Manly Birthday Card

I'm having so much fun with the A La Card Monkey challenges!  I was even named as a runner-up in last week's challenge!!!!!!  Needless to say I was very excited to be chosen amongst a field of great looking cards.  AND that means I get to be a GUEST DESIGNER for next week's challenge!  So cool!  Be sure to check out A La Card Monkey on Friday to see the challenge and back here to see the details.

This week's challenge was just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.  My brother-in-law's birthday is on Wednesday and I needed to create a card for him.  The challenge at A La Card Monkey this week is to create a "Man Card"!  Perfect!  Here's the sketch:

And here's what I came up with:

Manly Birthday Card

I pulled out the "Sentimental Journey" stamp set from last year's Summer Mini Catalogue along with the matching DSP.  It's one of the only "manly" sets I have and suits my brother-in-law much better than this year's "Best Dad Ever" set.   The card base is Pumpkin Pie card stock and the colours I chose to use to compliment that are Night of Navy and Bashful Blue.

To create the image in the middle I first inked up by big Clear Block (just the block with no stamp on it) with Bashful Blue ink and stamped on a piece of Whisper White card stock.  I was really pleased with the result.  It almost looks like denim.  To get the "shadowing" look for the "Detour" stamp, I inked it in Night of Navy classic ink and then "stamped off" three times before stamping on the card stock.  The car is stamped in Night of Navy as well, cut out and mounted with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I then distressed the edges of the Whisper White and Night of Navy matting with my paper snips.   I did the same thing to the piece of Bashful Blue textured card stock along the bottom.  Here's a closer look at it:

Distressed edges and denim look

The "medallion" was really fun to create and actually came about a little by accident.  I was sharpening my "Bold Blossom" triple layer punch with a pop can (Orange Fanta to be exact) and when I saw the result I thought, "Those colours would go perfectly with my 'Man Card'", and they do:

Orange Fanta pop can medallion.

I used the third setting on the punch to get the background of the medallion and the first setting to get the middle part (the silvery layer).  The compass is stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink and punched out using a 1" circle punch.  I mounted everything using "Sticky Strip" to ensure that it would adhere properly.  Be careful when working with aluminum cans though....they sometimes "bite"!

Finally, the "Happy Birthday" sentiment comes from the "Best Dad Ever" stamp set from the current Summer Mini Catalogue.  I love this set because the sentiments have great fonts and could be used in many situations.  It is stamped in Night of Navy and the edges are sponged with the same ink.  The edges are also slightly distressed (although it's hard to see it here).

I really hope he likes it as much as I do (I know his wife will!).  I almost didn't want to send it today because I like it so much!!   Happy Birthday Pete!