# Bringing Birthdays Back

Hi there :)

Today I've got a little project that I'm working on this year thanks to my lovely friend Sheree.  Back in the middle of January, Sheree and I did a road trip to Wellington to stay with our good friend Esther...  we visited scrapbooking places, Spotlights, ate out and generally had a super awesome time... we SOOO need to do this again! 

I digress... I go off on tangents all the time!  So back to Sheree... she was telling us about a project called 'Bringing Birthdays Back' that she'd heard about through Stampin Up.  Here's the explanation in her own words:

I would like to share with you a project that I am working on.  Stampin Up released a stamp at the beginning of last year and it was a project of Shannon West from the home office.  She was wanting to encourage people to send snail mail.  To encourage this 'Card Movement' she designed a stamp #imbringingbirthdaysback.   I purchased the stamp last year and it sat in my stash till this year.  I decided over the Christmas holidays that I would like to do the same thing.  So since the beginning of January I have been making and sending cards and stamping this stamp on the envelopes. I have attached a photo of a couple of cards that were sent at the beginning of the week to show you the stamp. I am also numbering them as I send them out. This has been very rewarding so far and I will definitely keep this up - it will be interesting at the end of the year to see how many have been sent - so far it is 20 birthday cards.

That email was sent to me over a month ago so I'm sure the card count is a bit higher by now! 

To be honest I'm a slack birthday card sender... Esther can attest to that... I think she's had 2 (or maybe 3) birthday cards in the last 10 years.  I have 'good intentions' of sending cards but then time disappears and it just doesn't happen.  So... I decided to buy this stamp from Sheree and make it a goal to send friends and family birthday cards that I have made... and so far so good!

Sheree's birthday is actually in January so I decided that she would get my #1 card with this stamp and here's what I made for her:

Sheree asked me how I'd made it and luckily I'd taken a couple of photos of the process so here it is in a few easy steps.

I started off by stamping the image with black ink and then heat embossing it with Ranger clear embossing powder.  The image is called 'Fairytale' and it's from Lavinia Stamps.  If you live in New Zealand you can get it from Krafters Cart in Auckland and they have a fabulous service.

I wanted this image stamped on watercolour paper and it was a good thing I had my MISTI handy because it took about six stampings before I finally had the image completely black!

Next I masked off a moon area where the dandelion flower was stamped... at this point I knew exactly how I wanted the finished card to look!

Then I added some colour to my background using Distress Inks - Spun Sugar and Shaded Lilac.  I didn't mask the wings of the fairy but I was super careful around this area because I didn't want any colour in the wings.

Before I removed the mask I added some 'artistic' splatters with Ranger Pearl paint.  I put a bit of the paint onto a stamping block, watered it down a bit and then just 'flicked' it (artistically of course!) from a tiny paint brush. 

Then I unmasked the moon and painted in the wings with my Wink of Stella pen for some sparkle.

I thought the moon was a bit stark so I softly added some watercolour shading using Distress Inks - Pumice Stone and Weathered Wood.

At the last minute I decided to die cut the image with a stitched border die and pop it onto some cardstock to make it stand out.  I also stamped Sheree's name using Concord & 9th's Sophisticated Script stamps - Upper & Lower Case... totally LOVE these stamps!  They have FAB service too!

The final step was to stamp my new stamp on the back of the envelope - I didn't use the MISTI for this one and it stamped perfectly the very first time!

So far I've made (and sent) 8 birthday cards this year... total miracle!  I'm just crossing my fingers I don't run out of steam before Esther has her birthday in October!!  LOL

Thanks so much for visiting xx