Happy Birthday Bro

#stampinup   My brother’s birthday is coming up this weekend and, of course, I’ve waited until the last minute to make him a card. I’m sure I’m not the only procrastinator on the planet. Am I right? Besides, sometimes I create better under pressure.


This week’s sketch at the Nacho Average Challenge blog is perfect for a quick, masculine birthday card. 

I’ll let you in on my creative process. I check out the challenge blogs and decide which ones match up with my style. Once I accept a challenge (by which I mean that I’ve decided to enter the challenge), I take a look at the challenge before I leave for work. During the course of the work day, my mind wanders to the creation I’ll be making in the evening and I plan out my card. Later, when I have time to sit down to put my idea to paper, I’ve already worked through the design process and I just have to pull the elements together.


This card for my brother was very quick and easy to pull together. I started with a 5/8″ x 12″ strip of Bohemian Designer Series paper–and that set my color scheme. I cut the strip in half and then fit it to my Soft Suede mat and snipped off the over-hanging ends. I flagged the left-side ends of the strips with the Banner Punch.


Next, I embossed the Soft Suede mat with the Lucky Stars embossing folder and adhered the DSP flags with Fast Fuse adhesive. I find this sticks better that Snail adhesive when one of the layers has been embossed. I adhered the Soft Suede assembly to a Night of Navy card base.


I stamped the “happy, happy, happy, happy birthday to you” sentiment in Island Indigo on a scrap of Very Vanilla and trimmed it just outside the image. I stamped another image in Blackberry Bliss and fussy cut the second and fourth “happys” and adhered them with a tiny piece of a Stampin’ Dimensional to the Island Indigo image. I would normally mat a Very Vanilla piece, but I think the “naked” look makes this element pop on this card, so I left it alone.

Finally, I stamped the birthday cake in Blackberry Bliss onto a Very Vanilla scrap and punched it with the 1-1/4″ Circle Punch. I mounted this on an Island Indigo piece that I punched with the 1-3/8″ Circle Punch. I adhered this piece to the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals.


This time I think I nailed the masculine feel!!

Amazing Birthday Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134228] $21.00	Island Indigo Classic Stampin’ Pad [126986] $6.50	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin’ Pad [133642] $6.50	Night Of Navy 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [100867] $7.00
Soft Suede 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [115318] $7.00	Very Vanilla 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [101650] $8.50	Bohemian Designer Series Paper [138446] $11.00	Lucky Stars Textured Impressions Embossing Folders [135817] $7.50
Banner Punch [133519] $13.00	1-1/4″ Circle Scallop Punch [127811] $16.00	1-3/8″ Circle Punch [119860] $16.00	Fuse Fast Adhesive [129026] $10.00
Stampin’ Dimensionals [104430] $4.00	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $10.00