It's time for another SplitcoastStampers.com design team & alumni challenge. This month, the "What's In A Number" challenge was to make a birthday card with numbers on it but the restriction was that we couldn't use the word "birthday". You know I love a challenge (I think it inspires creativity and promotes thinking outside your normal "box"), so I immediately thought of all the number stamp sets I have in my JustRite products.
Here's the birthday card I came up with for my brother . . . you know, the one that was always mean & rotten to me when we were growing up? I'm sure you probably had a sibling the same way and can relate!
He turns 44 next week and will see the humor in this, I'm sure (I hope!). When I was looking at this beautiful new JustRite Harmony Classic Oval II Ensemble (<= you can click on that link to see the 6 different borders and 6 centers you get in that set), this is what popped into my head when I saw the "Dream" stamp . . . "of being young again"! So I set out to put it all together on the one 2-1/4" x 3-1/16" oval stamper that's included in this set (which is available mid-September but you can preorder it now from the JustRite site):
The folks at JustRite will probably cringe if they see that I cut apart their stamp! This is the wood stamper turned upside down. You see those horizontal grooves on the stamper? Those are also on the backs of the JustRite stamp images and that's how they "snap" onto the stamper and stay secure while you stamp.
The oval "Dream" usually fills up that entire center oval but I cut blank parts of the "Dream" oval away to reveal the grooves in the stamper underneath, so I could place the "44" (from the Brayton font) at the top and "of being young again" (from the Small Letter Set) underneath "Dream".
Then I inked parts of the stamp separately -- Dream and the star with Tsukineko's VersaMagic Pumpkin Spice and the 44 and outer oval stars with VersaMagic Jumbo Java. These little Dew Drop ink pads make it very easy to ink separate parts of a stamp and work very well with the JustRite products. I stamped the image onto Neenah Classic Cream cardstock.
I cut the oval with Spellbinders' largest Classic Oval Nestabilities from the small set and matted it with chocolate cardstock cut with the largest Classic Scalloped Nestabilities from the small set -- I was thrilled to see they were a perfect fit! I inked the edges of the sentiment oval with Ranger's Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then pierced the center holes in each of the outer stars.
The oval sentiment was mounted with dimensional foam tape to the 5.25" square card base I created with BasicGrey's Archaic papers (<= another little play on being old)!! I used Stampin' Up's jumbo brass eyelets to make a left-hinged card.
Finally, I thought the bottom of the card could use something to balance out the large oval, so using the Small Letter Set again, I put together a line of "* happy * happy * happy *" and stamped onto the paper.
Whew, that about finishes up the deets on my card . . . if you'd like to see the cards all my fellow "Dirty Girls" came up with, click here to see them in the SplitcoastStampers.com gallery.
If I don't have something else for you tomorrow, I'll be back on Friday with Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge -- we're resuming after a summer break!
