Happy Birthday 5 years old - ooo arrrrr!!!

LOL! It's my nephew's 5th birthday soon and he does like his pirates, so I designed a card with the idea of including some pirate stickers that he could stick on and around a pop-up pirate ship. I made the pop-up from a free template by a very talented chap called Roger Pattenden. I wonder if he's jolly... :-)

"Front"

The background was sprayed with lots of Dylusions inks and blended with water from a mister spray. Some distress ink was added around the edges and the background matted onto black cardstock. This was overstamped with "Waves" from the Graphic45 set and a galleon from the Crafty Individuals set, then each stamped image was brushed over with gold perfect pearls. The compass and anchor from the Kanban set were stamped in black archival, with white ink pen highlights added.

The lettering was diecut from empty cat food box and spare inked card and the coloured card stuck onto the cat food box. The edges were coloured with a gold marker and highlights added with white pen, then the finished letters were stuck to the front of the card with Pinflair to raise them even more.

"Fish"

The Graphic 45 fish were stamped in blue archival directly onto the background, then again onto acetate. The acetate fish were cut out and adhered over the top of the stamped fish with glossy accents. The bubbles were added with glossy accents.

"Charms"

Some sea-themed charms were attached to a key ring with jump rings and short lengths of chain, and the keyring threaded through an eyelet set into the corner of the card. The keyring is removable for future use - I thought he might like to attach it to his school bag or mobile phone. A large octopus charm was adhered to the bottom of the card with Pinflair dimensional glue - I find this glue really forgiving for attaching large, metal or bulky objects.

"Pop-up Galleon"

Well, here's the pop-up galleon. It really is rather magnificent, thank you Roger! I set it amongst a sponged distress ink background and added some of the pirate stickers. Printing the ship off at full size, I needed an A4 card blank to accomodate it, and reinforced the front and back covers with extra card layers to make the card heavy enough to take the pop-up, but it worked out really well. I intend to hide some cash in amongst the masts - the best birthday cards always have a bit of money in them, and everyone knows that pirates like to hide their treasure :-)

Ingredients:

Graphic 45 Stamp set: Tropical Travelogue

Kanban stamp set: Lighthouse

Crafty Individuals stamp set: CI-294
Sizzix Tim Holtz decorative strip die Vintage Market

Anita's A4 card blank and envelope

cardstock: 2 x A4 black, 1 x A4 plus scrap 160gsm white, empty cat food box

acetate

Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Bundled Sage

Dylusions spray inks: Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime

Archival Inks: Jet Black, Cobalt

Perfect Pearls: Heirloom Gold

adhesives: Glossy Accents, PVA, Pinflair Dimensional Glue

Inkssentials white opaque pen

Letraset Gold Metallic Marker

printouts on 160gsm card galleon pop-up templates & instructions

pirate stickers (mine came from Lidl - thanks Mum!)

Entered for the following challenge:
Crafty Card Makers - a Male-theme
That Craft Place - One for the Boys
Just Tracy's - Anything Goes
The Stamp Man - Favourite Technique (mine is to overstamp an inked background and brush with perfect pearls, then add more stamping - I love to create lots of depth in the background using this method. Of course, I also love dimensional cards, so I have the best of both worlds with this entry :-))
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - One for the Boys
Simon Says Stamp - Birthday