Happy Birdday

I decided to do one more card for the Dies R Us Challenge #97, "Birds." I used a new-to-me Hero Arts set, "Better Together," along with some Essentials by Ellen stamps & dies. The sketch for the May challenge at Live Love Cards inspired my design.

I stamped 2 of the birds & the branch from "Better Together" in Versafine Onyx Black ink onto scraps of 140 lb. watercolor paper. After clear heat embossing them, I watercolored them with my Inktense pencils, using a damp paintbrush to pick up the color from the pencil & apply it to the paper. When they were dry, I die cut them with the coordinating dies.

Since this is a birthday card, of course I needed some birthday-themed accessories. I stamped, watercolored, and die cut the present & cupcake from "Bear Ware," & one of the balloons from "Wish Big." (Both are Essentials by Ellen sets.)

For the middle strip, I used Ranger alcohol inks on Yupo paper. I stuck mainly to green, blue, & yellow for my color palette. I had initially included a light pink, but it ended up getting just a bit too muddy, so I had to wipe down my paper and start over. Thankfully, Yupo is very forgiving that way!

I die cut an oval from Strathmore Mixed Media paper with a Lawn Fawn "Large Stitched Oval" die. I inked that with Tumbled Glass Distress ink, spritzed it with water from a Distress Sprayer, let that sit for a few seconds, & blotted it with a dry cloth. That took up a little too much of the ink, so I repeated the process once more, which gave me the results I wanted. I dried it with my heat tool, & glued the birds & branch in place. I thought it needed a little something more, so I stamped the music notes from "Better Together" around the birds with Memento London Fog ink.

One of the greetings in Hero Arts' "Missing You" stamp set (discontinued) says "Happy Birdday." Unfortunately, the words are stacked, & I wanted them all on one line. They are too close together to cut apart or mask easily, so I nixed the idea of using that stamp. Instead, I spelled out the same greeting with Lawn Fawn's "Claire's ABCs." I stamped & heat embossed that onto a piece of pink cardstock, and cut it into a banner.

To assemble my card, I cut a 1x5.5" wide strip from my alcohol ink background. (It was originally 5x7".) I adhered that in the center of a panel of yellow cardstock. I glued my presents & cupcake in the lower right corner. I used the balloons to help me decide where to place my oval, and then adhered that in place.

I glued the pink & mint balloons in place, leaving the bottoms unglued. I poked a hole through the background, behind the bottom of each balloon, and threaded through 2 plies of black embroidery floss. After I taped the ends of the floss to the back of my panel, I pierced another hole below the branch, threaded the other ends of the floss through that, and taped them on the back. I glued down my third balloon, and repeated the process to add the string. Finally, I tied a knot in the leftover floss, trimmed the ends, and glued it over the strings on the top of the branch, to make it look like the balloons are tied to the branch. I glued my greeting banner below the oval, added some clear Wink of Stella glitter to each balloon, and adhered my panel to a white A2-size card base.

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

A Blog Named Hero: "Watercolor"
Through the Craft Room Door: "Anything Goes"