Masculine cards - sponging with silhouettes

I am in need of masculine cards for next month's family birthdays so I decided to use these images which I printed when I created this card.  Love how they turned out!!
For the first one,  I started with a laser printed image of a skyline which I downloaded off of CLKER.  To create the beautiful sunset I punched a 1.25" hole in a scrap of paper, positioned it over the buildings I wanted to highlight and sponged in some yellow ink.  Next, I covered up the yellow with the 1.25" circle punchie and sponged on the orange and some dark pink.  Using the edges of a few torn strips I added some purple and blue.

I mounted my image to a black layer capturing my printed greeting between the two, punched some slots on the bottom edge and inserted yellow ribbon. I embossed the right hand side of my dark blue card front, adhered my main element and glued the ends of my ribbon to the inside of my card using double sided tape.  I added a "enjoy life" metal embellishment using a large glue dot.
For my second one, I started with an image of elephants (CLKER) and sponged brown at the bottom to form the earth, added another little layer for depth and then sponged yellow above that.

I added red sponging at the top and then used torn edges as I added a few more light layers of red over the yellow to get a nice gradation in the sky.  I layered my image onto black, layered onto a torn and embossed maroon layer and glued it to my stippled yellow card front.  I added a black ribbon embellishment and a sponged greeting.
For my third card, I started with another laser printed image of a cattail and some reeds (CLKER). I used  a straight edge for the far side of the lake and sponged blue below it.  I covered the blue and added some light green, added a torn edge and added some blue green.  I covered the blue green with a torn edge and sponged on some blue and then used several torn edges to add layers to the blue sky. Finally, I created some mountains by sponging purple between two torn edges and stamped in a few green tree tops.  I layered my sponged image onto black, layered it over my green embossed card front capturing a little flag ended embellishment made from cardstock and ribbon.  I lightly sponged my printed greeting and layered it below the flag end of the embellishment.
It has been a lot of fun playing with ink and sponges!!  The black silhouettes look so dramatic next to the vibrant colours.

Therese