It's That Time Again...

I've been working on a couple projects that will have to wait a bit before making their appearance here...but in the meantime, I have another masculine birthday card to share with you today. 

Just when I thought I finally had something going with the masculine cards and the handmade digi collages, I found myself realizing I had already sent a collage card to this particular member of the family...two, in fact.  So it was time to change it up a bit. 

I knew I wanted to use the pocket watch, but was drawing a blank as far as design. So I turned to a Card Positioning Systems sketch (#269) from earlier this year...

and then got the rest of my embellishment cluster planned and cut...die cut stars of various sizes, along with the Jolee's Boutique pocket watch.  But once I got the cluster roughly positioned, the three narrow banner strips didn't look right - so I changed them to two thicker strips and staggered the lengths.  Now I was getting somewhere! It still needed "something," so I added some texture with a small vertical strip of white burlap, and some twine wraps around some of the stars and the top grey strip.  But then it looked too "lightweight" over there on the left side, so I added a medium sized button threaded with more twine for balance.

The stars were backed with lightweight chipboard, and popped up to varying heights with foam squares...

I got that third banner strip back by punching a wedge in the end of the sentiment tag... :)

Here's a peek at the inside to show you how the outside sentiment ties into the birthday message. (If you're experiencing a bit of deja-vu, it's because I used this sentiment and message earlier this year on a different card that I shared here...but it worked so well with the pocket watch, that I had to use it again.)

Supplies:

Patterned papers: Glitz French Kiss collection; Echo Park For the Record 2/Documented collection (stars)

Dies: Sizzix Stars #2      Pocket Watch: Jolee's Boutique      Miscellaneous: twine, burlap, button

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!