I finally got to get a little crafting done over the last week+ and it felt really good. One thing I got made was a birthday card for my mom. I hope she gets it before she sees this post. I think it turned out really cute.
We have always been baseball fans and living in St. Louis we had good reason - the Cardinals are awesome! Busch stadium was always a fun place to go to watch the games and spend time with family and friends. That is definitely something I miss about not being in a baseball town. Heck, I can't even find a good game on TV! I guess I'll just get my fix through the internet...
But I digress.
This card was actually really super easy to make. The only thing I measured was the card base and that doesn't really count - I just cut my piece of card stock in half. I just played with the size and the placement of the other pieces until I was happy. That's the fun thing about crafting - you don't have to have rules; just play 'til you're happy! :)
Here's how to make it:
A word of warning: **DO NOT GLUE ANYTHING DOWN UNTIL I CLEARLY MENTION IT (step 11)**
1. Start with some
Real Red Card Stock for the base; I just cut a regular 8.5" x 11" piece in half.
2. While you still have the
Real Red Card Stock out, go ahead and cut out the shirt shape. For this use the
Dress Up Framelits Dies with your
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine.
3. Now trim the dress length a bit to make it into a shirt. Remember, with paper you can always take away but you can't add more - once it's cut, it's cut. Take a little off at a time until you like the length. One thing I did was to make sure to give a rounded bottom to the shirt - it looks more natural than a straight cut.
4. After you've adjusted your shirt length, take a
Night of Navy Stampin' Write Marker and draw the seams around the collar and down the front. Again, when drawing down the front I did not make a straight line; I curved it to the left a bit to make it look more natural. You can also draw on a logo at this point if you so desire. Set the shirt aside.
5. Take a piece of
Whisper White Card Stock and cut it - this is the first layer under your shirt. I think I started with a 3 1/2" x 3 3/4" piece and scaled down from there. Place (
don't glue!) your shirt on the card stock to get an idea of what it will look like. If the white layer looks too tall/wide/out of proportion to your shirt, keep cutting and adjusting until you like the look.
6. Using the same method as the
Whisper White in step 5, cut a piece of
Marina Mist Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper AT LEAST 1/4" larger than your finished
Whisper White layer. Remember, you can always trim off the paper so it's better to go too big than too small.
7. Cut another mat out of the
Whisper White Card Stock to fit behind your
polka dot layer. Again, make it
at least 1/4" bigger all the way around.
8. Using some of your leftover scraps of
Whisper White, use your
1" circle punch to cut out 3 balls.
9. Using the
Real Red Stampin' Write Marker, draw the stitch lines on the balls.
10. Place your card base on your work surface.
Place down the large white layer, polka dot layer, the white layer and shirt onto the card where you think you want them to be. Now take your three baseballs and place them at the bottom. Does everything fit? Trim your paper as needed.
11. Once you get everything to fit and you like your placement you can begin to glue.
12. I suggest starting with the polka dot layer - adhere that to the large white layer with your
Snail Adhesive. I don't recommend liquid glue because the DSP is thinner than card stock and you can sometimes see the glue lines through. It doesn't make for a pretty, smooth surface.
13. You may now glue the top white layer to the polka dot layer.
14. Once you have this paper "sandwich" you may glue it to your card base. Be sure that you place it on the card so that the baseballs will fit, too. You may want to leave them on the card base to give you an idea of placement.
15. Adhere the baseballs and the shirt to the card using
Stampin' Dimensionals. I like using Dimensionals because it brings the baseball gear right off the page.
Your card is now complete. :)
For the interior I wrote, "I hope your birthday is a home run!" That and I also said that I'd tell the Cardinals to win the game on her birthday. Let's hope they do!
And there you have it. A home run of a card!
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Go Cards!
