Happy Birthday(s)

I'm going to post two cards today as there are two people in my life that share today as their birthday. One would be the love of my life - my husband Thad (also known as Ted, Teddy, Tad, Tedward..... shall I go on), and Sunshine, my son's girlfriend.

This card is Thad's and it is an original - it's a mish mosh of color and the color list would be very lengthy so I'm not even going to try it. I'll just say that I used SU's Sweet Celebrations, Big Pieces, and So Many Scallops. I didn't want some drab masculine card for him, and although this might look a little juvenile, it does have a "happy" feel to it.

This one I cased from JanTink - you can check out her absolutely "gojus" work on her blog . She is a genius designer and knocks me out with her creations. The technique she used (and I copied) for the main image in this card was something that I'd never tried before. When you see the close up below, you may be able to tell that the image is raised and that there are a multitude of colors in it. In her explanation, you stamp your image and then outline it (lightly..... learned that the hard way) with your stylus and then flip it over and gently go over your outline so that your image becomes raised on the right side. The image is stamped in Soft Sky and then after the "raising" you use a blender pen to add the additional colors. In this case, Blue Bayou, Groovy Guava, and Wild Wasabi. All those colors (plus Chocolate Chip) appear in the DS paper "Afternoon Tea." My card is a little different in that I put the corner piece on the bottom and my sentiment is inside. I hope Sunshine will like it.

If you try this technique here is what I learned - you can't use a lot of pressure when you are blending your colors 1) because of the kind of paper you are using (Whisper White) and 2) when you raise the image some of the paper fibers may already be compromised from the stylus so you need to be careful of this. You don't want any pilling. The stem and the leaves are done the same way.