A Card for a Friend

Making cards for men can be tricky. If they have an obvious hobby or interest, that can give you a head start, but there are only so many cards you can make for the same person on the same subject! This card is for a friend's husband. I like the fact that it is quite masculine, but is softened by the ribbons which tie it closed, rather than just being decorative.

The papers are all from my long-held stash. The embossing plate is QuicKutz and the scalloped punch is Woodware. The word 'Friend' is stamped using Versa Fine onto vellum and attached over the ribbon to finish the card.

I would like to enter this into the Stamps R Us challenge, this week entitled 'Friendship'.

Jellypark Challenge ~ Gettin' Punchy

I have only just discovered that illustrator and artist Claire Keay has opened her own online store selling her beautiful hand drawn digi stamps, watercolours, cards and other beautiful goodies. Jellypark is full of inspirational images for all kinds of papercrafting. I have previously bought some of her digi images through CraftsUPrint, but only realised that she had opened her own store when I saw one of her adorable stamps being used by a Polkadoodles design team member.

Having seen her gorgeous store, I hopped on over to the Jellypark challenge blog to have a nosey around. This week's challenge is to use any stamped image combined with punched or die cut elements. I am entering my 'gumball hearts' card into the challenge. The card uses 5 punches and 4 stamps, but has quite a clean and simple look to it.

I started by making a white layer from plain old photocopier paper using Martha Stewart two-step punch around the page. I cut a rectangle from Bazzill Bling and rounded the corners with an EK Success corner punch before stamping the gumball machine with a three piece stamp from Stampin' Up! I cut an aperture with a Woodware scalloped circle punch and fitted a treat cup in the space. I made lots of little heart-shaped sweeties by stamping and punching them out before layering them together with sticky pads. The card was then layered up and finished with the addition of a metal heart tab on the top and a piece of knotted spotty teal cololured ribbon from Anita's crafts.

I am looking forward to getting my copy of Claire's Jellypark newsletter which I know will be packed full of inspirational ideas to make good use of her beautiful artwork.