Nautical Birthday Card

We're still basking in the sunshine here on the West Coast, and while it's been a tad hotter than is comfortable, no one, and I mean no one, is complaining.  It finally feels like summer has arrived. 

Today I want to share a masculine birthday card that began as an"idea forming", while I was making my Nautical Get Well card earlier in the week. 

How does one get an "idea forming"?  Well, to begin with, I was really inspired by the Maritime Designer Series Paper I was working with and wanted to make something else with it. The designs are beautiful.  

About the same time, I saw a card post featuring the Paper Pals Arts Colour Challenge PPA211 and I really liked the bold statement it made.  Although it was too late to participate in the challenge, I never let that hold me back, after all it's the idea that counts.

Finally, an idea started to come together in my mind, around combining the colour challenge, the Maritime DSP and a "wow easel card" design I'd made some time ago.  Once I could visualize how it would all come together I thought this will make a great card.  And guess what?  It did!

So let's begin with the Colour Challenge:

The bold combination of Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight and Whisper White really got my wheels turning.  

Since the piece of Maritime Designer Series paper I was working with was a mixture of Night of Navy and Whisper White, I was already two thirds of the way towards making my card.  All I had to do was add the Daffodil Delight into the mix and that was definitely a no-brainer.

Here's My Card:

If this isn't Nautical, then I don't know what is!  Here's the front view of my card.  It's a little difficult to see the side panels and folds of the easel, but you will in the next picture. 

I think this is such a manly card but imagine making it for a guy who loves the ocean or sailing. Even better!  For me, I love the colour match-up and the simple lines of the card. In this side view you get a better idea of how the side folds work. Here are a few more pictures showing some of the detail. 

Here's a view of the inside of the card.  Again plain and simple.  And what a bonus, there's lots of room to write on.

I used my Stampin' Up! Trimmer to cut and score this card.  The card base is Daffodil Delight and measures 4 1/4 x 11.  The card base can't be folded until all the score lines and cuts have been made.  Once that's done then the card will basically fold in on itself - so be patient.

I know the stamp set Perfect Punches is long retired, but I'll never get enough of this "happy birthday" sentiment.  I enjoy using it because it goes with almost all my masculine card themes.  It's kind of bold and "manly" script and it's got those non-feminine (in my mind) swirls going on.

Don't you love this ship's wheel?  Looks complicated to make right?  Actually its very simple to make.  Using the Word Window punch cut out eight spokes. Switch to a Crop-a-dile or whatever eyelet setting tool(s) you have to add the eyelet to the end of the spoke. Once you've got them all made, you simply arrange the spokes evenly around the circle. I found it easier to get them evenly spaced using the "clock method" and my grid paper first.  The clock method is simply lining up in this order:  12:00 o'clock, 6:00 o'clock then at 9:00 o'clock and 3:00 o"clock.  Then fill in the gaps at 1:00, 5:00, 7:00 and 11:00.  I used glue dots to adhere them to the back of the Night of Navy circle.  Although you can't see it I covered up all the spokes on the back with another circle. 

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  The Open Sea, Perfect Punches (retired)
Ink:  Night of Navy
Card Stock:  Night of Navy, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight
Designer Paper:  Maritime DSP 
Accessories:  Circle Framelits, Large Oval Punch, Word Window Punch, Silver Elastic cord, 8 silver medium sized eyelets, Crop-a-dile, Trimmer, Dimensionals, Adhesive.

 I hope you enjoyed my card and will leave me a comment.  

Happy Stamping! 
Penny Tokens

Fabulous Florets Birthday Card

I've been busy this week trying to prepare cards for an "Every Set Swap" organized by Wanda Dodds.  Wanda is a member of Late Night Stampers and is a Canadian Demo from the Pas in Manitoba. 

Wanda has been doing a terrific job notifying everyone of the rules and the due date for this swap, so I hope everything goes well for her as this is a tremendous amount of work to accomplish. 

I chose to use the Fabulous Florets Stamp set for my Nature group swap and was challenged to submit 16 + 1 cards.  Here you can see my bundle of cards just before they were express posted to Wanda.  Whew what a relief to get them off on their way!.  I have to say a big "thank you" to the postal clerk at Canada Post in Abbotsford who helped me decide on packaging and best rates etc.  I didn't get her name, but she was "fabulous". 

I decided to do a feminine style birthday card in Rich Razzleberry and Whisper White card stocks. Here is a view of the full card, the inside and a close-up of the detail.

I cut a 5 1/2 by 11" piece of Whisper White card stock for my base and then added a 5 1/4 x 4" piece of Rich Razzleberry card stock for the first layer(see caption on picture below).  The second layer is a 5" x 3 3/4" piece of Whisper White that's been embossed with the Fancy Fan Folder Embossing Folder.  The third layer is a piece of 4 1/4 x 3" Rich Razzleberry layered with a 4 x 2 3/4" piece of Whisper White card stock, again embossed with the Fancy Fan Folder EF. 

By just using the remaining negative image from my Top Note Die, instead of a solid 5 1/4 x 4" piece of card stock, I cut down on the card's weight for mailing purposes and save  on the old cardstock supplies. 

Before adhering layers 2 through 4 to the first layer, I cut a 2 x 4" piece of Rich Razzleberry into a tag using the Two Tags Bigz Die, and then distressed the edges with Rich Razzleberry ink.  The flat end of the tag was scored at 1 1/2" with the Simple Scored tool and then folded over the other card stock layers. 

Three small tags were punched out with the Jewelry Tag punch in Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Whisper White card stock.  The edges of these tags were sponged in the corresponding colour of ink, a saying from Tiny Tags was stamped on the White tag.

The flower from Fabulous Florets was stamped in White Craft Ink on a 2 x 2 " piece of  White Shimmer card stock and then embossed with White Embossing Powder.  The flower was coloured with Rich Razzleberry reinker and an aqua painter.  To finish off the flower a Large Basic Pearl was glued to the center of the flower.  Old Olive leaves were punched out with the Bird Builder punch.  The finished flower and small tags were added with dimensionals.  

The birthday sentiment is from the Perfect Punches stamp set.  It was stamped in Rich Razzleberry and then the oval was hand cut and mounted on a piece of Rich Razzleberry that was cut out  with the Large Oval punch.  The sentiment was added to the lower right hand side of the card with dimensionals.  

A 5 1/4 by 4" piece of Whisper White cardstock was used for the inside of the card.  I only put adhesive on the top part of this panel when adding it to the card.  Seems to add a bit of sophistication.  This piece was stamped with the large flower and leave stamp in Rich Razzleberry.  The small sentiment "just for you" from the Just Believe stamp set was stamped in Rich Razzleberry on the bottom right hand corner of the cardstock. 

Hope you enjoy this week's project.