Hello crafty friends. Bit of a different style for me today – I decided to get a bit grungy on the birthday card I made for my son, Nick! I was inspired by a post a saw on Pinterest for the basic layout, but then out my own twist on it thanks to Clarity’s Stamps. As you can see, I used the Letterbox Alphabet, the Enso Enlightenment and the Splats and Splodges sets for a more masculine take than I’ve been doing recently.

Brown isn’t one of my go-to colours when crafting, but it is a good combination when paired with blue. So, for this card, I started with a piece of Antarctica paper cut to fit on a 5×7 card blank then randomly stamped the Enso circles and various splats onto it, using first and second generation ‘potting soil’ Archival ink.

I edged the companion paper with a brown Sharpie (I use a ruler when doing this on paper so I don’t slip off the edge) and attached it to the card blank. I then stamped out the letterboxes onto bits of the blue paper and white card with the ‘potting soil’ and heat embossed a couple with WOW’s white superfine powder onto a bit of brown Shenandoah paper. I could then add each of the letters into the boxes (I find it easiest to do it this way round), using the brown Sharpie to draw the exclamation mark for the final one (there isn’t a stamp for that in the set). Having used the smallest nested square die to cut each of them out, I glued them into place on the card front.

Now, this is the point where you realise I didn’t plan ahead enough… I’d originally intended to stamp ‘happy’ from Barbara’s Months & Numbers set onto the background with the ‘potting soil’ Archival, but didn’t think it would show up enough, so instead heat embossed it in white. The point is that I really should have done this before attaching the paper and die cut letters to the card, but I got away with it and managed not to completely warp everything!

Of course, being a true crafter, I’ve now reflected that there are a number of things I’d do differently on this card next time, including doing all the background stamps in second generation so they are softer and bringing the die cut letters closer together – aren’t we always our own worst critics? Anyway, the main thing is that my son liked it! And I’m also going to share it in the gallery at Allsorts challenge for their ‘boys or men’ theme.