Taylored Expressions "Make It Masculine" Blog Hop!

Hi! It's my second time participating in Taylored Expressions "Blast from the Past" Blog Hop! The theme for the hop is "Make It Masculine", which is fairly easy since my three sets are all outdoorsy. I just had to remember not to use any ribbon, frills, or bling.

Here's my card!


I used Taylored Expressions Branching Out Coordinates set for this card. I think the owl is really cute and decided that he wanted to go for a swing. I figured that making a punny card, using earthy colors, wood-grain patterned papers, and staples would make the card masculine enough.

I did a bunch of masking to make the scene using Judikins Eclipse tape. I colored the scene with Copic markers (note to self: next time make the owl a bit lighter), then used Grumbacher's Miskit Frisket, which is a liquid mask that you apply with a brush, to cover the images. I got out the airbrush and had a go with it with the usual mixed results. I like the effect, but don't like that airbrushing leaves a sticky film on the piece which attracts dust and my shedding hair. I need to find out if that's normal or something that I'm doing incorrectly. After I airbrushed, I removed the Frisket, which removed cleanly without hurting the paper or the coloring--yahoo! Glaze pen was added to the owl's eyes and beak.

The patterned papers are from Cosmo Cricket. I used my Ideology Tiny Attacher, which is a fabulous tool. I also used Spellbinders dies for the sentiment.

The photo is kind of dark because it was taken at night and because my mad photography skillz are more bad than mad. What's scary is that I've improved. Whoa! I'll try to get a better photo tomorrow if the weather cooperates.

Thanks for visiting today.

Here's the list for the hop! I'm sure there's some serious eye candy out there, so have fun hopping along!