Materials Swap - Male

The theme for May's Materials Swap on the Message Board I frequent is "MALE".  I found this cute little dog in my stash of Hunkydory toppers (this one is from the Pop-a-Toppers "It's a Cat's and Dog's Life") and decided it would make a great focal for that theme.  I went through my stash and found an old HOTP patterned paper in the same colors as the dog - then found some aqua and blue card stock that coordinated with the topper.  I added a bit of white card stock, a bit of black ribbon, and a card base with envelope, and that was the set of materials I sent to my swap partner - and that I used to make this card.  Here's a picture of the materials:

Card Front (top of post):  I saw a card on the message board that was made something like this (without the topper, and sentiments - it just had a stamped sentiment in the middle of that central diamond shape).    It really intrigued me because it took a minute to figure out how it was laid out.  I can't speak to the original, but here's how I made this one.

I started with a 5x7 card base.  I cut two strips of the aqua that were each 1/2" x 7" and glued them to the edges.  Then I cut two strips of the tan that were 1/4" x 7" and glued them beside the aqua strips.  Then I cut a piece of the patterned paper that was 3 3/4" x 7".  I centered this and glued it in place ( it overlapped the tan strips by about an 1/8 of an inch on each side.  

Next, I cut two tan pieces that were just a smidge less than 2 3/4" square.  Then I cut 2 1/2 squares from the aqua & the blue after embossing them with MBossibilities Elite folder.  I glued the aqua piece centered on top of the tan, then cut it in half from corner to corner.  Next I glued these cut pieces top and bottom of the card as you can see, leaving the inner corners loose until I could slide the other tan square in place beneath those corners.  Then I added the blue square and had an interlocking diamond pattern running down the center of my card front.  

Time for finishing touches!  I simply added my focal with foam tape and slipped the small round sentiment underneath it.  I felt it needed something in the upper left corner, so I created the multi-matted banner with stamped sentiment (HOTP Tiny Words and Images) and added that.  Finally I tied a loose knot in a piece of narrow black ribbon and added it between the top triangle & the central diamond.  Now it was time for the . . .

Inside:

Inside I simply used scraps from the front to create a border - then added a little embellishment piece (from the same HD set).  Finally, I stamped a message using a stamp from Crafter's Companion Compendium (CCC) - from the page called Birthday-Male.

Card from HER materals:

Here are the materials my swap partner sent me:

I struggled with them a bit before making this:

I had found myself saying, "Why did she send silver card stock with this?"  Then I remembered my gears/wheels/cogs cutting dies that I got in a card making magazine, and decided they would be PERFECT.  I also used Spellbinders Edgeabilities dies - the ones called Classic Bracket - to create the border from the silver card stock & white card stock.  I also used a die from Spellbinders Splendid Circles to create the mat for the sentiment (stamped from the stamps that came with the gears/cogs/wheels).

Inside:

For the inside, I used some of the remaining elements my partner sent, some more gears/cogs/wheels die cuts, and a stamp from HOTP's Birthday Greetings set.