Saturday 1 April 2017

Happy birthday to Ewe

Hi there :)  Today's card is my #6 for the #I'mbringingbirthdaysback project.  My nieces birthdays seem to come in a big bunch - three of them in March!  This card is the one I made for Miss Kody.

Kody is a little farm girl and she loves her animals.  For the last few years she's had a pet lamb for school and she's won lots of ribbons for her lamb training skills so when I saw the Clearly Besotted 'Feeling Sheepish' stamp and die set I knew I had to get it.  I purchased this one directly from Craft Stash in the UK as it was the only place I could locate both the stamps and the dies, and their service was pretty awesome.

I started off by stamping the images I wanted onto some watercolour paper.  I even used pieces that were left over from a previous card project... very thrifty of me LOL

I did all the colouring using my Zig Clean Color Markers. I started off by doing the grass:

Then I die cut them and used my water brush to blend the grass right out to the bottom edge.

Next I started on the sheep. I used some greys to do their wee feet and some peachy colours for their faces along with some pink in their ears and for their cheeks.

I used some Micropore tape to hold the dies in place while I die cut these little babies... which led to a little bit of a learning curve!

It turns out that even though Micropore tape isn't super sticky it IS sticky enough to lift your carefully coloured paper off if you are a bit 'enthusiastic' about removing it... and that might actually cost you time because then you have to do another sheep to replace it!  Just saying :)

I did consider keeping this 'oopsy' for Darnell's Boo Boo challenge... but the honest truth is that I've got a much bigger oopsy to share for that one!

Anyway... onto the next step... I had a bit of a loose idea as to what I was going to make for Miss Kody so I started laying out the pieces I had in mind.

I used some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to create a bit of sky:

The hills were a little more challenging!  Darn perfectionism really got in my way with this one!  I started off with some Mowed Lawn Distress Ink...

...nah too bland!  Maybe I could create some interest with some water droplets...

... ahh... nah!!!  Maybe spray on some glimmer mist??

Hmm... it's kinda getting there.  Maybe some Twisted Citron Distress Ink would help...

Yay!  Loving it!  And every little hill paddock needs a cute little fence thanks to the Rolling Hills die from My Favorite Things.

Before I added my sheep I had to stamp the sentiment... and the MISTI really helps get everything lined up perfectly.

Of course I wanted to heat emboss the sentiments before I added the wee sheep to the card front!

My little sheep that I had to do a replacement copy of was saved for the inside of the card:

Next I layered my card front onto some perfectly coordinated paper from my stash... I'm pretty sure it's an Autumn Leaves paper from YEARS ago.

But wait... there's more... my little sheep weren't quite finished.  I knew I wanted to have white sheep but I thought my niece might appreciate a bit of bling so I got out my Wink of Stella pen and got busy... and I love the results!




And since it was Kody's birthday... and I already had everything on my table... I decided to make her a gift card holder to match her card... and of course to hold the actual gift card I'd bought her.  Of course I used my Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Envelope die set... super useful die!

Having just turned 10, she was able to appreciate the puny nature of the sentiments... and she thought it was especially funny that her Auntie would use 'ewe' instead of 'you' since she was a school teacher LOL

Here's the finished card and gift card holder:

Thanks for visiting today... I hope 'ewe' have an awesome day xx

3 comments:

  1. Shell this is perfect - love our sheep and the hills look so rich and lush.
    Blessings
    Maxine

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  2. Oh Shell! How absolutely perfect! I love the added touch of the wee sheep face on the inside and the gift card holder is super cute! Well done you!!

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  3. Cute factor X ten. It reminds me of the remake of the happy birthday song .... Hippo Birdies 2 Ewes, Hippo Birdies 2 Ewes .... well you get it.

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Thanks, Shell xx