twins again

I had a few cardmaking objectives today.  I needed to make a birthday card for my father-in-law, and I wanted to try this week’s OWH Stars and Stamps sketch challenge.  When I went to the OWH site to get the sketch I noticed the Midweek Throwdown challenge of making a love themed card.  So, I decided to do all this the quick and easy way.  I made two cards, using the same basic materials, but changing them slightly to meet each purpose.

First is the birthday card.  In looking back over the cards I’ve made for my father-in-law over the years, I noticed I usually use trees and leaves on his cards.  I decided I’d try to get away from that this year.  Although I don’t think my father-in-law was ever as interested in trains as my husband used to be, I felt this was a good masculine image to use.

Here’s the love themed card.  The brads started out as pewter finish, but I colored them with a Copic marker to coordinate with the cardstock. The sentiment panel is a bit more narrow than what the sketch called for, but if I’d made it using the sketch measurements, it would have had too much white space and probably would have looked weird. To accommodate the prongs of the brads, the sentiment panel is attached with dimensional adhesive.

The really nice thing about this sketch was it allowed me to use up scraps.  Except for the card bases, all the cardstock and designer paper were scraps left over from previous projects.  I did have to cut the narrow reddish print strips to size, but they did not come from a new piece of designer paper.  It felt good to put the scraps to use!

Supplies:
Stamps: Birthday card – All Aboard, Birthday Whimsy (Stampin’ Up); Love card – Masculine Messages (Gina K. Designs)
Cardstock: Night of Navy, Naturals Ivory (SU); designer papers from Boxer 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: Night of Navy (SU)
Other: heart brads (Making Memories); dimensionals (SU)