Look, Dad

Hi, everyone.

I have a pretty special card to share. On August 4, Dad will celebrate his 80th birthday! I've been mulling over some card ideas for a while now. So, I was thrilled when I saw that the current Cards In Envy challenge is to make a happy birthday card. Perfect timing.... and just the push I needed to get to work.  :)

computer-generated original text on Crate Paper rose garden cardstock
Distress Ink bundled sage and black soot core paper; SU/Sizzix word bubble dies
Recollections foam squares
inking in Distress Ink vintage photo and black soot with Ranger blending tool

Since this is a pretty special birthday for a pretty special guy, I wanted to make a pretty special card. Hope I succeeded... Think I did.

• First, I did a lot of Web surfing -- trying to come up with the perfect historical facts to include for a this-day-in-history kind of card. Turns out there didn't seem to be a lot that had happened on August 4 that would really interest Dad.
• Then my thoughts went to the front page of a newspaper. Found a site that sold papers for days goneby. Turns out that peeking is not allowed until you confirm your $39.99 purchase. Now, I know handmade cards probably end up being more costly than store bought ones, but that seemed a bit much to spend even for me. LOL!
• That's when I decided to get creative -- using events that happened just prior to Dad's birthday. The letter from President Roosevelt to Hitler really put things in historical context. Since Dad's a HUGE  baseball fan, I knew he'd enjoy reading about Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, and the Polo Grounds. Of course, the lead story in this edition of the Logan Banner would have to be about Dad's arrival.  :)
• To create the newspaper page itself, I made a table in Word that had 2 columns and 4 rows and merged the last two rows in the right-hand column. Then I typed in the masthead and stories -- using basic shapes with fill to create the stars and playing with font styles/sizes until I achieved the look I wanted.
• The final detail was to add a post-it-note-like embellishment -- making sure to draw attention to the feature story. I placed the post-it so that enough of the Roosevelt/Hitler story was still visible -- while trying to keep it 1/3 of the way across the card and 2/3 of the way down. Lastly, I used foam adhesives to pop the note just a tad.

So, I really hope Dad likes this little card. I sure enjoyed making it. And, it's always a bonus when the actual card lives up to the version you have in your head.  :)

Parting Thoughts

Enjoy your weekend. Sounds like it's going to be a rainy one around here. Darn, guess I just have to spend extra time in the menopause room crafting away.  :)

Turns out Dad's birthday isn't the only thing to celebrate on August 4. Hubby and I will be celebrating our 30th anniversary. Hope you will come back to see what I've concocted -- err, made -- for him.

As always, thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!