Happy Birthday Cupcake Shaker

On Day 3 of Online Card Classes' "Watercolor for Card Makers: Exploring Mediums," Shari Carroll had a lesson on gelatos & watercolor crayons. For this card, I used Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons to color my card front.

I first stamped the "Capture Prism" background by Hero Arts on to a panel of 140 lb. watercolor paper, using Versamark ink. I heat embossed that with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. Some of the areas of the stamp didn't quite cover fully, so I filled in those spots with my Versamarker, sprinkled on more embossing powder, and melted that. To apply the colors, I scribbled with a crayon in each space, going down the columns and alternating sides of each opening. Then I took a damp paintbrush and spread the color out, to get a gradient in each section. Then I set that aside to air dry.

After it had dried, I die cut the cupcake from the panel, using dies from the "Birthday Bash" set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I also stamped the cupcake with the coordinating stamps on a piece of white cardstock, using Hero Arts Fresh Peach & Pool inks. I applied dots of Star Dust Stickles to the "sprinkles" on the cupcake frosting, and let that dry.

I adhered a piece of acetate behind the cupcake window in my watercolor paper, then applied 2 layers of foam tape to the back. I filled the space behind the window with pink, blue, & clear seed beads from my stash, then removed the release papers from the foam tape. I adhered my stamped panel, so the cupcake shows through the window.

For the greeting, I stamped one from "Birthday Bash" on white cardstock, using the Pool ink, then cut it into a banner strip. I adhered it to the card front, then mounted the completed shaker to a white A2 card base. I will be sending this to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

a2z Scrapbooking's September "Shake It Up"
A Blog Named Hero's "Die Cutting"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "No Designer Paper"