Stampin’ Up! Pleasant Pheasants Masculine Birthday

Well, here it is Saturday again and I hope your weekend is off to a great start. I have much to do and so little time! Actually, I have the same time as everyone, but it seems there isn’t enough of it.

Today’s card was inspired by the Moving Along with the Times Challenge #82, which has ‘for a man’ as it’s theme. I have some male family members with birthdays coming up, so this challenge fits very well.

I think my card also fits the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #358.

Here is my creation.

I started with a panel of Very Vanilla on which I centered, pretty much, the image from Pleasant Pheasants. I don’t know if they are pleasant, I can’t tell from their expressions, but it makes a pleasant looking card in my not-so-humble opinion. I stamped it in Soft Suede, then used Stampin’ Blends Markers to color the scene. Grass: Light and Dark Old  Olive; grass heads: Dark Daffodil Delight; hen: Light and Dark Crumb Cake and Bronze; rooster: Dark and Light Cherry Cobbler, Dark and Light Night of Navy, Light Old Olive, Light and Dark Pumpkin Pie, Light and Dark Crumb Cake, Bronze; bills and legs: Light smoky slate. For the white areas I used the White Stampin’ Chalk Marker. A dab of Wink of Stella in the blue/green areas of the rooster adds some iridescence.

When finished, this was glued to the back of the card front piece, which is a panel of Nature’s Notes Designer Series Paper. I dry embossed it with the Pinewood Planks 3D Dynamic Textured Impressions Folder. A circle was cut into this panel with the largest of the Layering Circles Framelits. Tear & Tape adheres this to the card base.

I swiped my Embossing Buddy over my papers and stamped 3 leaves with the Colorful Seasons Bundle. One was stamped with Versamark and embossed in Copper on Copper Foil Sheets, and one was stamped with Versamark, also embossed in Copper on a water colored panel of Whisper White, which was leftover from a previous project. All were cut with the coordinating dies from Seasonal Layers Thinlits. One leaf used the detailed leaf on the same water colored paper as before.

I arranged these at the bottom of the circle, and was NOT happy with the result. I then cut 2 of the berry branches in Crumb Cake using the die from the Frosted Bouquet Thinlits, and one from a scrap of Nature’s Poem DSP. This helped, but there was still something lacking.

I decided to use a die from Simply Defined to cut a banner from Soft Suede for my sentiment, went over it with my Embossing Buddy then stamped the sentiment in two steps. Two steps were necessary as the stamp, from Beautiful Day, was not curved like the banner. I covered up what I didn’t want, inked the word Happy in Versamark, uncovered the rest and stamped it. I then heat embossed it in Copper, and repeated the steps for the word Birthday.

Sentiment done, I placed Stampin’ Dimensionals on the back but didn’t uncover them yet. This was laid on the front of the card and the leaves and berry branches dry fit. After I was satisfied with the layout, I Liquid Glued them in place on the back of the sentiment banner, then uncovered the Dimensionals and attached the piece to the card front.  It took some time, but the card front is done and I like the result.

For the inside, Soft Suede ink was used for the sentiment, which is from the Perennial Birthday stamp set. A leaf from Rooted in Nature  and stamped in stamped-off-once Soft Suede fills the upper left corner. Another detailed die-cut leaf from Nature’s Poem DSP was applied to the lower right corner with Liquid Glue.

Three of the same small leaf as on the inside were stamped on the front of the envelope in soft Suede and more of the Nature’s Notes DSP applied to the flap.

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NON Stampin’ Up! products used: Banner die from Simply Defined.

CARD CUTS: Crumb Cake: card base 5-1/2″ x  8-1/2″ scored at 4-1/4″, berry branches 2″ x 6″; Very Vanilla: art panel 4″ x 5-1/4″, inside liner 3-3/4″ x 5″; Nature’s Poem Designer Series Paper: front woodgrain 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″, inside mat woodgrain 4″ x 5-1/4″, berry branch and inside leaf cajun craze pattern 2-1/2″ x 5-1/2″; Copper Foil Sheets: 2-1/2″ x 2-1/2″; Whisper White  water colored piece: 2-1/2″ x 5″; Soft Suede: sentiment banner 1-1/2″ x 4-1/2″

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