The Big 39

I created this football card for my LSU lovin' husband who just turned 39. He's a huge Tiger Fan and I thought a lot about him and what kind of things I could finally make for a sports fan (freak!) while designing the "Just So Sporty" set. I started by coloring the jersey in purple and gold, and stamping on "happy 39th birthday". Unfortunately I got my numbers a teensy bit cockeyed since I stamped them separately (because I wanted them a little closer together since I was including the "th" suffix (that's okay, it's good enough for my honey LOL!) But to get them lined up perfectly place them both on the block at the same time and stamp once (but there will be a larger gap in between) Cutting tip: make straight cuts in between your numbers so that each stamp looks like a rectangle. Trim across the top, but don't trim any excess off the bottom! Since they are lined up at the bottom of the sheet, when you place two on the block side by side the bottoms will meet up and be aligned when you stamp. :)

To make the football field I used my Scor-Pal: score a 6" piece of Garden Green CS at 1/2" intervals 11 times. If using a white core CS you can sand the scores to make your yard lines pop, I was out of all my green white core CS, so I carefully rubbed my white craft pad over the lines to make them show up better. I stamped "all star" in each end zone in the white craft ink, matted it on Yoyo Yellow, and then on a piece of DCWV earth Elements textured CS I had Cutlebugged with the Tiny Bubbles folder, (it makes great pigskin!), sanding it to bring out the texture, and then mounted on a white folded card base (8"x7", scored at 4"). I placed the jersey in the center with dimensionals and added a few Nestabilities Stars attached together with matching eyelets, also on dimensionals at the top and bottom. The finished card measures 4"x7". It will fit in a large envelope or long business envy, or I could make a custom sized to fit (but I won't, just hand it to him since he lives here, hee hee! )



For a great tutorial on creating custom envelopes, check out this one by Lauren Meader. You can make a football field on a different sized card of course, but this worked well with all the proportions and layering I wanted to do and number of sections I needed to make my football look authentic, the 1/2" spaces were the best way I found to use the Scor-Pal without needing to move my paper to make this many (12) equal sections.

So, are you ready for some football???? (or to become a "football widow"?! show of hands, please...)