I wanted to make a special birthday card for one of my Great-Nephews and at the moment he really loves Star Wars Stormtroopers! So I decided to have a go at creating one with punch art!
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Not exactly perfect but not too bad for a first attempt. The nose piece is Basic Gray cardstock with black
hand-drawn lines |
The first thing I did was to Google images and then I made a little sketch and started looking for shapes that I could punch.
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| My sketch plan and calculations! |
I decided what size I would like the finished piece to be and worked backwards from there to determine sizes for the elements. The first size I chose was the diameter of the circle for the top of the helmet. That gave me the dimensions for the square that I cut and round cornered and to which I glued all the pieces.
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| The back of the piece gives a good idea of how I constructed it |
I've included a photograph of the back of the piece that shows the punches I used and how I attached them. Also included in that photo are the shapes I used for the grey and black pieces.
The only pieces that I didn't photograph are the thin strip of black cardstock between the top of the helmet and faceplate and the nose piece, which I ended up hand cutting!
I used my snips to round off sharp corners when I cut the eyes from the oval punched shapes.
I used a 1/2" circle punch for the black circles on either side of the mouth piece.
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| Drawing up the grid |
For the inside of the card, I thought of that old chestnut "May the 4th be with you" and made a play on that. When positioning the letters, I lightly drew a grid with a pencil to help determine what I'd be able to fit on a line as well as to help line it all up and centre it. The photopolymer stamps really helped with this process!
The Happy Birthday greeting is from the stamp set Boys Will Be Boys, the number "4th" is from Number of Years and all the remaining letters and numbers are from the Back to Basics Alphabet. The hearts were from Another Thank You and I stamped them in Real Red.
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| Can you guess his age? |
The black card base is 5 1/2" square (5 1/2" x 11" scored at 5 1/2"). The white layer is 1/4" smaller at 5 1/4" and the Basic Gray layer is 5 1/8".
It was a bit of a learning experience and, if I did it again, I would know to pay closer attention to symmetry and would reduce the length of the "face" a bit.
The oval punches are retiring on 31st May but I think the new Layering Ovals Framelits will provide suitable shapes.
Thank you for visiting.
'Til next time
Stephanie
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