My nephew recently turned 25 and I made him a personalized card and gave it to my sister to give to her son when she went up to visit him this past weekend. Unfortunately, she misplaced the card (and the birthday check inside) so my nephew never received it. The true gentleman, he is, he called me to thank me for the card and gift. To let him know how proud I am of the amazing adult he has become, I wanted to make him another card (and this time I’ll mail it to his new address).
I made this mostly single layer card by stamping out the beaver from the Whimsy Stamp set “Furry Friendship.” I then created a mask to put over the stamped image so that I could use the Balzer Designs “Mini Heart Swirls” 6×6 stencil and blend on Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch. I thought the hearts and swirls could kind of reference water on which the beaver could build a dam. LOL I created an ombre look, going from light to dark blues in an oval form around the cute little beaver.
For the beaver, I used the following Copic colors:
Beaver body: E70, E71, E74; Beaver belly: W1, E40, E81
Log and twig: E23, E25, E29 and E74
Leaves: YG61, YG64
Beaver tail, feet and hands: E23, E25, E29, W5, W7, W9
Cheeks and ears: R30
To add a little interest, I die cut a dotted strip from the MFT Die-Namics Blueprint 15 die set a couple of times and glued them stacked together to make it a little more sturdy. Then I blended on the same Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch to create an ombre look on this strip. I added this to the right side of the card, and I think that balanced out nicely the visual weight of the dark beaver’s tail on the left side of the card.
For the sentiment, I used VersaFine black onyx ink to stamp out “you’re chewly special” from the stamp set, and I used Charcoal Zing! Embossing Powder (it looks black in the pictures, but there is a slight softness to this charcoal that complements the softer look of the card design) to heat emboss the sentiment on a strip of vellum. I used Glossy Accents to glue the vellum into place in a couple of spots and then to camouflage the main glued down area, I used Pretty Pink Posh Clear Droplets in 4mm and 6mm to add some finishing touch sparkly embellishments. I thought these droplets also echoed the watery background nicely.
The following is a start-to-finish video of creating this card:
This card is being entered into the following challenges:
Whimsy Stamps Anything Goes Challenge 97
Penny Black and More For the Boys Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday Add Sparkle Challenge
Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
613 Avenue Create Anything Goes with Optional Monochrome Challenge
Crafty Gals Corner Anything Goes Challenge
Creatalicious Anything Goes With Optional Stars Challenge
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes Challenge
MFT Sketch Challenge #343
Adorable little critter, great sentiment, and I love all the blues! Thanks for joining us at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge!
Thanks bunches, Lin! Blue is my favorite color so this was right up my alley! 🙂
Its a lovely lovely beaver and your nephew will love it, and thanks for joining in the challenge of Whimsy Stamps Challenge blog.
Hugs Astrid (CDT)
Awww thanks so much Astrid! This was a super fun card to craft with one of my oldest and most favorite stamps. Love that little rolly polly Whimsy beaver!
What a super sweet project you have for us today, so well thought out and put together a fabulous Creation Beautiful in every way, we are so lucky you have entered our WHIMSY STAMPS challenge blog so beautiful to look at good luck hugs Tracy x
You’re the bestest!
What a cute card. Thanks for sharing at Creatalicious Challenges – DT Janine
Thank you so much Janine! I had fun crafting this little boy card. 🙂
Gorgeous fur texture on this cutie! I love that you did a second card for your nephew – so cool! Thank you for sharing your adorable card and story in our challenge at Whimsy Stamps
Thank you so very much, Donna! I had fun with this bonus opportunity to craft a card for my nephew. 😀
What a cute card. Thanks for sharing at Creatalicious Challenges- DT Janine
Thanks so much Janine! This was a fun bonus card to make for my nephew. 🙂
So cute!!
Thanks oodles, Ann!
A super cute image. A wonderful card. Thanks for join our challenge at Creatalicious we hope you will join us again soon. Meighan DT
Thanks so much! This cute little beaver has been in my stash for years and I’m so glad I got to ink him up again! 🙂
A great card!
Thank you soo much for taking part in our “anything goes with optional stars” challenge over at Creatalicious & good luck in the draw.
Hope to see you again in our new challenge as well…
Hugs,
Melanie
(DT-Coordinator Creatalicious Challenges)
(DT Crafty Friends)
(DT The Sketchy Challenges)
PS: Sorry for the late comment, life had been very busy before I left for my 5-week-trip to Africa…