Happy Birthday

Our Daily Bread Designs has been having an "Anything Goes with ODBD Stamps" challenge. I decided to use two of their stamps, "Hummingbird" & "Bee Balm," for my card.

I first die cut the opening in my card front panel with a Spellbinders "Labels Eighteen" die, large enough to frame the flower. I traced the outline of that opening onto a piece of Strathmore Bristol paper, and used that as a guide to position my image. I set up the panel & stamp in my MISTI. Once I'd placed the stamp where I wanted it, I erased my pencil lines & stamped the flower in Versafine Onyx Black ink. Then I heat embossed that with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. I did the same with the hummingbird, on another scrap of bristol.

To color my images, I used Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens, with a damp paintbrush to blend out the greens on the leaves of the bee balm. I have printed several images of both hummingbirds & bee balm flowers, just for reference on how to color them.

Once I'd finished my painting, I die cut the hummingbird with the coordinating ODBD die. I also inked around the outside of my bristol panel with Tumbled Glass Distress ink on a sponge dauber, leaving the paper white just around the plant, so that it looks like it's glowing. I then set that aside while I worked more on my front panel.

I cut a piece of craft foam to the same size as my card front. I laid my cardstock over the foam, and placed my "Labels Eighteen" die in the opening in the cardstock. I traced around the inside of the die with a pencil, then removed the die & cardstock. I repositioned the die around the outline, and ran it through my die cutting machine, to cut a window in the craft foam.

I stamped the greeting, from the "Happy Messages" set by Stampendous, in Versafine Onyx Black & clear heat embossed that. Then I trimmed 1/8" off each side of the craft foam, and used Scor-Tape to adhere it to the back of my panel, lining up the die cut windows in each piece.

To assemble my card, I adhered my flower panel to the upper left corner of a white A2 card base. I then used more Scor-Tape to adhere the card front panel over top. I placed 2 tiny pieces of foam tape on the back of the bird's head to provide a bit of support, and glued it in place on the card front. Finally, I added several sequins: 4mm & 6mm Sparkling Clear by Pretty Pink Posh; 5mm Crystal from Darice; and 8mm white iridescent that I'd gotten at Hobby Lobby.

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

Die Cut Divas: "Something Spring"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge: "A Bit o' Green"
Incy Wincy Designs: "Shades of Green"
Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday: "Use Something Floral"