Happy Birthday

My sister-in-law's birthday is next week. I asked my brother if he wanted me to make a card for him to give to her, and he said that would be wonderful. I asked if he had any requests, and he said if I could do something with bunnies, that would work. She had had a rabbit as a pet, who died suddenly last year when they were away on a trip. I found several photos of her late rabbit in her Facebook album, and used those as reference for my coloring.

For the design, I decided to CASE myself this time, with this Easter card that I'd made in 2014. I used the same image from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, and, as in the original card, flipped it horizontally. I sized the image in Photoshop, and added the "Happy Birthday" with the type tool, along an oval path I drew. I printed that onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, then cut it with a Spellbinders "Classic Ovals LG" die. I colored the rabbit, flower, & grass with my Inktense pencils.

For the blue halo around the rabbit, I used a technique I learned in Online Card Classes' current offering: "Watercolor for Card Makers: Exploring Mediums." I scribbled a blue marker onto an acrylic block, then watered it down with plain water. I applied water around my image, then added the watered-down marker color, just enough to give it a glow.

For the large oval, I used one of the "Gold Ovals One" dies by Spellbinders to emboss a piece of watercolor paper, and cut it with the smallest of Spellbinders' "Grand Ovals." I used another technique I learned in the "Watercolor for Cardmakers: Exploring Mediums" class. I watered down some Mermaid Lagoon Distress ink, and painted it on my die cut oval. I dried that with my heat tool, then layered on more "watercolor." When it looked like I wanted, I dried it with my heat tool again, then glued my focal oval in the center.

I used a piece of brown polka-dotted patterned paper for the strip behind my focal panel. I matted it with blue, then adhered it to a piece of cream cardstock. I rounded the corners of the cream with my 3/8" Corner Chomper. I matted that with more blue, and rounded those corners as well. To mount the focal panel, I cut an oval from craft foam, slightly smaller than my watercolor paper. I adhered the oval to my background, using double-sided tape to sandwich the foam piece in between the oval and my background. Finally, I mounted my card front to a white A2 card base, on which I'd already rounded the corners.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Doodle Pantry's Ants in My Pantry Digital Challenge #9: "Anything Goes"
Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #274: "Cute Critters"
Through the Craftroom Door: "Anything Goes"