Trying New Things is Hard Sometimes

Oh my. My nephew Nik's birthday is Monday, and I sat down this morning, thinking I had a plan for his card and would just whip it together and post it on my way to work later today. I feel as though I have conquered the arch enemy of creativity by finishing this card!

Ten is a difficult age, especially for a boy. Things that were once cool start not to be cool, and yet you're not old enough to embrace the things of adolescence. So, I knew when I looked at the image I'd chosen that it wasn't going to work. It was just too juvenile. So I pulled out Extreme Elements and grunged up my card a bit. I'm so not grunge, so this was challenging.

Then I went back to my original image, the Builder Wheel trio of Candle Crazy (retired) and Birthday, to see if there was anything there I could salvage. At this point, I was feeling the clock ticking...LOUDLY.

I ditched the candles and even paired down the words from Happy Birthday to You as far as I could to remove as much of the Whisper White. That would work...I thought.

My next idea was incorporating the NUMBER of Nik's birthday into the card design, but in order to do that I had to call my mother-in-law to confirm that he is turning 10. I had made a mistake on my niece's birthday card in this category, but that's another story for another time...

Okay, yes, he will be 10 on Monday (at this point, this card might not make it there before he turns 11!), so I pulled out my retired Headline Numbers and stamped them on Basic Grey. Blah. So I ran them through the Big Shot in my Square Lattice Textured Impressions Folder (could we please come up with some agreed upon shorter name for this?!) and liked that look. I mounted them on the card using Stampin' Dimensionals and used the same to place the sentiment.

Done? Please? NO! The card looked unbalanced on the left side due to my placement of the word "Happy". I was NOT "happy" at this point. Glancing around my desk, I saw a piece of Silver Metallic card stock that I had embossed with the aforementioned folder and remembered I had the Big Shot Stars #2 Originals diecut in the shape of stars! Yes, yes, yes, I would finish this or DIE!

The stars adhered, the card was complete, and I am glad I pushed through all the obstacles my arch enemy used to try to deter me.

Now I have to cram some lunch down my throat, change clothes, and run this by the post office on my way in to work. Whew! Who said card making was relaxing?!