[Stamping Around] SA04 - Waltzingmouse Stamp Challenge: Happy Birthday

One of my dear, trans-atlantic friends was having a birthday and even though he was visiting the US, our schedules didn't line up for a quick weekend catch-up (Yes, I'm still traveling 75% to 100% of my time). But this weekend I promised myself that I had to make the time to craft in my new craft room. To top it all off, my girlfriend encouraged me to try a challenge. So, this post covers many first: crafting in my craft room, inking up my first Bella Stamps, going for a challenge, and trying out a new technique -- heat embossing!


Stamps: beerfella (Stamping Bella)
Paper: Beige (Recollections), Earth Love (Cosmo Cricket), Everyday Brown Kit (Marcella K), scrap green
Ink: Embossing Stamp Pad (Martha Stewart), Antique Gold Embossing Powder (Martha Stewart), Brown Pen Art No. 88/45 (Stabilo)
Embellishments: Jute Packaging Twine (Westrim Crafts), Everyday Brown Kit Stickers (Marcella K), Apron Lace Border Punch (Fiskars)

The card's color scheme is based on this month's Stamping Around challenge hosted by Waltzing Mouse. Since I'm such a fan of her stamps -- why not try for a fun prize?

I bought my friend a gift card to Barnes & Nobles, since he loves his books & Starbucks coffee. Inspired by Belinda's gift cards, I took her concept and tried to build a card around the color challenge.

This card came together with a few of my personal requirements: I wanted to create a boy card given the color challenge (tough!), ink up my Stamping Bella stamps (so that I could finally use my clear mount), and try heat embossing. 

I decided to stamp the image in the antique gold, rather than the black, to preserve the neutral colors called for in the challenge. The challenge also called for pale yellows and pale pinks, which is hard to fulfill with a boy card. However, I found the Cosmo Cricket paper in my stash, which could fulfill that part. Let's hope that the WMS gals are lenient ;) Early on, I pulled a green paper from the Everyday Brown Kit, that I wanted to use in this card. The stickers from the same kit looked manly enough to spell out "Happy Bday", which conveniently also had some red/pink tones in the letters. With a whimsical arrangement of the letters, the front was almost complete. The rest fell together: a little twine to attach a hand-scribbled "Pull Here" note, a little bit of self-made grass trim from a scrap pile for the beerfella to stand on, and a bit more of the Cosmo Cricket paper on the inside sleeve to tie the whole theme together.



I had to actually fudge the card holder, since I didn't have a punch to make the nice semi-circle punch. But I wasn't going to leave that fact stop me from creating a gift card holder, so I whipped out my trusty old X-acto knife and cut out a pre-traced out my semi-circle.

I hope you liked my little birthday card. It was a real treat for me to get back to crafting. Hopefully I won't be living on the road so much longer, since I'm not as daring to get my Crop-a-dile pass security as some others are...