it is snowing 'sideways'. At least at the moment it is now snowing very hard. Yeah, winter, ya just gotta love it to live in this neck of the woods!

Enjoy