Masculine Wood Blocks - Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty Birthdays

I missed sharing a project the last 2 days as I've been working hard designing the projects for my next class and I didn't have any other cards to show.  The "cards to upload" folder was woefully empty.  It was a struggle designing for a bit as everything I tried out just was not right.  I got into a groove finally yesterday and designed the class projects as well as a few others that I liked a lot but just wouldn't be good for class.

  I was loving the Freshly Made Sketches challenge with all those little square elements.  I was trying to come up with a masculine birthday card for class and thought that a clean and simple card using small pieces of the Wood Textures DSP might be just right. 

  This design is a fantastic way to use up some little scraps of paper but probably not something you'd want to do with a group of 20+ in a class setting.  It was a bit fussy lining up the squares and I see room for improvement but I like how it turned out overall even if it isn't good for a class project.

  The card base is Early Espresso; it's been a hot minute since I used this color but it's perfect for a masculine card.  The next layer is Very Vanilla embossed with the Subtle embossing folder which I'm obsessed with lately.  It gives just the right amount of 'something' without being over the top.  I embossed the sentiment from Itty Bitty Birthdays in copper embossing powder.  With a quick change of sentiment it can be any type of card as well.

  Next for the focal square piece with another layer of Early Espresso then a Stitched Shape die cut Very Vanilla square which I layered all the bits of Wood Textures DSP.

  I wanted to add just a little something to the square panel so I stamped a leaf from Rooted in Nature and cut it out and layered it on the edge.  A bit of retired thick Very Vanilla twine is knotted around the stem.

  This was a fun sketch to play with and I may even have another card that I designed using it to share another day.  That one didn't make the class project cut either but I think it came out cute anyway.

  Have a great weekend!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Itty Bitty Birthdays, Rooted in Nature

Ink: Crumb Cake, Versamark

Paper: Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Wood Textures DSP

Accessories: Subtle embossing folder, Stitched Shapes framelits, Nature's Roots framelits, dimensionals, copper embossing powder, thick Very Vanilla twine (retired)