Birthdays aren’t so BAAAAADDD

I love making birthday cards – especially with cute critters on them! I needed to make a birthday card for a friend who love goats, so I thought this was perfect!

I knew that I wanted to make a scene for the background with some ink blending, so I started with the Cougar Super Smooth 80# cardstock and cut it with a stitched A2 rectangle die.

I used a cloud stencil with some light blue ink and blended on some sky and clouds. I moved the stencil around and even flipped it over for some of the clouds to make sure they all looked different.

One of my favorite tips for cleaning stencils is to use the scented hand sanitizer spray – it is alcohol based so it cleans and dried quickly but smells pretty too! I have not found that it leaves any type of residue. I also use it to clean my glass work surface after ink blending.

Next, I used two different green inks to stencil on some grass – using two or more colors helps give the grass dimension. …..but I also left a little green smudge in the sky! Thats ok, I’ll just put the goat there!

I wanted to add a picket fence that also had the stitches around the edges so i started by die cutting Neenah Desert Storm 80# with the same A2 stitched rectangle that I used for the base panel.

Once I had that cut, I wanted to add some wood grain texture to it, so I inked up a woodgrain background stamp with brown ink. When I’m using background stamps, I turn them with the rubber side up and the cling back will stick the glass mat.

Then I ink the stamp up and put the die cut face down into the ink and used a scrap of paper to rub over the top to get the die cut inked up.

After the stamping, I used lighter brown ink to add some inking to the fence.

I used several of the new Lessebo cardstock to cut out the pieces of the cute goat! I used Cement Gray for the base of the goat, Granite Gray for the hair and horns, Pitch Black for the eyes, mouth and hooves, Blossom for the ears, and Ivory for the face.

I used foam dots on the back of the goat head to give dimension from the body.

Before adhering the goat and fence into place, I just put them on the card where I wanted them to go so I could line up the sentiment.

Once I had the sentiment lined up, I took the goat and fence off and stamped the sentiment. This helps me get in the right place, but before I have the bulk of the goat and fence.

After the sentiment was stamped, I added the fence and then the goat and added some cute little heart embellishments! I glued this onto a Cougar White A2 folded card base 110#. I LOVE having these precut and prescored card bases on hand – they are so nice and thick and so convenient to just fold and go!