Another Manly Man Gift

Hey -- am I on a roll, or what?!? LOL!!! This is several posts in a row... Amazing!!!

Here is another gift that I made for my DH's birthday. This one was from me and contains not one, but TWO gift cards. Here it is:

This was made from a CD holder that Daisy (eP) sent me. It's fabulous with those little pockets already made! Since it is white already, all I had to do was embellish it!

My inspiration was my husband's love of sports, particularly football. He played in high school and was a full-back. Never mind that he got his knee blown out all three years; he still loves the sport for some odd reason! LOL!!!

The colors were inspired by the designer papers I used.

Here is the recipe:

Stamps: Rough & Tumble (ret.); Lexicon of Love (ret.); It's Your Birthday (soon to be ret.)

Inks: Palette Noir hybrid

Papers: Basic Grey Urban Couture DP; Chocolate Chip CS; copy paper

Other: Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware (soon to be ret.); Chocolate & Cranberry grosgrain ribbon; Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelets; Tab punch; 1-inch circle punch

Urban Couture papers were adhered to both front and back covers.

The angled band was made from one of the tags in the Urban Couture packet. I just took another piece of the same paper and made another tag, a little longer, to attach to the wide end of the first tag and make a band. I placed both tags on Chocolate Chip CS, measured out 1/4-inch, and cut out the contrasting paper. This was attached to the CD holder with sticky tape I got from Taylor VanBruggen at a great price! After that, I attached jumbo eyelets at each end, for the tie.

Does it look football-ish?!? LOL!!! You know how the uniforms have all these ties and things on them, right? I was going for that look! LOL!!!

I knew I wanted the ball carrier guy from Rough & Tumble on the front, so I stamped him, colored him with watercolor crayons, and cut him out. The front needed just a little something else, so that's when I came up with the contrast panel to his side. I stamped that with the "Celebrate" sentiment, added the hardware to the top of the panel, and tied it off with cranberry grosgrain. Voila! The front was done!!!

I covered the inside of the holder in a similar manner as the outside, using various coordinating DPs, one for each section.

The sentiment was stamped on copy paper and adhered to the inside of the front panel.

After covering the white space, I needed to make little folders to hold the gift cards I'd be giving. The folder for right-hand side is square after being folded, and I attached the cute circle paper after punching it out with the tab punch. I made 2 tabs, so it would be easy to open the folder, and

offset them a little, placing the rear one a little lower than the front one.

The left-hand folder is also square, after folding it, but I decided to use a slightly different pull on it. Since it goes into the pocket with a circle-indent, I punched another half circle in the center front of the folder, to make a cohesive look. Then, I attached a jumbo eyelet in the back sid eof the folder, in the center of the punched circle area, so it would be "framed" by the punch. The last step was attaching a chocolate grosgrain ribbon to the eyelet, to help pull the folder out of the pocket. Done!

OKAY, now, I have a question for all of you bloggers out there! I seem to have trouble getting my paragraphs to be paragraphs... All my words are running together, regardless of how many spaces I put between paragraphs. What's up with that? Anyone have a solution for me? TIA!!!

Hugs & blessings,

M.