Inspired by an Evening with a Friend

My dear friend visited us the other day, and we spent a lovely summer evening marveling at the fireflies (neither of us grew up with them), and watching a concert by The Arcade Fire on TV. I wanted to make him a "thank you" card, so I used the chorus of their song "The Suburbs":

The color/pattern scheme was inspired by my friend's pajamas! They consisted of blue-and-white houndstooth-patterned flannel pants and a burgundy sleeveless undershirt. I don't know, I just loved the combo!

I used the Circle Step Card Tutorial at Top Tip Tuesday, and the Distressed Houndstooth Overay digital paper by Mel Stampz. The lyrics are set in the font Droplet Lite and cut out with IO dies. I made the city-topped half-circle in SCAL. The cityscape svg cut files are from my digital stash.

I added a strip of adhesive pearls that I colored with a Fluorescent Yellow Copic marker. Because the top of the strip was also sticky, I first covered it with glow-in-the-dark glitter. It's meant to reference those fabulous fireflies!

I'm entering this into this week's Top Tip Tuesday challenge, but with a Tip, not for theme. Here's my tip:
Formatting text to fit in dies
I like to type up my own text, print it out, and use my metal dies to cut out the shapes. To ensure that the text will fit into the shape, I use Text Boxes to help me design.
Here's how to do this in Word (these instructions are for Word 2004 for MAC, but should translate to other similar programs):

• Measure your die.
• Go to Insert/Text Box. Double click on the box and a format box will pop up:

click to enlarge

• In the "Colors and Lines" tab, select "No Fill" and "No Line". Go to the "Size" tab and put in the dimensions you want. 
• Now you should be able type in your text and choose fonts. I recommend centering the text, depending on the die. For these cloud dies, I know that the top is smaller than the bottom, so I can adjust for that with line breaks.
• Print out the text, giving yourself plenty of margin space. Use low-tack tape to line up the die over the text. Cut the die from the larger sheet of paper, and run it through your die cutting machine. Presto!

Many thanks to Annette at Top Tip Tuesday for the tutorial and inspiration!

Update: This was chosen as the Top Tip at Top Tip Tuesday #105.

Thank you for visiting, and Happy Crafting,