Ford F150 Shaped Card

(the perspective is a wee bit off since it is standing up -

not that it was perfect to begin with!)

I spent quite a bit of time (HOURS!) making this shaped card for my sons birthday. It is supposed to resemble the truck he drives. All he would like for his birthday are parts for the truck, so I thought I'd make a card shaped like it for him. Sure would have been easier to make a card in My Digital Studio, printing out a simple photo of the truck onto a background ! I sure hope he appreciates the time and effort ;) I didn't have anything else to do yesterday anyway, ha ha . 

Let me first off start by saying, there is no pattern. Sorry. Here is a photo of the sketch I made and used as a pattern. 

The first step was to go outside and make a sketch of the truck along with some notes.

I redrew the truck by hand onto a piece of scratch paper, making it the size I wanted the finished card to be. It's not perfect and leaves a lot to be desired (dimensions are off, etc), but I think it turned out okay for doing it by hand and with limited artistic talent. Yeah, good thing I gave up on that long ago dream (one of many) to become a car art artist. Oh, to be able to draw like Chip Foose or even just have a fraction of his talent ! Anyway, on to the steps to make the card in case you may be interested.

I cut the drawing out with scissors and an Xacto knife.

I traced the cut out, upside down, onto red card stock (unknown). Cut out along the outside edges with scissors and inside the windows with the Xacto knife. I did the same thing again onto a folded piece of Whisper White (Stampin' Up!) card stock, only cutting the windows out of the top layer, to make the actual card. The fold is along the top of the cab of the truck. After the entire red card front truck was made, I adhered it to the folded Whisper White card. 

I have a ruler that has some dimension to it , a rounded edge that wedges up to the middle of the ruler. It was the perfect tool to make the body lines of the truck with (think of it as dry embossing). I had a heavyweight piece of chip board scrap that worked wonderfully to run along the edge, giving it the line I was hoping for. I didn't want a really crisp line as you would get using a stylus and scoring board.

A white Signo gel pen was used, along with a ruler, to make the two white pin stripes along the upper body line.

Pencil and Sharpie ink pen for details on the red truck. Pencil for the "seams" of where the door meets the body, Sharpie for outlining the windows that have black on them.

Metallic silver card stock was free hand cut with small scissors to create several details on the truck. A 1/8" hole punch was nearly the right size to make a teeny tiny circle for the door lock key hole.

I used an Empressor stylus and Sahara Sand (from Stampin' Up!) marker as well as the black Sharpie to add the dimension to the bumpers. 

The window is made from a piece of clear plastic (acetate) from a package. Sometimes I save clear packaging, if it is large enough, to be reused. I carefully cut the plastic in one piece to cover, from the back side of the red truck, the windows. I used think strips of super strong double stick tape to adhere them together. A black Sharpie marker was used on the acetate to make black lines to resemble the window posts and trim.

The tinted window is made by coloring a marker onto a piece of drafting vellum then using clear packing tape cut to fit. It is taped to the backside of the acetate window. 

The tires and wheels are made with several circle punches:

1 3/4" - wheel well, punched into the red body as well as a piece of scrap gray paper to line it with

1 3/8" - tire , Basic Black (Stampin' Up!) card stock

3/4 " - wheel , metallic silver card stock (Stampin' Up!)

1/4 " - center hub, metallic silver card stock with a bit of Sahara Sand ink along the edge

I used a black Sharpie marker and a silver Signo gel pen to create the dots on the wheels. I freehanded them, and boy can you tell !

The rear tail light was made from Real Red (Stampin' Up!) card stock, embossed three lines with an Empressor stylus then covered with Crystal Effects (Stampin' Up!). 

The tube "running board" was created by punching a thin strip of Basic Black card stock with the Word Window punch (Stampin' Up!) then trimming it out with scissors by hand.

The headlight is made in a similar fashion, using Whisper White and Only Orange (both from Stampin' Up!) card stocks covered with Crystal Effects. I ran the black Sharpie marker along the edge once they were dry to simulate the black trim around the real headlight.

The F150 "badge" is larger than I wanted, but it was as small as I could make it by writing free hand with a Silver Signo gel pen. I also used a blue (unknown) gel pen for the XL and a pencil to outline the letters.

Sticky strip and clear drying liquid glue are used throughout to adhere the parts together.

I will print out a photo of my sons face to stick inside to finish it off.

Click here to see a similar project I made for my father to resemble his show truck - only his card project ended up becoming a box !

And here is an Airstream trailer birthday card I made to resemble the recipients trailer.

Thanks so much for taking a peek at my latest project. Comments are always appreciated =)