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.

This card was created with Stampscapes, Tweety Jill and many other brands of stamps. I airbrushed the background with Copics, B02, B04 and B08. Greens are YG07 , YG 09 and Y 08. I used a little bottle cap to mask for the sun.

I have been on several excursions in the past couple of months some of which included a short jaunt to Dayton Ohio and another longer trip to Schaumburg Il. Of course when I travel I check out the local craft suppliers for Rubber Stamps, Cardstock and unusual items of interest.

While in Dayton, I made my first trip to Marco's Paper in the Kettering/Dayton area. I was interested in purchasing some Nina cardstock to use with the Copic markers alcohol ink.

Upon entering the store, I was pleasantly greeted by a display of Tweety Jill's Rubber Stamp Collection by TJ Designs. These are deeply etched red rubber stamps mounted on cling foam and made to use with acrylic blocks. These collections are sets of themed rubber stamps in clear cases. There are coordinating designed paper for each theme. The colors in these designs took my breath away. They are beautiful.

While on the Schaumburg trip I had a lot of free time in the evenings. I was very blessed on this trip as I was able to stay in a large room. The room was able to accomodate two banquet luncheon tables. I brought my stamping materials with me and so I was able to spend every evening and two weekends creating cards!