Birthday: Rainbow happy strips

And so we start the year with a masculine birthday card. Something similar went past in my Pinterest feed and I thought I’d have a go at adapting the design to work with the supplies I already have. (I do not need another alphabet die set… I do not need another alphabet die set… I do not need another alphabet die set…)

I die-cut the banner letters from coloured card and also from black card so I could easily piece the centres of the A and the Ps back in place. With hindsight I realise I should have just put some tape over the back of the banners to hold the letters together, rather than using liquid glue which smooshed out a bit on the second P. This is the danger of “crafting while unwell”: you end up doing things the way it first occurs to you to do it rather than the best way…

I did, however, use tape to stick the letters to the coloured strips. And then mounted them on some thin foam tape to give the card a bit of dimension. And no, they are not perfectly straight on the card. And no, I really don’t mind that they aren’t perfectly straight. In fact, I consider this a victory over my previously cripplingly perfectionist self who would have binned the card and never have admitted it ever existed, much less actually send it to someone! And if anyone asks, they are deliberately almost imperceptibly not quite straight on the card 🙂

I heat embossed birthday in white on a strip of black card, added a blank banner to the end of it and mounted it on the card.

Although it is a masculine card I did feel it need a bit of something extra and I added the silver tape down the centre of the strips and put some sparkle on the letters.

It’s at this point that I decided that I’m really not keen on the Spectrum Noir sparkle pens. I like the tone of the clear sparkle and the amount of sparkle it puts out. What I don’t like is the way it doesn’t stick to the card it’s put on. Unlike Wink of Stella, which pretty much stays where you put it, the Spectrum Noir comes off on your fingers even after it’s supposedly dry. I hadn’t planned on having any sparkle on the background, but it is there now, and the only reason there isn’t more is because I stopped, washed my hands, and carefully added a layer of glossy accents to the letters.

A lot of things went, not exactly wrong, but not as well as they might have done on this card, but I still like the end result and I’ve learned a couple of lessons for future cards.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Lawn Fawn – Smitty’s ABCs
• dies:
  My Favorite Things – stitched banner alphabet
• embossing:
  Versamark ink pad
  Wow! embossing powder – super fine bright white
• embellishments:
  Spectrum Noir – sparkle pen – crystal clear
  Ranger glossy accents
  Stix2 – border lined tape – silver
• paper and card:
  Papermill Direct – plain – black
  bright coloured card scraps
• miscellaneous:
  1mm black foam tape