Owl Happy Birthday Card - Inkspirational Challenge #19

I'm here with an end of the week encouragement post for our May photo challenge at Inkspirational.  It's a very pretty inspiration photo and if you haven't taken part already, there's still time, you have until Tuesday to get your entries in!

 

Tammy from Creatively Me is our sponsor this month and this is the fab prize she is offering to our May winner.

I love the colours in the challenge prompt photo but I went with the balloons as inspiration for my card.  I bought the SU! Owl Occasions stamp set and have only used it for Christmas cards so far - one of the justifications I voiced for buying the set was that it could be used year round!  

Anyway, I remembered the set contained a balloon and I had the idea to have the owl on the branch with a bunch of balloons.  Then I felt the branch needed leaves and then some flowers and then it would be fun for the owl to have the party bunting hanging from the branch and then I added presents too!  It all started with the balloons and went on from there - can you tell I had LOTS of fun making this card?!  The blue, green and red balloons were fussy cut and I popped the green one up.  I stamped the bunting in Crumb Cake ink and then stamped again in the five colours I'd used for the balloons and I cut out each letter flag and glued them on top.  I felt the Crumb Cake ink was a bit pale for the string so I went over it with a Soft Suede marker.  The presents were fussy cut and I popped the smaller one up.  After stamping the sentiment I added yellow gems to the owl's eyes and popped him up too.   I added punched 1/4" coloured circles to the die cut red scalloped border to finish off the front.

Here's the inside and the envelope.  I stamped the balloons and stamped and fussy cut the bunting.  Lastly I stamped the sentiment - ack, I got an inky splodge!  Luckily, I hadn't glued the panel inside.  Never mind, I started again - stupidly doing everything in the same order - after I'd stamped the sentiment there was another inky splodge!  I'd somehow got ink on the underside of my Stamp-a-ma-jig handle.  I did have a very messy desk and I'd left some ink pads open - ooops, not a good idea!  After cleaning the handle I attempted the inside panel for the third time - and yay, success!  I'm not having QUITE so much fun now at this point in the proceedings - I still have the envelope to decorate though, hmmmm, should I stamp something on the envelope?  Erm, no, I just used patterned paper on the envelope flap - much safer! 

Despite the problems I like how this bright and happy little number turned out!  I'd love to see what you make so I'm hoping you'll play along with our challenge this week.  May you have smooth stamping with no inky smudges!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Owl Occasions', 'Summer Silhouettes' & 'Wacky Wishes' sets, inside sentiment from Hero Arts
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Real Red & Whisper White
Patterned paper:  SU! Polka Dot Parade DSP (Pumpkin Pie)
Ink: SU! Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Lucky Limeade, Real Red & Daffodil Delight
Tools: Sizzix 'Lace Edging' Decorative Strip die, 1/4" circle punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Embellishments & accessories: yellow gems, Dimensionals