Happy Birdday

A Blog Named Hero's current challenge theme is "Texture." I decided to create one more card for this. I will send this to Darlene at Live Love Cards, to go to a Meals on Wheels recipient. She has a few opportunities if you like to donate cards. You can read more about them at her site.

I used Sketch #10 from Operation Write Home--an oldie but goodie! I first cut 3 tags from cream cardstock, and stamped the owl from Hero Arts "Missing You" set on each, like he's peeking in from the sides. I colored the owls with Prismacolor colored pencils. Since this is a birthday card, and the owl looks kind of funky anyway, I colored him in bright, funky colors! I colored the whites of the eyes with a white gel pen, and used a black Sakura glaze pen on the pupils.

For the background, I used Penny Black's "Dotlets" stencil & Ranger Texture Paste. I taped my cardstock down and taped the stencil in place over it. I then spread the paste over the stencil, trying to get kind of an uneven texture, but not too wild. I removed my stencil and cleaned it & my knife, and set my panel aside to dry. After it had dried, I replaced the stencil, and inked the dots with Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink. For the strip behind the tags, I ran a piece of green cardstock through my Fiskars crimper tool, just to give another bit of texture & interest.

I stamped the greeting, also from "Missing You," on a strip of cream cardstock in Versafine Onyx Black ink. I cut it into a banner shape, and inked the edges with Squeezed Lemonade.

After I inked the edges of my tags with Squeezed Lemonade, I glued my crimped piece to the background, and then glued the tags to it. I punched a hole in the top of each tag, through all 3 layers, with my Crop-a-Dile II Big Bite. Then I set a gold eyelet in each hole. To continue the metal motif, I used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and staples I'd painted with liquid gold leafing to staple the greeting banner. I squirted a bit of glue under the banner, just to hold it down. Finally, I mounted my card front to a white A2 card base.

I'm also entering this card in a2z Scrapbooking's September Challenge: "Make It a Tag!"