Geometric Birthday Card

Hi!

Today I thought I would try to make some cards a bit more suitable for guys. Like many card makers, I find guy cards can be tricky because so much of the crafting stuff out there has a pretty feminine look, plus I have two daughters so I tend to lean towards girl cards when making things for children.

I was inspired by a technique on the amazing Jennifer McGuire's blog today, but my card looks nothing like hers, I just borrowed bits of her techniques to use some things I already had.

Three geometric guy cards!
I had an old Inkadinkado wood mounted background stamp that I must have had for over 10 years. I rarely use is, but it worked pretty well for this technique. First I cut some white stamping card to the same size as my card blanks. Then I used an antistatic bag on it, stamped with Versamark ink, and heat embossed with a fine detail white embossing powder on the centre of the each panel.

Time to get out some inks!
Then I got out three shades of ink that I could blend over the whole panel, I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans on the panel above. I did each panel in a different set of colours.
Shabby Shutters, Pear Pizazz and Wild Wasabi

Antique Linen, Old Paper and Brushed Corduroy
As you can see, I don't worry about mixing brands of inks, I use what I have, so I used a couple of shades of green from Stampin' Up with the Distress Ink as well.

Next I die cut my panels using a Spellbinders, Lene Lok, Geo Collection die called Tri-Hex. I had two blue panels, but I messed up my first one as I let the die shift when it hadn't cut through properly - we all make mistakes, but the nice thing when you are stamping is that you can always do it again, it's only a small piece of card and ink that's ending up in the bin!

Die cut ready to stick.
I was trying to leave the die cut pieces in the die so I could stick the pieces down all at the same time without doing a jigsaw puzzle, but this didn't quite work out on my first 2 cards, so I decided to stick the outline down onto my card blank and piece the bits back in with foam tape on the back to raise them up.
Jigsaw ready to stick!
Outline stuck!
When I had finished I wasn't quite sure whether to put the outside edges on or not...
With?

Or Without?!
I went without in the end... Next I die-cut the word happy from several pieces of scrap white card and one black layer. This is the Tonic Will's Hand happy die. I layered 3 white layers and a black layer on top, using a glue pen, to give some dimension.
It doesn't matter if the white layers aren't quite perfect (an edge missing say) as they will get layered up and hidden anyway.

I then stamped the word Birthday on to some scrap black card in Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.

I have my white and clear embossing powders in a large tub with a plastic spoon so I can quickly emboss without tipping a whole pot out every time.
I clean up any excess bits of powder with an old paintbrush, but using an antistatic bag first really does reduce the need for this. I did this for all three cards.

Sentiments ready to go!
I did my second card in the same way, but on the last card I finally got most of my die cuts to stay in my die whilst I put foam pads on the back of them, so I thought I would have a go at sticking them all at the same time.
Only three pieces came out!
It worked! So this meant that I could remove the outline entirely and not have it stuck down once the inside pieces had all stuck down. I also put the outside edges back on this card.
Nearly finished!

So all I had to do was stick my sentiments on my cards. I used the same stamp on the inside, this time inking all of it instead of just the word Birthday as I had for the card front.

All finished!
I like both versions of the card, and it's definitely a technique I will play with again with other background stamps or patterned papers. Check out the link to Jennifer McGuire's blog at the top for more ideas on the same technique, her videos are great if you are a beginner.

Thanks for looking today,

Lesley x

Supplies:

Dies
Spellbinders Geo Collection by Lene Lok, Tri-Hex
Tonic Will's Hand happy

Stamps
Inkadinkadoo Happy Birthday background stamp (wood mounted)
My Favourite Things (MFT) Adorable Elephants
I only used the Happy Birthday stamp from this set for the Birthday word on the front of the card, only inking the part I wanted to use.

Stampin' Up ink, Wild Wasabi and Pear Pizzazz
Tim Holtz Distress ink, Shabby Shutters, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans, Old Paper, Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy
Honey Doo Crafts embossing powder in White White
Tsukineko VersaMark Ink
Sheena by Sheena Douglas White Stamping Card

Tonic Nuvo Glue Pen - for sticking the outline die cut down, much quicker and easier than using other wet glues for fine die cuts.

Card blanks, white card, black card, and foam pads.

Tools
Sizzix Bigshot die-cutting machine

Bonus Photo!
This is the cute MFT stamp set that the Happy Birthday stamp came from today, going to have to use it soon!

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