Fabulous Sweet 16

Ellen Hutson currently has a Mix it Up Challenge with Honey Bee and EH products.  I was getting ready to make my fabulous niece a birthday card (she’s turning 16!), and I thought it would be fun to make a dimensional card and incorporate my new, never before used Honey Bee die I bought a month ago with some of my favorite EH stamps.  This is what I came up with!

I cut a 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ background panel of Canson 140# water color paper.  Then I die cut 3 panels of waves using WPlus9 wave border die (4 1/4″ wide and varying heights (apx. 2 1/2″, 1 3/4″,  and 1 1/2″).  I then die cut the background panel with EH Julie Ebersole’s Silver Linings die, leaving the pieces intact.  I ran strips of Scor-Tape along the back of the panel to keep the pieces in line, and left the backer paper on (I would use these strips later to attach it to the card front).

I created the sun using Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin and Spiced Marmalade.  I then used Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch for the sky.  I spritzed that with some water, let it dry for 30 seconds and blotted with a paper towel.  I added some water to Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors paint in Red Gold and flicked that on the panel.  (I went over some of those splatters with dots of the paint).  I set that aside to dry.

I then took the 2 narrowest wave panels and cut out some craft foam with the Wave Border die (x 2 for the wider one, and 1 for the most narrow one).  I glued the 2 pieces of the wider foam together with Ranger Medium Matte (which I used for all my gluing purposes) and placed some acrylic blocks on top.  I then colored my wave panels using Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers for the lower portions of the waves and Mermaid Lagoon for the upper portions of the waves.  I blended them together with a blending tool.  I then took some Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors paint in White Gold and went along the tops of the waves.  I set those aside to dry.

I stamped the bunny from EH Bear Wear with My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Hot Fudge.  I colored her with Copic Markers N0, N2, and N4 and her nose with a dot of RV06.  I die cut her out and shellacked her with Clear Wink of Stella and went over her eyes with a black Glaze pen.  I ran a bone folder at the bottom of her tummy and the mid-point of her legs and folded and creased those with my bone folder.

I stamped the boat from EH Stay Salty.  I colored:  the hull with Copic Markers E79, E37, E29, and E23, the sail with N0, N2 and N4; the flag with E29; E27 and E24 and the cabin with B39 and B34, with Y17 for the portholes.  I die cut it as well as 2 pieces of craft foam out and shellacked it with Clear Wink of Stella and put some Glossy Accents over the portholes.  I glued the pieces of boat shaped foam together and dried under acrylic blocks.  I cut out the “16” from red cardstock with my Cricut (1/4″ Junior font from the Extreme Fonts Cricut Cartridge).  I glued the stamped boat onto the piece of craft foam and after drying under acrylic blocks, I adhered the “16” to the bottom of the sail.

I die cut  Honey Bee’s “Fabulous” die for my sentiment from shiny, silver card stock.

I assembled the card in the following manner:  I sat the bunny on the left side of the boat and glued her left arm behind the sail as I glued her bottom and upper legs to the boat deck.  I secured her lower legs to the front of the boat.  I glued the tallest wave panel to the background.  I then glued the back of the bunny and boat to the background.  I glued the other two waves in place (I had to cut out a chunk of foam from the larger, double layered foam piece in order to have it lie properly over the boat).  I finished with some clear 4 mm x 3 and 3 x 2 mm Pretty Pink Posh sequins (and then glued 3 mm over the 4 mm ones).  I glued the sentiment “Fabulous” towards the top of the card.  I mounted the background onto an orange card base.

It was a really fun card to make, and I hope she likes it.  I love how the little bunny is waving her arm as she sails into her 16th year!