It's a man thing !

Well that's the first week of 2012 almost over, it's quite scary how quickly time flies past you ! The card I'm sharing with you today is testament to that as this is for my Brother-in-law's birthday, which is today, and it only seems like 2 minutes since I was making cards for his last birthday !

The inpsiration for this card came from the very talentend Joanna(or Asia) K and her post that looked back over 2011. I loved the colour combo and design on her June project and it gave me the push I needed to do this card. Thanks Joanna !

I started by covering a piece of card with pieces from an old french newspaper. I wanted it to be quite shabby so didn't cut the pieces, just tore them from the pages. I then used DI to age it, you can't see that much of it in the end though ! I then stamped images from different stamp sets including Oxford Impressions, Tim Holtz, Katzelkraft and Stampin' Up. I cut the images down to form a collage style background. For the pen nibs I masked them off and then stamped the text over them. The main image is an Oxford Impressions stamp and I've cut it out using an oval deckled Nestability and given it the DI treatment.

The pen nib is stamped onto metal and then cut out and I've gone round the edge with a metal working wheel to finish off. The hands for the clock were added before I stuck it down (amazed at how I remembered to do that! ) and the buttons are from my stash.

I'm also entering my card into the following challenges:

• Daring Cardmakers - Colour combo
• Cards for Men - Recyclying ( I recycled the french newspaper)

The wind has dropped quite alot today, thank goodness, let's hope it stays that way !