This card was made for a sketch challenge that had the optional challenge to use stitching in your design. My husband is a Taurus, so I decided to make a stitched Taurus constellation with a starry background. I created the constellation by downloading a free constellation outline image from the Internet, then loaded it into my free Brother Canvas Workspace software and used it as a template to place various sized circles where the stars are located in the constellation. I then used my Brother ScanNCut CM350 to cut the circles out of a piece of starry pattern paper, then the rectangle around it to create the front card panel. If you don't have a ScanNCut, you could easily create the holes for the constellation by tracing each hole onto your background cardstock, the punching with a paper piercing tool. Since I wanted each star to be a different size to replicate the constellation, I chose my ScanNCut.
I then used gold metallic sewing thread to stitch the constellation lines between the "stars". To make the stars show up, I matted this panel with gold cardstock so each "star" hole gleamed brightly.
For the required narrow vertical panel on the left I cut a 1" wide strip of shiny star pattern paper from Stampin' Up! (SU) "Brightly Gleaming" designer series paper. The sketch included a banner inside the narrow panel, so I cut a 3/4" strip, and using paper snips cut a banner "tail". I felt it was too plain, so used the straight embossing die from the SU "Stitched Nested Labels die set to put "stitching" along both long sides of the banner.
The final step was to create the sentiment. I wanted to stick with the gold theme, so used Versamark ink to stamp the "celebrate" word onto dark navy cardstock (same as used for the banner), and dusted with gold embossing powder, then heat set it. I die cut it with the same SU "Stitched Nested Labels" die to get even more "stitching" onto the card. Using the same die, I die cut the same shape from gold cardstock, then used paper snips to trim around the outside of the die-cut so it was just an outline I could fit behind the sentiment shape. The sentiment shape was attached using foam tape to raise it up for added dimension to the card front.
As usual, coming up with the design takes longer and is harder than actually making the card, so I am rating the difficulty level as a "2" out of a possible "5" to actually assemble it. I think this would make a great masculine card for just about any occasion, but I know my husband will love it as a birthday card.
Date: Friday, April 15, 2022 GMT Views: 482
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