Happy Bird-day

The fifth theme at Bugaboo Stamps' Birthday Bash challenge series is to create a humorous birthday card. I recently got this image from Bugaboo, and felt it was perfect for this challenge! For the banner text, I created a text path in Photoshop, and typed the greeting on that, so it would print with the image. Not quite easy-peasy, but it did work out!

Because of the size of the image, I didn't really need a sketch. I cut a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper to 4.25x7", and printed my image onto that. To paint the panel, I first taped it to my cutting board (that I use exclusively for painting & inking). I applied clear water to the sky area first, and then dropped in and blended 3 different shades of blue watercolor. Once I got the sky looking like I wanted it, I set that aside to air dry while I worked on another card.

After the watercolor had dried, I colored the birds & balloons with Inktense pencils, using a damp paintbrush to blend the colors. I also ended up painting the banner with green watercolor. When all the coloring had dried, I added glitter with my clear Wink of Stella brush marker to the balloons & birds' hats. I also went over the eyes on the yellow bird, and pupils on the other, with a black gel pen, just to make them pop a bit more.

To finish the card, I trimmed the main panel down just slightly, and adhered it to a piece of orange cardstock. I then matted that with black, just for a pop of contrast, and adhered the completed card front to my card base. I will be sending this card on to Send a Smile 4 Kids.