Birthday card!

I don't know about you, but I am always running out of suitable birthday and thank you cards. So I've been making these whenever I get a chance and stockpiling them waiting for a card to match a recipient. Not everyone appreciates every style, kwim?

Anyways, here it is!

I stamped Stampotique Originals' Girl with Heart Purse with Black Archival ink onto 140 lb. Mixed Media cardstock by Strathmore. I love that stuff. It's got a smoothish surface, but is heavyweight and tough enough to take a lot of abuse and abuse it I did!

Girl with Heart Purse was colored using my somewhat limited palette of Distress markers. I used the narrow side for the really skinny bits of her. I found that applying color with the brush tip onto my craft sheet and then using a barely damp water brush worked well for coloring her. I also used Craft Nibs with the Craft Nib holder to apply some of the colors as well whereI wanted to add a bit of shading in small places. If you don't have the Craft Nib holder and like the sharpish point of Craft Nibs, go get one. It's ergonomic and all that fun stuff. :D

A Distress marker was used to outline Girl with Heart Purse and to add a dotty background around her. I tore the edges, wet the cardstock, then sponged Tumbled Glass and Pumice Stone Distress inks onto the image panel.

The background was created with Tumbled Glass Distress Stain and sprays that I made with Fired Brick, Wild Honey, and Pumice Stone Distress Reinkers, water, and mini-misters. First Tumbled Glass Distress Stain was applied to the cardstock until I had the depth of color that I wanted. The colors were sprayed onto the craft sheet and the cardstock was dragged through the puddles. Water was misted onto the cardstock, and panel was heatset. Another layer of Tumbled Glass Distress Stain was applied and heat set. This process was repeated until I had a background that I liked.

I found an old Pebbles stencil that had birthday candles on it. I covered the flame parts of the candles with Post It notes and was left with the vertical candles. I changed their orientation to horizontal, then sponged Tumbled Glass Distress ink over the stencil on both sides of the panel.

I also had another old stencil that had little flower bouquets on it. The bouquets were traced using the fine tip of the Distress markers, then colored in with the brush tip.

Musical Washi tape was colored with a Copic marker, then used to ground the image panel. The same colored Washi tape was applied to a scrap of white cardstock and die cut with old QuicKutz arrows. Hearts were punched, sponged with Tumbled Glass Distress ink, and a birthday sentiment from Paper Trey's Mixed Messages set was added to one of them. I adhered everything and managed to leave an inky red fingerprint where I didn't want it, so I used the second heart to cover it. Tiny Attacher staples to the arrows and the heart.

I also have red fingerprints on my forehead, but they'll wash off. Besides, I didn't feel like stapling it to my head. I figured that might hurt.

Thanks for visiting today!

I shall be entering this card in the following challenges:
• Stampotique Designers Challenge #117: Birthday Theme
• Come & Get It Challenges: Birthday Theme
• The Squirrel & The Fox Challenge #53: Happy Birthday