Back to ....

.... basics - or back in black - either phrase will do for the card I made for my friend's husband, who turned 50 recently.  I haven't made a card with no patterned paper for a long, long time - but somehow this had to be that way.  Here's what I made (excuse dark photos, pics taken at night!):

Update 08/02 - Wow - this card has been picked as overall winner for January's Our Creative Corner - thank you Claudia!

I used the sketch from this week's Deconstructing Sketches and I'm also entering the following challenges: Our Creative Corner ("No more Shopping Sins"), Totally Papercrafts ("One for the Boys"), Stampin' for the Weekend ("Happy Birthday"), Brown Sugar ("Embossing") Crafty Cardmakers ("Black and White") and Charisma Cardz ("It's a Boy Thing").

I used three background stamps on this card - the houndstooth one I've had for yonks and never used.  I did clear embossing over the sentiment with another background stamp - but you can't see it in the photo.  The embossed pattern on the black card is really back to basics, I used a marker cap to make the repeat pattern.  I dry brushed a load of housepaint on the edges of the black card and the corrugated card.  The numbers are hand-drawn, and the pointy finger is from a set of stickers I bought in IKEA (a nod to my friend, who works there - Liz, can you tell me the product name of this set?!!).

Here's a close-up of some of the detail:

Recipe:

Stamps: Hero Arts "Grid" and "Houndstooth" backgrounds

Font: 28 Days Later - dafont.com

Other: Corrugated card, IKEA sticker, paint, eyelet, clear and black embossing powder.

I've been working on something else in January, which has now been posted to a crafty friend - I will post it here once I know it's been received.

Thanks for looking!