Man's 80th Birthday Card

From time to time I am asked to create a card for a special occasion.

I usually find it quite difficult making cards for men, but once it all started coming together I actually found myself enjoying this one! As I was working on this card, the size of it began to grow, until it ended up being 21 x 19cm (8.25 x 7.5"). I can see I am going to have to make an envelope too!

My basic idea for the card started with the vintage car. I knew that this card had to have a car theme and the older the car the better. With little time to spare I scoured my LSS. Initially I was looking for a stamp with a vintage car theme. Although I did find some, I was put off by the price as I couldn't see myself using it enough to justify the cost. Then I happened upon this vintage car rub-on which was part of a set by 'Create-A-Collage' Men's Collage rub-on and knew it was {the one}. I loved the sepia colours of this car and this inspired the overall tone of the card.

After playing around with various coloured papers , I decided that the car looked best on a blue background.

I very rarely use the backs of doublesided cardstock as a main theme, but I didn't want the car image to be lost in a sea of patterned papers.

I placed the rub-on to the reverse side Fancy Pants - Papa: Confident. I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Antique Linen and matted it with the brown reverse side of Making Memories - Passport: Stripe. I then made up another mat in exactly the same way, although slightly larger and set my mat with the rub-on at a jaunty angle on top of the larger mat. The blue and brown check ribbon came from my stash. The brown lacy type ribbon came from Making Memories - Passport: Trims. The brown lacy ribbon is held in place by two little lemon coloured brads from the Basic Grey - Two Scoops collection and the little lemon button sewn on is from the same collection, as are the two larger buttons in the top right corner.

I just love buttons and have a real button fetish. If I can add a button to a design, then I will. Here I have layered together two buttons. The bottom button had a dip in it allowing the top button to sit on there easily. I then threaded some ribbon through the holes and tied it in a knot.

Ok, now on to the letters and numbers. I had loads of {FUN} here!!

Of course, I didn't have letters and numbers in the colours I wanted. Haven't a clue why as I have millions of the things!! But I didn't much mind as this gave me a chance to {play}. For the word 'DAD' I took the letters from K&Co Classic K Margo Chipboard Alphabet. Working one letter at a time, I sponged my VersaMark Watermark Stamp pad on top of the letter. I then covered it with Tim Holtz Distress Powder in Aged Mahogany and heated it up with my Dovecraft Heat Gun. To release the crystals to achieve the distressed look, I rubbed the letter with my finger. At this stage I thought the letters needed a touch of colour, so I lightly sanded the edges. I decided blue would look good and would match the other elements in the card. I dabbed carefully at the edges of my letters and lightly on the surface, randomly with my ColorBox Pigment Brush Pad - Sky Blue. I covered the whole with Stampendous Stamp-n Stuff Clear Embossing Powder and heated it up.The effect is what you see and I just tied some ribbon round the first 'D' using a stripey ribbon from Making Memories - Passport: Trims.


For the numbers '80' I wanted a slightly different feel, to create some contrast. The numbers used were taken from Heidi Grace Chipboard Alphabet - Cherry Lane. To create the effect shown, I reversed the process that I had used to create 'Dad'. So, I inked the numbers up with ColorBox Sky Blue pad, covered it with the clear embossing powder and heated it up. Having sanded the numbers slightly in places, I then applied the VersaMark Watermark Pad to parts of the edges and surface. I sprinkled the numbers with Tim Holtz Distress Powder - Aged Mahogany and rubbed the surface to achieve the distressed look.

The stamp I used for the 'Happy Birthday' is an acrylic stamp which was on the cover of a magazine I bought earlier this year. I stamped the image three times with the Versamark Stamp Pad on the reverse side of Fancy Pants - Papa: Confident, sprinkled them with the aged mahogany distressing powder and heated them up. I cut out each image as follows: first image - cut out in full, second image - cut out just the cake and candle, third image - cut out just the icing on the cake. I then layered up each part of the stamped images, one on top of the other, starting with the largest at the bottom and working my way up to the smallest. I used Stix 2 Anything Double Sided Craft Foam Pads between each layer to add dimension.

Finally I inked the edges of Fancy Pants - Papa: Courageous with the antique linen distress ink and attached everything on the reverside of the cardstock using double sided pads for 'Dad', 'Happy Birthday' and '80' and double sided tape for the matted car. I made up the card from two pieces of brown cardstock from Papermania Textured Cardstock.

I will use the reverse side of Fancy Pants - Papa: Adventurer on the inside of the card, to both hide the join arising from making the card and to print the message on from the sender.

Kat

having a {me} day