pixels, pixels, everywhere....

Did you catch the awesome news?  I have been selected (along with 19 other amazing paper crafters) to participate in this year's Gallery Idol!  I'm super excited to have been given this opportunity again :)

For this round, the theme is "Defining Dad."  I wanted to make a card that would be perfect for a geeky dad (that's what my husband will be when we have kids!! hehe).  Of course I went the video game route- but decided to go old school with Tetris.  Whether you define yourself as a "gamer" or not, you cannot deny the awesomely addictive quality of Tetris!   

My card in interactive, so I decided to make a video of it in action.  Sorry for the shaky camera!  I didn't have time last night to set up the tripod.....



For a relatively simple card, there are surprisingly a lot of steps required to put it together. I'll walk you through 'em:

• Step 1: Make lots of pixels

I cut strips of cardstock a quarter inch wide, then chopped them up into quarter inch squares, reserving one or 2 long strips.

• Step 2: Shade the long strips

Instead of finding the perfect color of cardstock one shade darker than my pixels, I used a light grey marker to darken the color that I already had.

(note: ignore the marking on my grid mat. you do not need to color at a 45 degree angle! lol)

• Step 3: Glue the pixels to the darkened strips in classic Tetrimino shapes (Tetriminos are the 4-square blocks used in Tetris)

I found that a pair of tweezers helped with accuracy

(a completed Tetrimino)

• Step 4: Plan your project

I wanted to make sure that the word "DAD" nestled into the blocks when lowered down.  It was a lot of fun to play around with them and make different combinations!  I'm glad I still have some extras to play with :)

• Step 5: Cut your panel of black cardstock

My panel is 4"x5.25"- just smaller than an A2 card base.  I also used an Xacto knife to cut a small slit- this will be important later when we add the interactive slider.

• Step 6: Adhere Tetriminos to your panel

Once I had my arrangement figured out, I snapped a pic with my iPhone so that I could accurately re-create it on the black panel.  I used foam tape to pop up each piece.  Then, I placed the "DAD" letters in their spots, and grabbed them with a Post-It note.  This ensured that the spacing was correct when I mounted them to a small piece of cardstock.

• Step 7: Make the slider

I cut a strip of black cardstock to go behind the front panel, and made a D pad ("directional pad"- its the thing on video game controllers!). I darkened the down arrow so the recipient knows to pull it down.  Then I adhered the D pad to the strip, and put it place at the bottom of the channel that I cut earlier. I cut a super thin little piece of adhesive and placed it on the slider, then adhered the "DAD" I made above.

Well, that's pretty much it (for the hard stuff, that is).  The last 2 steps are to mount the panel to the card base, add strips of blue to the sides, then adhere your secret message!  I typed mine using a pixelated font onto white cardstock, but you could stamp a sentiment too!

This card makes me smile, and I hope it makes you smile too!  

Now it's voting time!!  Please go HERE and check out the entries, then vote for your favorite!  If you think you want to vote for mine, then you can find a direct link to my entry on the side bar to the right.

Thanks for visiting :)