Saying Happy Birthday!!

Hi everyone!!  Here's a quick post to celebrate my nephew's birthday and the fact that I actually finished this birthday card (yay me!!).   My nephew loves rodeo and cowboy boots, so I decided to go a "western" feel to his card.  The card is made out of a 12 x 12 Core'dinations card stock on which I used a wrinkled distress technique (yes ... I will actually iron a piece of cardstock and not my clothes).  Some red and white check printed paper and a piece of bandana print card stock were used to decorate both the outside and inside of the card.

 To go along with my western theme, I used Tim Holtz's stars and train track (to look like a fence on the bottom of the card) embossing folders to deboss the front of the card.  I swiped some black archival ink on the folders before I sent them through my Vagabond machine.  This gives the card the look like it has been "branded".  The debossed image didn't go all the way to the the center crease, so I used some tissue tape on the crease to cover the bare space.

I fussy cut Tim Holtz's jalopy truck (stamped in black archival ink on kraft paper) and used Crackle Accents on the windows and headlights.  A little Walnut Stain Distress Stain was used to highlight the crackles.  This was foam tape mounted to the front of the card.









I topped it off with a strip of denim material and a corrugated cardboard diecut that I treated with Antique Linen Distress Paint and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I began to wish my nephew a "happy" birthday with this  metal embellishment that I painted with Barn Door Distress Paint and some Ginger alcohol ink.  Love this grungy, cute piece on that bandana print!

As you can see in the pic below, I carried over the checked and bandana print paper to the interior of the card.

I used Tim Holtz's WISH die on the bandana print and backed it with more denim fabric.  I tied a cute cowboy ornament to the H and let him run along a strip of printed paper I added to the top and bottom of the interior of the card.  The kraft paper interior was kept to a very neutral palette with stamped sentiments in black and coffee archival ink.  I used a few TH stencils with Walnut Stain Distress Ink as well.

The star of the show is the denim pocket (real denim!!) that I found as a part of banner set at Michaels. Makes a great tag holder!!  I used Tim's stripes embossing folder on the bottom of the pocket and added a little Picket Fence Distress Stain/Paint mixture to the embossed stripes (to give them a faded look).  Some knotted rope, a TH stenciled coffee ring, and a metal "birthday" embellishment completes the look.  I hope you can see the Stampendous bandana print background stamp underneath the pocket -- such a great stamp!  You can see a little sheen on the paper here in the sun.  I used a layer of Matte Multimedium to seal the kraft paper interior.

Here are a couple of pics with the tag.  You might recognize the background from my Tim Holtz June Tag for 2015 post.  A piece of resist kraft paper (cut off of the cover of Tim's kraft resist Paperstash pad) was inked with Weathered Wood and Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and stamped with a TH sentiment (black archival ink and clear embossed).  It made the perfect holder for my nephew's gift card.  The tag is topped with a rope tag tie and a "play" ideology charm on a safety pin.

 

The back really shows off the the wrinkled distress technique.  It works so well on the Core'dinations card stock.

I'm really not very good at card making.  It has taken me a few weeks to finish this one.  I hope my nephew likes it.  Anyway, it contains a heart-full of love and best wishes.  Since it definitely says something ... I'm entering it in Frilly and Funkie's Something to Say Challenge.  And since it's Anything Goes over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, I'm going to enter it there as well.  

On a related note, I would love to give a warm hug to the DT over at Simon Says Stamp for spotlighting my Stars and Stripes burlap canvas.  I was floored!!  There were so many amazing summer projects.  I love that piece (it's hanging on my wall) but I really appreciate the fact that someone else liked it too.  Thanks again!!

Hope you all have had time to start (and finish) a project as well this week.  Looking forward to seeing and being inspired by your works of art.  -- Mary Elizabeth