Happy Birthday Kitty

A friend of mine has a birthday coming up. She is a cat person, so I decided to use the image from the "Newton's Birdhouse" stamp set from Newton's Nook for the image on my card. I brought in the greeting from My Favorite Things' "Birthday Greetings" stamp set (discontinued).

I followed a tutorial for a "Free Standing Pop-Up Card" at Splitcoaststampers.com. I have not made one of these in a long time, & figured it would be perfect for this little image.

After I cut a tag panel from Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper, I stamped the image in Ink on 3's Fade-Out ink so I could do some no-line coloring. I then used my Prismacolor colored pencils to color it. I used a green pencil to add grass to give Newton a surface to lie on. For the greeting, I used Versafine Clair Morning Mist ink, to coordinate with the grey kitty.

I rounded the top two corners of my tag with my 1/4" We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper. I cut a mat layer from red cardstock, to bring out the red in the birdhouse, & rounded the top corners of that. After I added the panel to my mat, I folded 2 die cut circles over the top. I punched a hole & set a large eyelet with my We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-Dile II Big Bite tool. Finally, I threaded a piece of ribbon through the eyelet & tied a bow around it with grey & white baker's twine.

I created my base from a piece of Bazzill Robin's Egg cardstock. I used a patterned paper from Echo Park's "Sweet Summertime" 6x6" pad to decorate the outside. Finally, I inserted & adhered my tag element into the base, following the tutorial instructions. I really love how this card came out, & especially how easy it was to put together, thanks to the excellent tutorial!

As a bonus, here's a photo of myself with our 2 new kittens, Charlie & Robinson, that I'm entering in Cleo's Special Random Draw at Double Trouble Paper Crafting's Challenge #90:

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Double Trouble Paper Crafting Challenge #90: "Are You Kitten Me?"

2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge #53

613 Avenue Create's August Challenge: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

Aud Sentiments Challenge #281: "Anything Goes + a Sentiment"