A Birthday Card All About the Past!

I was looking for some mojo for a theme idea to make my son, Mark, a birthday card.  I checked out my Splitcoaststamper Challenge List, which got my juices flowing.  I found a fun card theme from the Free 4 All Challenge... all about the little things that make life fun.  I started reminiscing  about all the fun times and events in Mark's life while he was growing up, which led to this memory.  One year I made him a treasure chest birthday cake, and we had a Pirates Treasure Hunt around the neighborhood to look for pirate booty.  That was the same year that he and his sister became the cutest pirates ever on Halloween. 

I had some old October Afternoon patterned papers featuring a pirate theme and I thought the paper and the challenge would go well together. . .a pirate theme it would be!   I got further inspiration for the layout from a Sketch Challenge and a Featured Stamper card, and several other challenges lent me ideas as well.  Take a peek at my finished pirate/ treasure card below with its inside card design and the birthday treasure verse that I composed to keep up with the theme!

Ingredients List:

Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Kraft.   Mini Gold Tinsel Trim (2018 Holiday).  Silver stars (Copic colored red).  Ink: Baked Brown Sugar (edge distressing).  Other:  Patterned papers:  October Afternoon Treasure Map Collection/ X Marks the Spot.  Echo Park: Kate Lowercase Alphabet dies.  Chatterbox sentiment/ verse.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".

Jolly Roger Brings Birthday Wishes!

It's my nephew's birthday this month.  I recently saw this cute little pirate punch art card by Rae Harper (Wild West Paper Arts) inspired me to make this little pirate card that I thought would be perfect for Landon.  As I did with my Frankie card earlier this month, I decided I didn't just want a card made in the shape of the punch art head, but that I would incorporate the head as the main feature of a layered card.  I also decided I liked the 3/4-front fold layout of my Frankie card, so I would repeat it with "Ahoy!" as my vertical word.

While I was doing errands the other day, I found a fat-quarter at Wal-Mart with skeletal pirate heads and I thought it would be perfect for my pirate card that I planned to make the next day (though I have never used fabric when making a card before).  But, I thought, "Oh well, let's give it a whirl and see if I can figure out how to make it work."  I am pleased to say that I did!  I took a piece of cardstock and the fabric and hand-cut them to the same size.  Next, I rolled my tape gun in very close vertical and horizontal glue strips on the piece of cardstock.  I adhered my fabric onto the cardstock, and it adhere very well.  The cardstock gave the fabric body, and I was able to treat it just like a single piece of cardstock that had always been a unit.

Most of Captain Pirate's parts are cut with punches and used just like they punch out.  But, there are a few exceptions that were a bit challenging to modified, such as the 2-1/2" circle cut for the mouth and teeth.  These circles need to be re-punch cutting them into approximate 1/4 moon shapes with the teeth being slightly smaller than the black mouth.  The top curve of both then needs to be hand-cut to make a more shallow curve.  The mustache is part of the side of the Top Note die with the perforated edge hand-trimmed away and the lower shape hand-cut and shaped to match the top.  The scarf also ended up being a bit of trial and error to get it just right.  I started with a circle a bit larger than the Top Note head, but the crown was too rounded.  I re-cut it, using an oval to make it shallower and trimmed the sides to fit the width of the Top Note.  I ended up trimming the crown even more with scissors so it was curved just above the edge of the top note.  I decided to make templates so that I would not have to re-created them from scratch if I wanted to make Captain Pirate again.  Here is my finished card for Landon's birthday. . .I think he is going to like Captain Pirate a lot.

Punch Art Pirate head inspiration from Rae Harper (Wild West Paper Arts).

Recipe: SU Papers: Basic Black cs (base), Real Red.  DCWV La Crème Paper Stack. SU Ink:  Burnt Brown Sugar (pirate distressing), Basic Gray (verse distressing).  SU Die:  Sizzix Top Note (head/ mustache).  SU Punches: 1/16” circle (patch punches), 1/2” circle (earring hole), 3/4” circle (pupil/ earring), 1-3/8” circle (eyeball/ eyelid/ patch), 2-1/2” Circle (mouth/ teeth), 2” Ex. Lrg. Oval (ears), Owl Punch (nose). Scarf/ Tails:  Hand-drawn/ cut.  Sizzix Wingo Zingo Alphabet Sizzlit.  SU Chalk Marker. SU Dazzling Details: frost (alphabet glitter).  SU rhinestones (Copic colored).