A Birdie Birthday

Another year has started which means another round of Birthday Cards for the men in my life.  In the last 2 years, i've done the whole "sailing" and "boat" theme to death - you can see some of those cards here, here, here and here.  So, I needed some new mojo that didn't involve boats or maps.

Michey's Note:  I've decided to enter this into Our Creative Corner's "Over the Edge" challenge.  I originally wanted to go a bit more outside the lines than I did, but I have to mail this card, so I had to keep it envelope friendly.  I hope this still counts >.<

Yeah, it's got a bird, but it's a boy bird for sure!  I'm still smitten with the Weathered Wood technique I first blogged about last week, so I set off to come up with another combination.  This one uses Sahara Sand, River Rock and Always Artichoke.  I splattered on some Bravo Burgundy and Soft Suede with my Color Spritzer tool... I seriously can't get enough of my color spritzer - I practically use it on EVERY CARD these days... you'll see ;-)

The birdy is one of our A La Carte stamps - Young Vermillion. Isn't he a handsome little fella?  He's stamped in Soft Suede and has some pool party colored in on his chest using a blender pen. This panel was then sponged and splattered with soft suede and matted on a piece of Bravo Burgundy.

The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is from Perfectly Penned, stamped in Soft Suede and similarly distressed.

Everything is mounted a tad bit askew on an Always Artichoke panel that's been embossed using the Houndstooth Embossing Folder.  It's then tied with some Linen Thread and I added some tags to finish it off.

So, what do you think?  Did I pull off a boy-ish card without using any images of vehicles, powertools, or sports?

Thanks for taking a peek!
Michele

DETAILS - Products are available for purchase from me  at Stampin' Up

Stamps: Young Vermillion, Perfectly Penned, Tiny Tags
Paper: River Rock, Soft Suede, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla
Ink: River Rock, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy, Pool Party
Accessories: Big Shot, Houndstooth Embossing Folder, Jewelry Tag Punch, Simply Scored Scoring Tool, Linen Thread, Color Spritzer Tool, Blender Pen, Distressing Essentials Kit

{Heart} Attack!

As Valentine's day approached this year, I started to psyche myself out -- overthinking the card I would give to my special someone, worried that it wouldn't measure up.  Of course, this anxiety is all in my head, but at the time, it was giving me a very real creative block!

At the 11th hour, I was inspired by this Weathered Wood tutorial by Wanda Cullen and out popped this masculine-ish masterpiece.

I started out with Very Vanilla Cardstock, scored at every inch on my Simply Scored Scoring Tool. Then I just smeared different inkpads directly to the paper. I used Sahara Sand, a little bit of crumb cake, and an even littler bit of Always Artichoke.  The beauty of the score lines is they don't collect ink because they are depressed, but in a good way!  ;-)

I added in some of my background stamps (Wonderfully Worn in Real Red, and (retired) Sanded Background in Sahara Sand).  I {heart} my chunky background stamps sooooooo much!  I then tore and sponged the seams and edges with Sahara Sand and Always Artichoke.

It's hard to tell on the background, but I've stamped the swirl from Creative Elements, and then dabbed Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint over top to add a bit of glitz.  Then I hit the whole thing with my Color Spritzer tool using a Sahara Sand marker.

Once I had those two elements figured out, everything else was easy --  hearts, hearts, hearts! I used a mix of embosslits and punches to create the heart vignette, then tied it all up with some Linen Thread, and finished with some little tags.

This was the first card I made in a LOOOOONG time that wasn't slated for a class demonstation, so I used more products and techniques than usual.  It was incredibly freeing to be able to "go shopping" in my craft room and use whatever I felt like, lol!

I need to get inky like this more often ;-)

Thanks for taking a peek!
Michey

DETAILS - Products are available for purchase from me  at Stampin' Up

Stamps: Creative Elements, Tiny Tags, Wonderfully Worn, Sanded (retired)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Real Red, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand
Ink: Real Red, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Simply Scored Scoring Tool, Big Shot, Fashionable Hearts Embosslit, Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslit, Adorning Accents Edgelits Die and Embossing Folder, Linen thread, Full Heart Punch, Small Heart Punch, Jewelry Tag Punch