Decoupage on Die-cut Textured Birthday Card

Hello Friends, Welcome !!!...

Birthday's are suppose to be full of sunshine and rainbows

And love and laughter....
And off-course diamonds and roses are a girls best friend
Today and years after.....

So today I'm here with a birthday card

Which is very close to my heart,
As it's for my childhood best friend,
Who has been their in my life from the start.

Hmmm !!!!
What's happening today....everything seems to by rhyming.... 

"Funny Mamma!!!" as my daughter will say...

Anyway.
Now a days I'm having fun combining  different different techniques....

I started this card by creating textured background. With Martha Stewart's punch, 

I have cut strips of "Happy Birthday". 

Then pasted those strips uniformly on card stock with all purpose white glue. 

That created a non-ending textured background.
It was looking really nice.

What say ?!!

But my need to add color has prompted me to try decoupage on top....

So here I go....

I took a beautiful big rose printed decoupage tissue. 

Measured and cut out all the extra bits. 

Removed the 2nd ply of tissue. 

Applied Mod-Podge generously on my "Happy Birthday" textured background.

Pasted the tissue carefully, so there are no bubbles or  unnecessary creases.

  

Applied another layer of Mod-Podge on top as well. 

Pushing the brush in all the crevices and corners, 

so the "Happy Birthday" texture is well defined for my next step.

This is how it was looking when it was fully dry....

Beautifully wrapped around all the alphabets.

Once everything was dry, I applied distress ink on raised texture to enhance it more.... 

Can You see it ?? 

I had used "Peeled Paint" on leaves and "Festive Berries" and "Abandon Coral" on Roses

It really was looking superb. But...

Alas !!!
It was no go. As Mod-Podge is a sealant it doesn't allow water based Distress ink to stay on top. So the moment my hand touched the inked texture I got stamped ;) 

Can you believe that.....

(Good for stamping from your own die-cuts, that's the experiments for next post ;) ) Anyway!! Either I should have used permanent stamping ink or I should have applied clear Gesso before inking it. Gesso would have helped distress ink to adhere properly. *New Learning*  HmmmmI!

So I switched to Inka-Gold colors then.
Love the smooth thickness and rub-on quality of Inka-Golds.
Followed the same color pattern ratio as in printed tissue, in 1st layer of coloring. 

In 2nd layer of coloring added a bit more of pink, as it was working as neutral enhancer. 

Then in 3rd n final layer of coloring I used the complementary color
so the "Happy Birthday" texture pops-up nicely amidst the strong enough print.
Yaay!!! My textured background  was ready.

Next I stamped my Birthday sentiment on a small piece of card stock with archival black ink.

I really like this birthday sentiment stamp from Mudra stamps....You know WHY ??

Because this sentiment says "SPECIAL" in double lined font. And that gives me a chance not only to have my sentiment in strong solid black but also to fill in the color of my choice ,in my sentiment, to match my card..... Double Yaay !!! 

P.S. I filled the SPECIAL with watered down Inka-Gold color itself.

That done, I assembled the card together.

I pasted the textured and decoupaged background on aqua card stock.
And pasted them on my card with double sided foam tape.
Adhered my sentiment tag on top with organza ribbon and double sided foam tape.
And lastly added cute little 3D paper roses and leaves to finish the card.

What say !!!

Linking this card to 

MudraCraftStamps CHALLENGE #1 - ANYTHING GOES

Craft Stampers Take It Make It Challenge

Thanks for taking the time to stop by....

Do let me know how you guys like my card....

Cheers

Shilpi

3rd BIRTHDAY Shaker Card

For my darling nephew....

...inspired by challenge at Lulupu

The Idea for a 3rd birthday card,especially for my little cutie-pie nephew has been bouncing in my head for quite some time....but what with my kids exams and all, this month just flew by.....and before I knew it ,it's already end of the month. 

Seeing Lulupu's this months challenge, galvanized me to do it......so here it is....

In this card I have incorporated lot's of small small techniques which has appealed to me in last couple of months.

1. Making clouds for your background

  Since I saw this technique on "Pinterest", I have been wanting to Incorporate this in one of my projects.....And I guess I went over-board....lol....instead of just cutting a simple paper cloud I ended up making my own stencil with 210 gsm OHP sheet. And added not only clouds but Sun too....    

For making my stencil ,I roughly drew some clouds and sun on a piece of paper, and then traced it on OHP sheet. Cut the whole thing with my trusty paper cutting knife , and I was good to go......

After roughly placing my balloons , got the idea where all I needed to add clouds so the background doesn't looks blank.....Used Tumbled glass distress ink pads and my stencil to achieve this....

2. Making shaker box

I have this beautiful " Martha Stewart's HAPPY BIRTHDAY Punch....It was ideal for making my Birthday shaker box....

After punching I left little extra paper on all three sides and added a thin strip on top as well as I wanted to make a box and give it a look of "Treasure chest".

With thin red strong double sided tape I added little ohp sheet....

Then I added thick foam tape so it makes a bracket for my sequins.....

And my Birthday tag was ready to be fixed on my card along with colorful glittery sequins....

Lastly drew belt straps,buckle and stitching lines all around to give it a look of "Treasure chest".  Filled with all the happy colors..... 

3. Balloons from scraps of gift wrapper

Yes ! that's right I had strip of gift paper left,after packing a gift for my little one's friend. The balloons were so colorful and shiney that I didn't wanted to threw that.

So I'm finally making a good use of that...lol...
I decoupage the balloons on thick card paper, once they were dry ,I cut just three of them out,as its all about 3rd birthday day.


One thing though, Mod-podge has kinda dulled the shine of the balloons....and I can't make up my mind whether I liked that effect or not.

I guess I like it ....as it is making my sequins shines that much more....

lastly assembled everything together.... and my card was ready.....

Hope you all like my work.....

Please do leave me your valuable suggestions....

I really do appreciate them......

Thanks.....

P.S. ---- so very much wanted to enter it for lulupu blog challenge....

added the link and in between the linkup closed....missed it by couple of minutes....sob! sob!....