Matt's Birthday.

I mentioned in my previous post I have been working much longer hours of late, which as left me little time or energy for crafting. 
The fact of the matter is I have taken on a second job, so my normal working hours have almost doubled.
My second job entails escorting two great boys to school and home again at the end of the school day.

It's a 2 hour journey each morning and afternoon which wouldn't be possible without my driver. 
So when I learnt  it was going to be his birthday I had to make him a card. 
He is a James Bond fan, so his card had to have a Bond feel to it.....

Or a toy story theme....

Matt bares more, than a striking resemblance to Buzz Lightyear,
so this card  had to have a picture of Buzz  on the inside.

Although combining the two themes in one card meant,   I wasn't sure whether to wish him a birthday that was out of this world or one that was shaken not stirred.

Matt mentioned  (on one of our Journeys)  that he was after a SWAG BAG.

 As I had the sewing machines out at the weekend,  I made one for him as a belated birthday present.

He liked both the card and the bag.

Masculine card for the DIY guy.

I didn't intend for this card to look like this when I started it. After I had coloured this gorgeous Lily of the Valley  digital image,  I spilled coffee on the top half of the image. 

 I didn't notice the coffee stain until long after it had dried, so there was no way I could mop up the coffee before it stained .

The only way I could save  my coloured image was to cut away the stained section and mount  it on to a new piece of card. I chose black card  so this little guy would stand out.

Man Card

A Man s card at last.....these are the hardest cards to make in my opinion. I cased this design from another demonstrator.

It was easy to make once I had worked out the template for the waistcoat and I really like the result.I used the very vintage wheel stamp and some daubing round the edges.

Ink pads: Night of navy and Soft suede.

For the buttons I punched five small circles stuck them in position and added a drop of crystal effects to each one to give the buttons dimension.

The tie pin was created by punching one tiny circle in silver card and a smaller circle from card stock again I used one drop of crystal effects and once it was completely dry, I stuck the smaller circle on top of the foil circle. You may like to know that the Brads holding the greeting onto the navy card are not brads. These were created the same way as the buttons.