Friday, October 24, 2014

Critters Happy Birthday Card


My mom's 78th birthday is this month, so I decided to make her a few cards: from me, my brother & his wife, and our cats. (Yes, our cats deserve the opportunity to give cards, too!) I got my inspiration for my card from this card by Darlene Devries.

I began by cutting a piece of dark brown cardstock to 4.25x5.5". I stamped on that with Hero Arts' "Designer Woodgrain" background, using Hero Arts Cup o' Joe mid-tone shadow ink, to create a tone-on-tone effect. I determined how large to make the little windows, and cut the "doors" with my craft knife, scoring the left side of each flap. I used my Basic Grey Notch & Die tool to create the half-circle cut-out in each flap, to make it easier (& more obvious) to open them.

For the critters in the windows, I used Hero Arts' "Woodland Creatures" stamp set, adding in Stampabilities' "Ollie Owl" stamp. I stamped the owl, raccoon, & squirrel onto white cardstock using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored them with colored pencils, blending the colors with Gamsol on a paper stump. I cut the cardstock to fit behind the windows, and glued them to the back of the brown cardstock piece.

Inside of card

For the inside of the card, I used the same critters, adding in the skunk & ladybug. I stamped the squirrel, and masked it off so I could stamp the skunk to appear it was behind the squirrel. Finally, I stamped the raccoon and positioned the owl on his head. I stamped the balloon from Technique Tuesday's "Turn 29" stamp set, using Tuxedo Black for the string and Versamark for the balloon. I heat embossed the balloon with Zing! "Blue" embossing powder. I colored everything with colored pencils and Gamsol. Finally, I added some grass with 2 green colored pencils. I matted that with another piece of brown cardstock, and adhered it inside the card base.

To finish the card front, I stamped some of the leaves from Paper Smooches' "Botanicals 2" set in Versamark. I heat embossed them with Zing! "Leaf" embossing powder. I hand wrote the greeting, with one word in each window, and the "you!" inside. Finally, I adhered the brown panel onto the front of the card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Anything Goes"
a2z Scrapbooking's October challenge: Use 2 "hard" Hero Arts products

5 comments:

  1. so cute! Happy Birthday to your mom!

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  2. Such cute cards and I love how you've added those little windows on the first one! Thank you so much for sharing your project and for joining us over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog! :)

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  3. This is such an awesome card, Andrea! Such a fun design and beautiful coloring! I also love how you stamped the inside...so fun!
    Thanks so much for playing along in this month’s challenge at a2z Scrapbooking!

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  4. What adorable cards! Love that you created such a sweet card for your Mom's Birthday, especially a card that was perfect for our challenge at a2z this month! Always a pleasure to see your work our Gallery! Good Luck!

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  5. Cute cards, your mother is going to love it. Thanks for playing along with a2z Scrapbooking challenge.

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