Happy Birdday

Hero Arts is having a Makeover Challenge, to celebrate their website makeover. I created my card (based on an old one of mine) to send to a friend for her birthday.

Original inspiration card

For my made-over card, I used Hero Arts' "Missing You" stamp set. I stamped the bird 3 times on Strathmore Bristol paper, using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I colored them with my Zig Clean Color markers, using a damp paintbrush to pull the color out to create some basic shading. After they had dried, I fussy cut them out, and "painted" the edges with a black brush-tip marker to camouflage the white edge of the paper and make it blend in with the black stamped lines.

To create the background, I used the "Flag Pattern" stencil by Hero Arts. I taped it to a piece of white cardstock I'd cut to 3.75x5.5", and blended Distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron, Mermaid Lagoon, and Abandoned Coral to create a gradient of color. I wanted this panel to pop up off the card, so I cut a piece of 2mm-thick craft foam just smaller than the background, and adhered it with double-sided adhesive. I cut a 1/2" wide strip of a coral-colored paper, and adhered it to my white A2 card base. Then I adhered my background panel over that, so about 1/4" of the coral peeked out from underneath.

I needed something to stamp the legs of my birds on, since I'd had to cut them off when I fussy cut the bodies. (I swear, the birds did not scream! LOL) But I didn't want to cover my pretty inked background. So I cut a piece of vellum to 4" wide, and die cut the bottom edge with one of the "Stitched Borders 3" dies from Pretty Pink Posh. I trimmed off the other long edge to the height I needed, and stamped the bottom of the bird 3 times across the top, again using Archival Jet Black ink. I heat set that so it wouldn't smear. I applied liquid glue to the back of the vellum, just behind where the birds would go, and glued it to the background. Then I glued my birds in place on top of the vellum.

I stamped my greeting, from the same stamp set, on white cardstock, and die cut it with one of the "Stitched Tags" dies, also by Pretty Pink Posh. I cut off the one side, just along the stitching lines, and inked the other edges with Abandoned Coral. I then adhered it to the top of the card front.

To add a little something-something to my card, I scattered some 4mm & 6mm Sparkling Clear sequins by Pretty Pink Posh across the upper part of the background panel. I also added them to the scallops along the bottom of the vellum, both for prettiness and to give me another place to hide some glue to adhere the vellum to the background. Gotta love pretty + practical! :) Finally, I added a coat of Glossy Accents to the birds' eyes, and that completed this card. Hopefully our friend will get a kick out of it!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Live Love Cards' September Challenge: "Sparkle & Shine"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Love this Technique" (used ink blending, one of my favorite techniques)
A Blog Named Hero's "A Happy Challenge"