My Favorite Things Weekly Sketch Challenge - MFTWSC158 - Shine Brightly

Can you tell I totally {heart} the new sketch graphic from MFT???  SO CUTE!!  Greetings friends!!  I'm back today with my interpretation of this week's MFT sketch challenge.  I must admit...for some reason I struggle when there is a large circular element on the card.  Maybe it's because I am out of practice, maybe I don't have quite the right stamps in my collection...I'm not sure.  I love how it came out but I still feel like perhaps I missed the mark a bit.  But I'm putting it out there for y'all anyways!  This is a masculine card for my little brother who is turning 32 next week!

Oh but first...here is this week's sketch:

And here's mine:

When I was in college (ahem...in the early 90's) my brother was in middle school and every year on his birthday I would make him a mix tape.  Yes, a mix tape.  Because he was so much younger than me I had the best time sharing my love of music with him.  It was so fun to sift through any cds I could find (mine, my now husbands or any of my roommates) and decide what songs to put on the mix.  I would make a coordinating label telling him what was on the tape and by which artists.  It was always labeled "Ethan's 13th Birthday Mix" or whatever number birthday he was having.  So it only seemed fitting to use Laina Lamb's  Journal It - Playlist stamp and Die-namic combo set for his birthday card this year.  My cardstock base is Neena solar white followed by MFT Black Licorice cardstock and then the houndstooth which I've had in my stash forever and I don't remember where I got it.  I do know that it was from a 12x12 cardstock pack.  The rest of the patterned papers are from Authentique's 6x6 Celebrate collection.

I cut the tape cassette out of the patterned paper & accompanying label out of MFT's Wild Cherry Cardstock.  I inked the label graphics with Hero Arts black ink (amazing coverage with this ink) and after using my powder tool, heat embossed the birthday sentiment with Unicorn White Pigment Ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  

I popped the tape cassette up on 3-D foam adhesive for some extra dimension.  For the decorative strips behind, I used some glitter cardstock that I got from the open stock area at Michael's.  I used sticky back pearls for the accents.  

For the circular element I used Lisa Johnson's - On The Line stamp set I pulled out the 'shine brightly' sentiment, inked it with Gold Glitz craft ink from Tsukineko and clear heat embossed it.  I used my circular punches to cut out the sentiment and then my larger punches to matte it.  I popped the sentiment on foam adhesive.  

When all was said and done, I added a little twine bow in the upper left hand corner to balance out the circular element in the bottom right.  And I must say, I really like how it came out.

I hope you come on over and get sketchy with fabulous gals over at MFT!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith