Less is More - Challenge week 7

Hi, I have been a bit short of inspiration and energy over the last week, but managed to pull something together for this week's challenge from LIM - a masculine card.......

The sentiment is from Hero Arts (H4938) which I bought 12 months ago from the NEC  - another one of those purchases which I just had to have at the time and which has sat on the shelf since looking at me waiting to be used for the first time! 

You will perhaps recognise the car from the new Chocolate Baroque miniature stamps Curiosities.

The trees are from the EI Tall Tree theme plate (UA5SP0252)

To get this effect I stamped the car on scrap paper, then cut-out the image to use as a mask.

After stamping the car in Brown Archival ink on a piece of cream hammer card, I heat embossed the image with a clear embossing powder, placed the mask over the image and then stamped and heat embossed the trees as a background.   I love the effects you can get with this masking techique!

I used a Classic Large Oval die (size 2) to cut out the image.  By leaving the cut in the die, you can embossed the edge with a embossing pen, and  also use the die as a stensil to colour the centre panel. 

I then cut another oval in acetate, ran this through the Bug in the distress strips folder to give a more interesting look to the embellishment, and fixed with brads.  Unfortunately this was difficult to show on a photograph but it was worth the effort because of the texture and sheen that it adds!   The Bug cuts only a medium weight acetate (have yet to try it in the JT) and embossing caused no problems.  The swirls are from Marianne designs.

Another enjoyable challenge from LIS - thanks ladies for the inspiration to get off my butt!  Now what else can I do?????