thinking laterally....

So, anyway, I needed to make a card for our nephew, who's exact age I forget, but he's in his mid twenties. Probably.

Men always seem to require a bit more thought, somehow. Well, there are only so many cards you can make featuring sport, beer or technology, and I've managed to steer clear of them so far! So, what do we know about Tim? He likes sport, beer and, er, technology...damn.
This is where pinterest comes to the rescue - again - and I have a board for masculine card ideas that I dip into on these occasions, and this time I came up with this pin from stamptalkwithtosh.blogspot.co.uk:

Now, Tosha made this using a distress resist technique and several different background stamps, which she explains beautifully on her blog, and one that I could happily do, if only I had several different background stamps. Ah. So this is where lateral thinking came in.

I used patterned papers that have been sitting on a shelf for YEARS and have escaped ditching by the skin of their teeth many times, as I very rarely use patterned paper. To get a seamless join, I layered them one on top of the other - luckily they are not double sided, so it's not too bulky. The edges have been distressed, and I added some dashed lines on a couple of the segments to define them. The greeting is made from a stamped embossed 'happy', cut out and mounted on a bit of foam tape, and a die cut 'birthday'. The panel is mounted on a black card blank, and looks grungier in real life than on the photo.

The bit about Tim that I haven't mentioned is that he is Dutch, so the orange segment is a nod to that. 

And this is it :

I used:

My Minds Eye Lime Twist 12 x 12 paper stack

Dylusions Journal Block (for the wavy edge)

black cardstock

Hickory Smoke distress ink (you can see it more on the actual card)

1" distressing tool

Faber Castell SX black pen

SSS Happy Birthday die

stamp from Stampendous Happy Tile Set

Versafine Onyx Black inkpad

clear embossing powder

1mm foam tape

fine tip glue applicator

Herma tape thingy

See you later,

Janet x

New year, new challenge...

So, anyway, Seven Hills Crafts have set their January challenge, and it's a sketch. Well, I've never used a sketch to make a card before, even though I have a pinterest board full of 'em, so it was with some trepidation that I set to work. Then I stopped work, because my brain froze, mainly because I looked at the brilliant interpretations of the sketch that the DT produced!! After I had been for a nice lie down to recover a bit, I decided to employ my usual method for dealing with this situation - yep, it happens A LOT - which is to walk away and let things stew for a bit, and see what happens.
I was rescued by a birthday card. I chose a set of stamps that I fancied using, and came up with a couple of ideas that were, um, rubbish? Then the magic happened, and all of a sudden I had a card, and guess what? It fits the sketch set for the challenge - hurrah!

So here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

I think it should be ok, it just stretched a bit ...

I used:

Paper Smooches Botanicals 3, stamps and dies

Memento inkpads - Olive Grove, Dandelion, Bahama Blue and Rose Bud

SSS Handwritten Borders

Paper Artsy smoothy cardstock (brilliant stuff, BTW)

self adhesive pearls

1mm foam tape.

I used an old dressmaking tracing wheel to make a border, it's a bit faint, but shows up better in Real Life.

Off now to enter my card, good job I'm just playing for fun as there are some fabulous cards on there!

See you later,

Janet x