You're a Winner!

The "Tough as Nails" challenge for "Hope You Can Cling To" is kind of quirky. The idea is to use one or more construction-related materials in your card. Okay.... I had seen a video quite some time ago by Lindsey, The Frugal Crafter, on making your own mesh out of drywall tape. That's what came to my mind for this challenge.

I used Sketch #175 from Operation Write Home as the basis for my design:

Because my drywall tape was 2" wide, I had to make a few adjustments to the measurements in the sketch. Thankfully, that wasn't difficult!

I cut 4 squares from Strathmore Mixed Media paper. I colored two dollops of Golden Fine Pumice Gel medium with Faded Jeans and Hickory Smoke Distress inks. After covering the squares with pieces of drywall mesh, I spread my gel medium over my mesh stencils. Once I had the coverage I wanted, I removed the mesh and cleaned my craft sheet & palette knife. Then I set the squares aside to dry.

I stamped my greeting, from Simon Says Stamp's "All Boy" set, in the lower right corner of a white cardstock panel, with Hero Arts Charcoal ink. For the background, I used another piece of mesh as a stencil. After masking off my greeting, I adhered the drywall tape (it's adhesive-backed) to my cardstock panel, and inked through it with Faded Jeans. I concentrated the color more towards the center, and let it fade out as it approached the edges of the panel. When I had finished, I removed the masking from my greeting. I added a few more stenciled dots near the greeting, just to remove the harsh edge my mask had created.

By now, my squares were dry, so I inked over them with more Faded Jeans & Hickory Smoke, to get a tone-on-tone look. I inked over my mesh stencil that I'd used for the background with more Faded Jeans, tore one end, and adhered it to my card panel, slightly offset from the stenciled dots. I glued the squares over that, and added a button I'd die cut with one of the "Buttons" dies by Impression Obesession in the center. I used 3 screw-head brads on the left side of the mesh. I finished by adhering my card front to a white A2 card base. This has got to be one of the funkier cards I've ever made! :)