Friday, June 24, 2011

Challenge: Shaped Birthday Card with Sentiment

On top of sleeping as much as I can, this summer I'm trying to enter challenges on other blogs.  Not only are prizes super fun (woohoo!), they also really get me to think outside the box.  If you've been following my blog, you know that most of my cards are pretty much the same ol' same ol'.  Well, the challenge this week at Birthday Sundaes was to "create a shaped birthday card {no squares/rectangles allowed} and include birthday wording/sentiment on the card front."  For me, that would definitely be a challenge!

When I started, I wasn't quite sure where I was going with it.  I used a new cartridge for it though - Hello Kitty Greetings!  It was the one I won through a blog candy giveaway from Theresa over at Scrappers Anonymous.  The first thing I cut out was an image of Hello Kitty herself (cut at 3 1/2 inches)!


Then I thought I'd use the card feature on this cartridge for the actual shaped card, but when I cut it out, it wouldn't really match up.  Plus, it was super small.


I decided to change my idea and instead took out another card that I've never used before - Wild Card!  I've seen many people use the doily card, and I wanted to use it too!  It cut very easily at 5 inches.  Of course, it was a birthday card, so I cut out a present from Sweet Treats at 1 1/2 inches.  Then I had to choose a sentiment.  I picked one from Pink by Design's "Take the Cake" set.  As you can see in the following picture, I decided to curve the sentiment on the acrylic block a bit since I wanted it to line up with the circle card.


Since it was a challenge card, I actually tried it out on scrap paper to make sure I Had the right pressure.  Haha, and you'll also see that this was not the final design because I changed the location of the present to her other hand.  Oh, and the picture spoiled the fact that I added some purple faux stitching with one of my Bic Mark-It markers!  Here's the final result after it was all put together:


And just because Howard has been telling me it's better to shoot with a white background, I pulled out my folded poster board to shoot that way.  I was having a ton of issues with it though, and they all kept coming out super crooked.  Haha, thankfully when I uploaded the 73 million I took, I just cropped it in Paint.  No fancy-shmancy Photoshop here!


You can see that I used those lovely foam adhesive squares to pop up the present.  Plus, I added a bit of bling to the bow!  I love it when I get to add bling to the actual image!


Though it may not be that creative as compared to the really talented crafters out there, I like how it turned out.  I was able to use carts I've never used before, and I was able to step away from those darn rectangle cards!  I might just have to go back to the safety of a rectangle card after this, but I did enjoy the challenge!

(And just because I think it's so cool when I add my link to any site, click here and you can see my card at #48!)

4 comments:

  1. Yaay, you took my advice & did a non-square/rectangle card! Wow, that Hello Kitty looks painted on; can't even tell it was from a cartridge~
    The only thing "plain" is the white background bc the cat is also white, but I guess you needed that so the sentiment would show. I really like the faux stitching - I feel like you have every color ink and paper out there [you always match things so well]!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @kay: I actually have another circle card that I haven't yet posted! I just posted this one first because I needed to add it for the challenge that's almost over. I like the layers of the Hello Kitty. It's the black base, and then the other pieces are cut out and glued on top leaving the black base showing to create the outline! I like it a lot!

    I thought about using a patterned cardstock, but I was using my MS circle cutter, and I was afraid to mess up patterned paper! I didn't want to use any adhesive, so I was holding the paper down. That's why I added the faux stitching.

    As for colors, that's the great thing about the Bic Mark-It Markers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You did a great job combining cartridges! I think I need Wild Card and HK Greetings now lol! I love how you added the faux stitching around the inside of the circle. Thank you for playing along with my Birthday Sundaes challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Kristie: Thank you! I don't think I've ever really combined carts before, at least not like that! I had fun doing this challenge! For me, it really WAS a challenge, haha.

    ReplyDelete