Aloha, all!
Happy Birthday to Jadon, a young man whom we several years ago adopted as a grandson. Oh, he has "real" grandparents, but there was a time when he saw more of us than he did of his other grandparents. So we became Grandma Robin and Grandpa Harry, and we're quite happy with that. These days, as we don't travel to the U. S. mainland as often as we used to, we don't get to see him all that much either. But we keep in touch, especially when his birthday comes around in October!
Even though this is Jadon's second year as a teenager, I still really like to try to make him something cute for his birthday that will make him smile. He has just the best smile in the whole world for a young man of his age. We won't be there when he opens this card, but I'm sure I know what his smile will look like!
Originally, I'd planned to have only the one stamped image on this card – the fun crab from the You're Sublime Stamp Set. The stamp consists of the crab outline and the "Have a Snappy Day" sentiment. To create the background, I inked up only the crab image, being careful not to get ink on the sentiment. Yup, it happened anyway, but on one of the stamped images that's hidden behind the large crab in the middle. Love how layers can cover up a multitude of smudges and such! But once I had the card pretty much done, I thought a little bit of color on the background layer would add a nice touch. So I went hunting for the Seaside Shore Stamp Set and one of the little Starfish images in that set. I used the smallest starfish, and that filled up some of that empty space nicely.
To make the central image, I stamped the whole stamp – sentiment and all – and then colored in the crab using Real Red Classic Ink and Blender Pens. If I'd just used a Real Red Stampin' Write Marker by itself, I know from experience that I would have done a great job of hiding the expression on that cute crab. The color is just too deep to let the black lines show through. Blender Pens do the trick of adding the color, but not as deep as the marker would.
I cut the oval around the crab, as well as the scalloped oval that makes up the mat, using the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies. Then I finished off the card with a piece of Real Red 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon. All of the products in this project, by the way, are in the Stampin' Up! 2016-2017 Annual Catalog. Somehow I managed to make a card this time of the year without anything from the Holiday Catalog. Wonder how that happened?!
Anyway, here are the products I feature in this project. Just click on any of the pictures to go to my Stampin' Up! Website Store to get more information or to buy the products listed!
