A while back I told you it was my grandpa’s birthday. Well, we finally got to celebrate on Friday.
The surgery on his eye apparently went well, but he still hasn’t had his vision return (the doctors say this is normal for now.)
So we went to my grandparents’ on Friday for a belated celebration, and that, of course, meant a gift and a card.
I have to say, I hate making cards for guys. I mean, I don’t really hate it as much as I find it really difficult.
It’s really easy to make cute girly or kids’ cards, but when it comes to guys… what do you make? I ended up buying Father’s Day cards this year because it seems like once you make a couple Father’s Day cards, you’ve pretty much used up all the ideas. Ties, grills, tools… those are the basic ones that practically all Father’s Day cards are made from.
Anyway. This is not about Father’s Day. This is about a birthday card. A birthday card made for a father. And grandfather. And great-grandfather.
The difficulty in making cards for guys is balancing the charm of handmade cards with a masculinity that doesn’t come naturally to me.
So I decided to keep it simple. I used birthday stamps that I got recently and masculine paper. I kept it festive with bright-colored markers, but I think it would be easy to tone that down if you wanted to make something more subtle.
(Sorry, I don’t have any in-process photos, I made this late at night-aka no natural light.)
I used brads to attach the paper to the front of the card.
For the cake, I stamped a separate piece of paper using black ink, then I embossed it and then colored it in with markers. I cut around it free-hand with a consistent(ish) border. Then I attached it with pop dots, or whatever those foam glue dots are called.
This gives it a little more interest than if I just put it flat on the card.
As for the inside:
I used a stamp and then some embossing powder. I like embossing, as I feel it looks a little more finished than just plain stamping sometimes, but I always have trouble fully getting the powder off the places it’s not supposed to be, while keeping it in the places it is supposed to be. See the little black specks? They’re easier to see after you’ve heated it, thereby making them permanent.
Anyone have any tips on how to do this? I think maybe I should have used my glue stamp pad, but I only recently got that one and sort of forgot about it.
As a finishing touch:
He had to wear an eye patch on his real birthday. I’m a little sad I missed it. 🙂
So that’s the card. I put it together with a jar of my Chocolate-Cherry Jam. I know! I gave one of my precious 3 jars away. I wouldn’t do that for just anyone.
Notice how I labeled it as his, lest anyone tries to snitch any without his permission. 🙂
What’s in the box, you ask?
Mini Cherry pies.
Coming soon to this blog.
They’re pretty darn good.
Love you, Gramps!