Time for another MAN-day Monday! whoohoo
You may remember me speaking of Alfie in one of my previous posts (Mini Canvas as a Valentines Gift). Piper and him are nearly always hanging out at nursery when I collect her at the end of the day so I sometimes call him her boyfriend (don’t tell Craig, he says she’s not allowed to date until she is 21!).
It was Alfie’s second birthday a few weeks back and on the party invite it mentioned that Alfie loves dinosaurs so for his birthday card i knew that i would be using this set of Woodware Clear stamps from my stash. Its been ages since i used them, but whenever i do, i am reminded of how awesome they are!
The images are really sweet and are perfect for decoupage so i stamped them with black memento ink and coloured the images with distress ink and a water brush (check out the technique video here if you want to learn how to colour with distress inks). Rather than using foam pads to create dimension between layers, I just stuck the layers directly on top of each other. The card i used was quite sturdy so the effect is subtle, but definitely more sturdy (which is important when little fingers tend to pull at anything they can grasp).
The chipboard letters were pre-printed, (i think they are ki-memories, but i didn’t buy them recently so i can’t really be sure) and i loved the bright colours. Alfie is a not-so-common name so I wanted to incorporate this into the design. Also, by keeping the front free from any mention of birthday or age, the card can be used as a door plaque or wall hanging for years to come.
Happy birthday little man!
xx
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Is that even the Scouts moto any more? I couldn’t tell you if it is or not, but what i can tell you is that this card went down a treat with my brother Roger. Roge has been a scout or scout leader ever since i remember (probably all my life in honesty) and this year he was on a scout camp for his birthday. Not just ANY scout camp, but a special scout camp where survival expert Bear Grylls came to visit! how cool is that!
It was obvious what i had to do. Crack out the kraft cardstock and fashion a Scouts shirt in a birthday card.
To make the collar I cut a slit into the top of the card (front flap only) then used a ruler and a bone folder to create a crease from the top left corner, diagonally down to meet the bottom of the slit. Then I repeated this on the other side to make it symmetrical. When you fold the two triangles down, this creates the impression of a shirt collar.
For the scarf I took a strip of brown fabric and a length of yellow ribbon and ran stitching down the length with my machine, twisting as i went. It looked a little messy, but i didn’t really care because i was so pleased with myself for having a good idea! LOL
I had to chop the fabric in half and stick under the collar on each side, using glue dots, foam dots, wet glue, anything that would hold really!
To make the woggle (haha, love saying that word), i tried so many different things before i got it sorted. First i tried to make a loop with yellow ribbon but i couldn’t get it to stick properly. Next i folded the ribbon over and tried to stitch a line down it to create the loop, but oh my goodness, that was fiddly and looks terrible. Then, i thought about creating a loop of paper, but that didn’t look good either as i couldn’t get it to sit right without seeing the join. Determined not to lose out, i kept going and then it came to me in a flash of inspiration! In my sewing kit were old spools of cheap thread that came on tiny, little cardboard tubes; and it just so happened that the yellow thread that i used to sew the scarf had finished and the roll was sitting on the top of the sewing machine. woohoo! I used my craft knife to carefully slice off a small section without damaging it. Then I used my paper piercer and tweezers to push the scarf through the tube! One little woggle on one scarf on one scouts shirt! Perfect for my brothers birthday card!
Happy Birthday Roge. Love ya bro.
x
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This week’s MANday Monday carries on with my love of notecards. I just love their ittybitty style! And for this weeks masculine card I have also decided to work with chevrons.
Chevron patterns are very hot at the moment, very a la mode in the crafting world. Theres something about their zigityzagity nature that makes them seem masculine to me.
I didn’t have any chevron papers but I chose a page from the We R Memory Keepers Hippiyty Hoppity stack which had solid stripes in a variety of gorgeous colours, and by cutting strips of this paper you can make your own chevron effect.
`The trick is to cut at a 45 degree angle to the stripes, I used my cutting mat as a guide, first cutting across the diagonal of the grid marks, then turning my paper so that the edge lined up with the vertical grid lines. Then i cut at 1cm intervals.
I used a 12 x 12 piece of scrapbook paper, first cutting into the bottom left corner, then i repeated this on the bottom right – this makes sure you have both the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ in order to make the chevron shape.
I love the way the bright chevrons stand out against the kraft background. All it needed was a little greeting – so I turned to these Hero Arts Sparkle stamps.
Thanks for stopping by.
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