Birthday Hoot

I am out of birthday cards and have lots to send this month. Most of my cards go to folks that are part of a RAK group – which means I don’t really know them so my normal method for making a card (tailoring it to the recipient) doesn’t work. When I’m not sure where to begin, I like to browse my stamp index….problem is I have WAY to many stamps and I end up with too many ideas in my head. My solution – go random!

I don’t remember where I first read about it, but I know some stampers have taken to trying to use more of their older stamps by using a random number generator to help them pick sets from their index. My index is digital and can’t really be numbered in a useful way. Instead I found a random file picker program – I can point it to my digital index directory and have it pick a file for me. (I found the “Pick Me” program here.)

This morning I got Owl Always Love You – a Gina K set I bought when the owl craze was in full swing. I also decided to use a sketch from Retro Sketches (rs#2) – a new sketch challenge blog.

I originally had stamped the image on a rectangle, but quickly decided I wanted an oval with some pieces hanging out. I know there is a way to die cut with pieces hanging out, but it would have taken me too long to figure that out – so I traced my die onto the paper and hand-cut the shape.

I wasn’t exactly sure what colors I was going to use when I was coloring, but since I don’t normally do “weird” colors on natural things, I didn’t worry about it. When I was done I decided to add a bit of blue marker around the image. That blue reminded me of Aqua Mist so that is where I went. I kept the other colors neutral so the card didn’t get too overwhelming.

I really wanted to emboss the card base with a wood grain, but I felt the card was on the edge of too much, so I stopped.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Happy Birthday
Stamps: Owl Always Love You (GinaK);
Colors: Kraft, Aqua, Rustic White (PTI); Black (Memento);
Other: markers (Copic); oval dies (Spellbinders);

2 thoughts on “Birthday Hoot

  1. Karen, your card is adorable! Love the colors and the image is so cute! Sorry it’s taken me this long to come back and comment – I only had time to peek at everyone’s cards before! Thanks so much for playing with us at RetroSketches and I hope you will join us again!

Comments are closed.