Aloha, all!
I'm all ready for another Stampin' Up! Only Challenge card! But before I get to that, I'd like to update you a bit on where I am!
You may recall that last week I said I was on my way to the United States Mainland to visit family. So far I've visited with my sister and one of my brothers, two sisters-in-law, a niece, a couple of nephews, and a few grandnephews and grandniece. There were some friends in there, too, includin a BFF from Maryland, Janet. Whew! That's a lot of visiting! As you're reading this, I'm probably on yet another airplane headed for the Virginia Tidewater area where I'll meet my husband, and the two of us will drive to North Carolina's Outer Banks to vist one of our children and her family. Can I say, "Whew!" again??
As you might imagine, with all the blog posts for which I had to get ready before I left home, I had to find a lot of challenges and and projects to CASE (Copy and Share with Everyone) to get them all done! As today's project was FOR a Challenge, I needed to go the CASE route. I found the original of this project on a display board at the 2013 Stampin' Up! Convention last July. You've seen some other projects that I've CASEd from those samples. And you'll recall that there's no indication on the display board as to who made the cards. I'm hoping that I'll find out who came up with this design because I'd love to give him or her credit!
Anyway, that design screamed, "Masculine," to me, so I decided to work with it for the SUO Challenges Masculine Challenge.
In looking for a set of papers to use, I spotted the Epic Day This and That Designer Series Paper over on the edge of my work table (no, I hadn't put it away like I should have!). I was so excited to see it because, while I like making cards that aren't frilly or cute – thus making them NOT masculine – I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that masculine has to be made with browns and blacks and other neutrals. I like color!
To make the hollow square shapes – actually for this project to make ALL the shapes! – I used the Squares Collection Framelits. To cut the squares with the centers punched out, I used two framelits at a time, centered over the card stock or Designer Series Paper, and ran those through the Sizzix Big Shot. One of the nice things about this layout was that I was able to use both pieces of paper/card stock that were cut at one time. For my sketch below, rather than say which framelit I used (as in "3rd smallest" or "2nd largest"), I'll just give the measurements. A quick check with a ruler will help you find the right framelit.
The hard part for this card was all that paper piercing around the squares. Rather than CASE the piercings, I just did it my way. Of course, after I put the whole card together, I found that I'd missed a few spots. So some of those piercings show through to the top inside of the card. No worries, though, as I usually put plain writing paper inside a darker colored card for writing notes inside. So those wayward piercings will not show!
I found a greeting that I liked from the Bring on the Cake Stamp Set. While I usually like coloring the letters in this greeting, I thought keeping them opened carried the open square theme of this card into the greeting nicely!
Once again, I made a sketch for this card. I did NOT include the paper piercings. It's just as easy to do it yourself in a way you like it. But I hope you'll have fun with this sketch piercings or not!
Oh! Look at the size of the card! 5" x 6-1/2"! Guess what I used to make an envelope for this odd sized card. Yep, the Sizzix Envelope Punch Board. I don't know what I'd do without it!
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