Otterly Great Birthday

Challenge #24 at Lawn Fawnatics' blog is all about having fun with dies--Lawn Fawn dies in particular! I used several dies, as well as stamps from "Year Five" (with its coordinating dies) & "Fintastic Friends," to create this birthday card.

I began by die cutting a panel of white cardstock using the largest of the "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies, with a "Large Stitched Oval" die nested in the middle. I die cut the oval into 3 sections with the "Ocean Waves Borders" dies, then set that aside.

I stamped some of the fish from "Fintastic Friends" in Hero Arts Charcoal ink around the frame. I filled in the smaller spaces with two of the bubbles from that set. I made sure to stamp off the paper, both around the edges & in the middle, to make it look like a piece of patterned paper.

For the oval, I inked the sky portion with Broken China Distress Oxide ink, adding some Salty Ocean Oxide ink to the upper portion of that piece. I also used Salty Ocean for the bottom wave portion, and Faded Jeans Oxide plus Salty Ocean for the upper wave strip. I spritzed the wave strips with water from my Distress Sprayer, let that sit a few seconds, then blotted it up with a dry cloth.

I stamped the otter and present from "Year Five" in Hero Arts Black ink onto Canson XL Mixed Media paper. I colored them with Inktense pencils, using a water brush to pick up the color from the pencil and apply it to the paper. After they were thoroughly dry, I die cut them with the coordinating dies. I used a craft knife to cut along the otter's right paw, so I could slip the present behind it.

To know where I wanted the greeting, I first adhered the frame & top part of the oval to a white A2 card base. I lined up the greeting, from "Year Five," in the middle of the oval, and used my MISTI to stamp it in black ink. I glued my otter in place, and adhered the wave sections to the card base. Finally, I added a little shine to the otter's eye & nose with a black glaze pen.

I'm also entering this card in the Dies R Us Challenge #93: "Frame It."