Background card variations

Well, I managed to track down the cause of all my computer woes - a new external drive.

With all the messing about I have had to do trying to get the new drive to work, I have of course, had cards to post which I haven't been able to. Some have been diligently made but have been sent on their way before I have had chance to tell you about them. It didn't help that I couldn't post their photos to my blog either as the corrupted software for the said drive was not only stopping the card reader from working but preventing all attached drives, cameras etc. to the computer from being recognised - so no way to get photos to the PC at all. Grrrr. I even had to reformat the said new drive in the end. I was not a happy chappy! :(  Still, fingers crossed I should be OK now (well, I will know for sure if & when my new drive starts to do it's scheduled back up).

My aim with this one was to create a card suitable for a male without going down the fishing/yacht/beer/sport  route. There are some men that just don't fit into any of these categories aren't there and let's be honest, those images must get boring year on year. So no, I haven't coloured an image this time around (shock-horror! LOL).  To complicate things more, I wanted a design which was also 'young' enough for a twenty-something and accommodating enough to work just as well for an older gent or anyone else for that matter.

So I created a cut background using my Cameo (bit fiddly trying to get the positions of the welded design overlapping just as I wanted - always worth remembering though, the 'back' button is your friend, LOL). I then welded a square into the centre of my design as a base for my permutations and variation #1 was as you can see from the photo, one for a 25 year old (red & white - the colours of his football team) so I welded his age into a square to add to the centre.

#2 went to my brother in law (different football alliances, can you tell by the colours? LOL) and this time I cut a centre from a design by Bird's Cards, resizing to suit and didn't layer the central panel. I thought this one, with a more general birthday wish in the centre could be a great 'stand-by' card for those hasty last-minute makes and would actually work well for any age from teenager upwards, especially with the 'text-speak' message.

My aim for #3 was to adapt the design to create a more feminine variation of the same basic card design, using a digi rose background paper on the outside of the insert from Crafter's Companion's 'Love' CD and cutting with a deckled cut. I did re-colour it to suit my needs but they allow you to do that. :)  Using a solid centre to my cut-file this time, I layered up using a very dark navy and a floral design. I was in two-minds whether the flower's centre should have something in it or not but decided that it made the card 'too busy' so opted not to add anything further. I thought this variation of the design also lent itself nicely as an anniversary card.

Photographed this one with the insert to one side so you could hopefully see the deckled edging.

A helpful tip for cutting out backgrounds like this is to make sure you use a heavy-weight gsm. Might mean a double-cut, I certainly had to with each of them but there again, maybe with all this use my blade is going a little blunt!  All these three were in substantial card and yet they still wanted to 'bow' slightly at the opening edge due to the open nature of the design.

That's all for now then. Thanks for visiting my blog and as ever, thanks for your comments too.

Tine :)

Challenges:
Here Come The Boys - monochrome
Crafty Sentiments - happy birthday
Fab 'n' Funky - no patterned paper  
Digital Tuesday - text me (using digi cutter - and paper too on #3)
Creative Cutting - teenagers
Penny's - die cuts/punches (digi cutter)
Card Mania - handmade flower
Lexi's - pink
Dream Valley - pink
Papertake - anything goes (optional celebration).