City Stripes Monogram

Hello
How are you feeling? I don't dread the first week of September in the way I did for the last couple of years when I was a teacher.   It's sad when a career that's so enjoyable and worthwhile goes so bad that you need to force yourself out of the car and into the building every morning of the week.  I am still so relieved and thankful that I was able to escape!  

My nephew actually started school on his birthday! I would have HATED that!  I always wanted my birthday to fall in the holidays, but it never did - well, not until I was training to be a teacher, anyway,  
He's now 24, done with Uni but not done with studying as he's still got a couple of exams to go before he's a fully qualified Chartered Accountant
So he's a bit of a City Gent during the week, which is why I chose the papers I used for his birthday card this year

These are old Funky Hand papers from the Winter Wedding collection - but the pin stripes and colours make most of the designs perfect for manly projects and I turn to them time and time again.

I printed the designs I needed onto white Classic texture Bazzill card, having first done a bit of resizing to get the right size spots and stripes for my project

The layout is the new sketch from The Sketch File 

The Sketch File

I used my Silhouette Cameo to make and cut the monogram piece.  

First I chose the font for the initial, then "drew" the circle around it.  I merged the two shapes together,  then resized it to match one of my plain circle dies (large nested circles set from Tonic, so that I could just use die cuts for the backing circle and the plain light blue matting piece.

I cut the monogram once in the printed card, and 3 more times just using plain dark blue card

The layers were all glued together with the patterned one on top, and then the "raw" edges were inked.  

The die cut plain circle was adhered to the back so it showed through the "C" and then this whole  large glued onto the large circle.

I used a punch to cut the tiny circles and shaped them with a ball tool

"Happy Birthday" is die cut with a Creative Die (CraftStashUK)

Obviously I was left with the cut out "C" shapes, so I've fixed them together and will keep them in the hope that I can use them on a card for another of our nephews, who's name conveniently also begins with a C!  If I don't lose it before next May, that is!

Actually I really like this indented die cut/Silhouette cut style, so I'm going to be looking around for other ways to use it.
I hope you like the sketch too - I may even consider using it for a Christmas card.  I suppose I should at least start to think about them!

Anyway, it would be great if you'd join in with us and use the sketch in your own crafting - we'd love to see what you can make using it.

Thank you for popping by, hope you are having a great day