Good evening, all y’all! It’s the last day of July, and it means I have a few more hours left to submit my card to the July gallery challenge at Paper Crafts. I’ve been so frustrated about how to create a differently shaped card ever since I found out July challenge was going on Nina’s blog at the last minute. I couldn’t make it to the submission on her blog because I didn’t have enough time to finish it. Fortunately, I still have a chance to play along with a shaped card at the July gallery challenge.

I was working on iPhone and watermelon shaped cards over the last few days. An iPhone shaped card? Doesn’t it sound so cool? It did take me half a day though to realize it’s not always easy to create a real card even though I had a perfect idea. Plus, the challenge was supposed to make a summer themed card. Eventually the iPhone card didn’t work this time. Then I tried a watermelon shaped card, and I was discouraged after I found that some ladies had already uploaded a few types of watermelon cards on a Flickr gallery. I didn’t want to be the same or even similar to them. I’ve wanted something unique and different that nobody has tried yet.

Then I desperately started to search my house for something to give me an inspiration for summer. That’s how I came up with a denim shorts shaped card. For my sketch, I brought my jean shorts from the closet and put them on my work table, and then I drew the shape of the shorts on a white card stock. Next I inked it with ‘faded jeans’ distress ink and a blending tool. How lucky I am to have a similar color ink pad as my shorts!

Since it’s a card that you’re supposed to write something inside, I made a space for writing. Polka dot panties! After writing a message on panties, you can simply put it inside of the shorts. That’s how my shorts card works. The most challenging part of creating this card was stitching by hand. First, I poked holes with a needle along the lines, and then I stitched with brown thread. It took me almost one hour seriously. Whew… I really hope to get a sewing machine in the near future.

For the sentiment, I cut the paper with a Silhouette SD machine. Then I colored it with a Copic marker and put some Stickles glitter glue on the letters. Since my jeans shorts were kind of boring without any embellishments on them, I added some lace ribbons along the bottom. Do you think it’s more fashionable with girly lace?

For adding an extra bit of interest, I made a unique button with one dime coin and a fancy brad. Lastly, I put one ticket in the pocket. Do you know why I chose a ticket for the last embellishment? I enjoyed wearing my denim shorts a lot while my younger brother visited my place and travelled all over this month. Tickets! Amusement parks, shows, movies, trains and so on. It’s all about something fun, right? Oh, except traffic tickets! 😉 So this card reminds me of happy moments that I spent with my brother this summer.

I’m also entering this card into the Paper Play Time CH#80 and Make It Monday #103. I love the way my card turned out. It’s kind of funny, trendy and so sexy! Of course it would be hard to put in a regular sized envelope. Haha. 😉

By the way, this is my sketch using Paper on the iPad. I hope you get some inspiration from my blog and have a wonderful August. Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again.

May Park