HOWDY BIRTHDAY! SURPRISE!

Is there a horse lover in you life?  My beautiful daughter- in-love loves to ride.  I made a birthday wish with a surprise in this card Using the new Sizzix Pop N Cut Card die.   The outside of this card is as shown above and the inside is shown below.  

It was a stormy gray sky outside when I took these pictures and it affected the colors somehow.  What shows as blue on the outside of the card is actually a steel gray.  And the card base is a coffee color.  

I also have difficulty with blurred images that I can't ever seem to correct.  Maybe I will try a tripod next time.  I would have taken these again, but I had already given the card away!!!!  So, I apologize if your eyes are going crossed looking at my pictures.

 This is what the Sizzix Pop N Cut die looks like.  It is shown with (left) and without (right) the magnetic insert.  There are other inserts that are made for this basic die.  The card below is the card opened with the outside showing.  

There are two cuts with the Pop N Cut die for this card.  The first is the length of the card that has the cut outs of the label that the horse is attached.  This becomes the inside of the card and was cut with the flowered paper.  

The second cut was of coffee brown card stock and it becomes the outside.  This was a quick and easy way to make a pop up card.  I'm pleased with this purchase and hope to add some of the additional magnetic dies that are available.

Punch and die cut ovals used for the background of the little cowpoke.

The little cowpoke vignette is framed by smudging the outside of the oval with ink and daubers as pictured.

Martha Stewart punched flowers.

EK Success punches are used for mounting the horse onto the pop up.

The sentiment is die cut with a Spellbinders die.

Heartfelt Creations has many beautiful stamps that were created to be used with Spellbinders dies.

Scotland's Poet by Highlander Celtic Stamps

Robert Burns 1759-1796, is noted as Scotland's National Poet.

"O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others

see us."  "The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry"

This beautiful stamp from Highlander Celtic Stamps was the inspiration for this tribute to the noted author.

All stamping on this project used Ranger Archival Ink.

 This stamp was unmounted and I stamped it using this Crafter's Companion Acrylic block which is shaped differently from  most acrylic blocks that we use.

 The Crafter's Companion has a rounded surface that allows the stamper to "roll" the stamp onto the cardstock.  The idea is to stamp without losing any of the detail of the stamp.  I thought it took a little getting use to, but did work well.  I will continue to use it for awhile and then decide what I think.

 I used a Spellbinders tag to cut the beautiful frame for the cameo of Burns.

 The blue size oval scalloped punch was EXACTLY the right size for the oval in the middle of the frame.

 I am not sure who to give credit to for this stamp.  If anyone knows, please let me know.  If I remember correctly I purchased it at the Stampaway Rubber Stamp Show in Cincinnati several years ago.  I remember that I had to look up the stamps in books and then they pulled them out of drawers as unmounted.

 I used Eclipse Paper to make a silhouette of the book and candle stamp to use as a mask while I stamped the written word stamp in the background.

The background stamp of writing is made by Inkadinkado.

The background layer and Burns cameo are both airbrushed with Copic markers and distressed using a variety of tools to give them a vintage look.

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 The card was then assembled and layered on a layer of butterscotch cardstock off centered on black.

BLUE BIRD BLESSINGS!

Today was a beautiful day full of sunshine and perfect for rubber stamping.  I chose a Heartfelt Creations stamp of a bluebird for the centerpiece of this card.

I stamped the card in Ranger Archival Ink and colored it with Copic Sketch Markers, airbrushing a blue mist around the edges.  Then I finished off the scene with Stampscape Reeds and edges of the Oak Branch stamp using Distress Ink Pine Needles.

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Next I stamped and heat embossed three flowers with white embossing powder on vellum.

I cut out the flowers with Heartfelt Creations Rose Creations Dies.
Then inked the flowers ever so lightly with Distress ink Spun Sugar using a dauber.

Again using vellum I stamped, heat embossed and then cut out the Heartfelt Creations  frame shown in the picture.

After assembling the card, I stamped the Stampin Up Blessings stamp across the bottom of the card.