Penny Black: For you - soooo happy it's your birthday!

Hello Blogging friends!  

There are alot of masculine birthdays in my extended family over the next few months, so I thought I would try and get ahead and make a few.  As I still had this little Penny Black dog on my desk from my card the other day, I thought I would ink him up again - he is just so sweet :-)  You must be getting tired of him LOL.......

I stamped him with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and heat-set the image with my heat-gun, then coloured him with my usual pencils and OMS.  I stamped the image again and cut out just the present, then cut little pieces of Best Creations Wine Red glitter cardstock and glued it to this present image and added some fine blue glitter to the bow/ribbon.  I lightly chalked around the image with blue chalk and drew in some little lines around his tail to make him look soooo happy.

For the sentiment panel, I diecut some blue cardstock with a Star Nestie, then to make the white cardstock fit nicely inside the blue star and not have too-big-a-border, I used the same Star Nestie and drew a line inside it (like using a stencil) then hand-cut it.  I wish Spellbinder would make Star Nesties with the in-between sizes like they do for Circle/Square etc. Nesties - {sigh}- it would be so handy!  To hide my slightly uneven hand-cutting, I ran my blue ink pad around the white cardstock.   I used my Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch to punch tiny stars from the same Wine Red glitter cardstock (yes, really!).  When you use this punch, the little leftover punchies are snowflakes AND very cute, tiny little stars.  I often use my border/edge punches for the leftover punchies - is much cheaper than buying embellishments.  I popped this panel up on mounts (dimensionals).

Here is a little close-up of the glitteriness:

The Kraft cardstock was embossed using my Cuttlebug and Crafts Too Stars embossing folder.

The designer paper is digital by NitWit Collections.  I made a matching button using my 14mm Epiphany Button Tool with the same designer paper.  I really love this tool - it is just the handiest little thing!  I tied some brown/white twine through the button, then glued it to the blue ribbon.  Here is a close-up of the button:

Challenges:

I am entering this card into the Splitcoaststampers 'Free for All' F4A52 challenge of "Kinder Birthday" where you are to make a card for a special child in your life - and the other Challenges are:

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C75 Challenge of  'Use dies to create your card'

Before I go, I wanted to express my grief and sadness at the devastating earthquake which struck Christchurch in New Zealand at around 1 pm NZ time yesterday.   It is always hard to find the right words at a time like this - most words seem to sound so hollow or cliched, but to all my friends over the Tasman in New Zealand, please know that my thoughts are with you.

Thanks again for stopping by - hope to see you again soon!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black - For you 3446E, Sentiment from Crafter's Companion 'Popcorn the Bear' PST-CDL Birthday Cuddles set

Ink:  Versafine Vintage Sepia, Versacolor Sky Blue pigment

Designer paper:  Best Creations GCS023 Wine red glitter cardstock, NitWit Collections Kit "Bear Boys Too" ©2007 by Mary Fran of www.nitwitcollections.com

Accessories:  Cuttlebug, Crafts Too Stars CTFD3002 embossing folder, Spellbinder Square and Star Nestabilities, Epiphany 14mm Button tool and 14mm blank button, blue grosgrain ribbon, brown/white twine, .5mm/1mm mounts, heat-gun, Kaisercolour blue chalk, Designer dries clear adhesive (for blue glitter), fine blue glitter, Derwent Coloursoft + Prismacolor pencils, Odourless Mineral Spirits (OMS), paper stumps, Cardstock:  Kraft (by American Crafts), KW Doggett "Knight" white, sky blue

Punches:  Martha Stewart Snow Flurry edge punch