Saturday, September 21, 2013

An Epic Birthday for Seize The Sketch

Hi there and welcome back!  My blog has been rather quiet the last couple of weeks, with one last vacation trip before fall arrives (which will be ushered in with good old Oregon rain tomorrow) and then I was back to work the last few days.

I managed to put together a card after work this week for our nephew's upcoming birthday.  I used the current challenge at Seize the Sketch for inspiration.


I took inspiration from one of my favorite crafters, Arielle Gordon, and shrank the main portion of the sketch down to leave more open space around it.  Of course, her work is far more CAS than I could hope to feel comfortable with when personally creating, but I love, love, love looking at her results.  If you aren't familiar with her, check out ColourQ Tuesday (http://colourq.blogspot.com/) or Retro Sketches (http://retrosketches.blogspot.com/) .






































I used some of the great Epic Day designer paper for this card, perfect for a 20-something guy. It already had a bit of distress ink built in but I added stamps from Clockworks, distressed the edges with my Cutter Kit, then sponged lightly with Crumb Cake ink.  It was adhered to a piece of Early Espresso card stock which was then attached to the Crumb Cake base.


The green panel under the sentiment is Wild Wasabi that was stamped in Versamark ink with another Clockworks stamp.  The Positively Chevron stamp was inked up with Crumb Cake, put face up on my desk and then the Crumb Cake strip was laid across it to make sure the design was even.  My fingers got a bit inky getting the paper pressed on the stamp, but heck, that's part of the fun, right?  Must get a bit inky while creating!

The button and the dots were added for a bit of interest.  I'm not sure the dots were necessary or if the pattern enhances things - let me know what you think.  Are you using these dots? How do you decide a pattern for them when you use them?  I know, mostly it should be random, and I'm good with that, but I also want to make sure it still looks balanced.

Well, that's it for now.  I made a couple of cards for a niece, one to celebrate a new baby and a birthday card for her 3 year old daughter, so I'll be back later to share those.  Thanks so much for taking a look and I'd love to hear from you if you have time to leave a comment.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Hugs,

Stef


All products from Stampin' Up:
Stamps:  Clockworks, Afterthoughts (retired hostess), Positively Chevron
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Confetti Cream, Early Espresso card stock and Coordinations, Wild Wasabi, Epic Day dp
Ink:  Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Versamark
Accessories:  Woodgrain Embossing Folder, Brushed Bronze Designer button, Hemp Twine, Cutter Kit






6 comments:

Vicki Dutcher said...

This card has a nice vintage appeal~

Lesley said...

Great man card, love the stamping and the colours. Thanks for joining us at Seize the Sketch!

Notes by Nina said...

Wonderful card Stef, I love the masculine distressed look.

Stacey Schafer said...

so lovely! thanks for playing along with our sketch!

Dorothy S said...

Great bg for this card - and cute embellishment.

Anonymous said...

I love this card! I always have such a hard time creating masculine cards. I will be keeping this one in mind!