Two Birthday Cards

I recently saw this post on Facebook about James Kuntz:

My name is Salena Catron - Mr. Kuntz is My Best Friend and Neighbor...This year June 15, 2015 Mr. Kuntz will be 100...
Posted by James Ralph Kuntz on Wednesday, May 13, 2015

I decided to make one card each for my mom & me to send. I am also entering these cards in the Pretty Pink Posh Watercolor Blog Hop, going on this weekend.

For my first card, I began by creating the background. I stamped the Hero Arts/Basicgrey "Capture Prism" background stamp on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, using Versamark ink. I heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder, to create a resist. I then colored over the whole panel with gelatos in blues, greens, & silver. I spritzed it generously with my homemade Perfect Pearls mist, to spread the colors on the unmasked portions. I started with a brush to blend the colors, but it wasn't getting the gelatos to "break down" like I wanted, so I ended up rubbing with my finger. That worked like a charm! After I finished with the coloring, I set my background aside to dry.

I used the cupcake image from the "Happy Birthday" mini stamp & die set by Tim Holtz. I stamped it in Versafine Onyx Black ink on a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper, and clear heat embossed it. Then I colored it in with my Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolors. (I recently got a set of these tube watercolors, and so far, am loving them!) Once I had the color as I wanted, I let that dry for a bit, then die cut it with the coordinating die.

I decided I needed something to ground the cupcake, so I die cut a strip of black paper, with the pinked die from "Stitched Borders 1," and the straight die from "Stitched Borders 2," both by Pretty Pink Posh. I also cut the bottom of the background panel with the pinked die, and then glued the black strip on top. Then I popped the cupcake on foam tape above that.

I stamped one of the greetings from this stamp set on another scrap of black paper, and die cut it using one of the "Stitched Tags" dies by Pretty Pink Posh. I positioned it at the top of the card, overhanging the edge slightly, and stitched it in place with my sewing machine. I cut off the part that went above the card. Finally, I mounted my finished panel to an A2 card base.

For my second card, I decided to go a little wild & crazy, using a couple of techniques I learned in Online Card Classes' "Mask-erade" class. Since Mr. Kuntz is turning 100, I knew I wanted to use the "Stitched Filmstrip" die by Pretty Pink Posh, with the digits "1 0 0" in the spaces. So I die cut that first from purple cardstock. I then cut a piece of Mixed Media Paper to 4.25x5.5". I punched several stars from freezer paper, and cut another strip of freezer paper to just smaller than the filmstrip die cut. I ironed those on to the background, and then made swirls with masking fluid.

Once the masking fluid had dried, I painted over the masked panel with watercolors in the yellow/orange/red range, just letting the colors blend on the paper. I let that dry, and removed all the masking. I placed the filmstrip die cut in place, and lightly traced the openings with a pencil. Then, again with my pencil, I traced the numbers onto the background, using a lettering template I've had for several years. I colored in the numbers with a black marker, erased my pencil marks, and glued down the filmstrip. Finally, I coated the numbers with Diamond Stickles.

For the banner, I typed the letters to spell "celebrate" on a blank canvas in Photoshop. I printed them out on more of the purple cardstock, and cut around each letter in a banner shape. I used my centering ruler to place the "b," which is the middle letter, and then placed the other letters to either side. When I had the spacing right, I glued them in place. I ran a line of Ranger Multi Medium Matte along the top of the banners, and glued down a piece of yellow baker's twine. I finished off by tying 2 tiny bows with more twine, and gluing them with more Multi Medium. Finally, I added dots of Diamond Stickles around the background, for a bit of added sparkle.

I'm also entering my first card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Make It Masculine" challenge.