Male 18th Birthday - Birdwatching Theme Book Card

If you're anything like me you'll probably have a pile of gorgeous toppers that you've never got around to using. I stroke them occasionally and put them back in the packet then get out my inks and stamps. Well, this card was built to accommodate a gorgeous Kanban bird decoupage that I just couldn't resist in my local craft shop. It had been stroked too many times and was just begging to be used!

"18th Birthday - Birdwatching Theme Book Card"

The outer cover is made from thick, brown card and the closure uses a rough string (the stuff they call in the farming community "Bailer Twine").

"Front Cover"

Three sheets of white card are coloured with distress inks in a similar way to make matching backgrounds for the front cover and the two inside panels. A series of stamps are then used to transfer a light coloured distress ink onto each dried panel and the stamped images brushed with gold Perfect Pearls to make a detailed, shimmery background.

The sentiment is stamped in black archival ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The top-hatted gentleman are stamped in black archival, but just the top hats embossed, then the images are accentuated with white ink pen. The hand and ticket images are stamped onto separate white card coloured with distress ink, using cobalt archival, then cut out and mounted with foam pads. The "Admit One" is accented with a glaze pen to make the lettering stand out a little, and the hand has some highlights added with a white pen.

The globe is diecut from cat food box and white card. The cat food globe is coloured with distress inks, the white card with dylusions sprays, and the stand with gold adirondack applied with a dabber. The map is cut from the white card die cut and stuck onto the coloured cat food box diecut, and the whole then adhered to the front of the card using foam pads.

"Inside"

The twine closure is attached to the card by adhering between the inside covers and background panels using glossy accents before sticking the background panels in place with pva.

"Left Hand Inside Panel"

The left panel has a length of ruler ribbon attached (thanks Lee!) to provide a space for a couple of tags to be inserted. The "little birdie" sentiment is overstamped in black archival ink, and the binoculars stamped onto separate cardtsock, coloured, cut out, shaped and adhered with Pinflair for a little extra dimension.

"Right Hand Inside Panel"

The right panel houses the gorgeous Kanban woodpecker decoupage that sparked off the whole idea for this card. Other diecuts from the sheet (binoculars, notebook) were tucked into the "book page" edges for added decoration, and some stamping added to the edges.

"Tags"

Of course, you need somewhere to write a greeting, and this set of matching tags is perfect. Write on the ones you want to use and tuck them into the card; use any left over to attach to your gift. The banckgrounds are created in the same way as the main panels with distress inks, perfect pearls, and overstamping the sentiments using black archival and clear embossing powder. Some bailer twine makes a great, masculine alternative to ribbon. Sorry Lee, not a flower in sight on this card :-)

Ingredients:

Kanban Castle Howard Bird Toppers

Pink Paislee stamp set - Daily Junque

Clear Art Stamps - SM10 Journey

Tim Holtz stamp set - Curious Possibility

Kaisercraft Stamp Sets - Up, Up & Away, Life Sentiments

Papermania Stamp Sets - Hampstead, Urban

Sizzix Tim Holtz M&S die - globe

Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles

Archival Inks - Jet Black, Cobalt

Perfect Pearls - Heirloom Gold

Embossing powder - Clear

Inkssentials white pen

Sakura glaze pen, clear

Cardstock: white 160gsm, brown 300gsm, hammered gold 200gsm

Ruler Ribbon

Bailer Twine

Adhesives: Glossy Accents, Pinflair Dimensional Glue, PVA, foam pads

Entered for the following challenge:
S J Crafts - Favourites (I just love my gold Perfect Pearls LOL!)
Fab 'N' Funky - Celebrating Male-Ness
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers - For the Boys
Bunny Zoes Crafts - Ribbon or Twine (I went for the twine, but you might count the ruler ribbon too!)
Kaboodle Doodles - Add some dimension
That Craft Place Blog - One for the Boys
Sweet Stampin' - Anything But Square
Oozak - Spring Colours