Hippo Birdie

Send a Smile 4 Kids is having their "Birthday Fun 4 Kids" challenge. I got this stamp set designed by Julie Ebersole recently, and figured it would be perfect for this challenge. I mean, what kid wouldn't want a birthday card with a hippo and a birdie holding balloons? :)

I began by die cutting the background for my scene. I first cut a panel with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Small Stitched Rectangles" die, from 140 lb. watercolor paper. I then cut the bottom portion off with one of Mama Elephant's "Landscape Trio" dies. I inked the grass part with Mowed Lawn Distress ink, adding some Peeled Paint towards the bottom to deepen the color. I did the sky with Distress inks in Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, and a bit of Chipped Sapphire at the top. Finally, I adhered both panels to a piece of cardstock, to create one panel.

For the hippo & the bird, I stamped them on white cardstock, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored them with colored pencils, blending the colors with Gamsol on a paper stump. I then fussy cut both. I stamped the hippo on the background (mostly so I would still have the tail), and glued the fussy cut piece on top. I then stamped the bird standing on the hippo (this time, to get the legs in the picture), and glued the cut version on top. I stamped the party hat on a scrap of patterned paper, and cut that out. After stamping the hat on the hippo's head, I glued the paper piece on top. Borrowing a page from Nichol Magouirk's playbook, I dotted over the bird's & hippo's eyes with a black gel pen, just to give them more presence.

I die cut 3 balloons from patterned papers in my scrap stash, using dies from Lawn Fawn's "Party Balloons" set. I felt the design was getting a little too heavy on the right side, so I glued them in place towards the upper left, as if a breeze were blowing them back. I drew balloon strings with a white gel pen, so the strings are "tied" to the hippo's tail and the bird's wing.

I stamped a greeting from the "Wish Big" set on the grass portion, using Versamark ink. Then I heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. Finally, I matted that panel with a red-orange cardstock, to echo the reddish-orange in one of the balloons. I was going to mount that directly to a white card base, but felt the white was a bit too stark a contrast. So I adhered my panel to a piece of pale blue cardstock instead, and then mounted that to my A2 card base. As a finishing touch, I coated the balloons with Glossy Accents. Hopefully this card will give a hospitalized child somewhere a good chuckle!