Seahorse Birthday Card

Seahorse birthday card for William

My brother William is mentally handicapped.  He likes happy colours, especially bright, joyful pink.  Accordingly, in anything I make for Will, I always try to include a bit of pink.  The year before last I knitted him a forest green scarf, which included pink details at the edges.

The background of this card is a combination of pattern origami paper, a dark blue piece of insurance advertising literature (guess whose insurance has just come up for renewal?) and offcuts.  I layered a few pink, red, purple and gold offcut/recycled anenomes on the the background.  Then I stamped and embossed the seahorse, before backing it and hanging it on ribbon.  The embossing was weak (perhaps the embossing ink is getting a bit old), so I touched up sections with gold ink.  I then covered the background section in recycled pink netting and layered over that with more anenome pieces.  The sentiment came free with a magazine, but I jazzed it up with Glossy Accents.  Finally, I mounted everything on pearlescent blue cardstock.

When the card is held, the seahorse on its ribbon (and the seahorse's googly eye) both move behind the rustling anenomes and the netting, which I am hoping invokes an underwater feel.  If I am honest, I think that the colours and patterns are too diverse, too disjointed to work as a whole and overall the image is way too 'cute' for my liking.  That said, I think William will like it, and that is all that really matters.

Ingredients for Seahorse:

Foam seahorse stamp (no details on the stamp itself but I am fairly sure I got it from Craft Central)

Top Boss 'Tinted' embossing stamp pad, Stamp-n Stuff 'Jewelled Gold' embossing powder, heat tool 
Windsor & Newton 'Gold' ink

Cardstock in pearlescent blue, Dekon origami paper, recycled/off cuts card and paper

Recycled ribbon, recycled netting 

Lakeland googly eye

Free-with-a-magazine sentiment

Inkssentials Glossy Accents, Uhu glue, doublesided sticky tape

Roll on Spring

 Roll on Spring 1

Roll on Spring 2

I have joined a couple of new crafting forums courtesy of my friend Lottie.  The first of these can be found at http://www.cardmakingparadise.com and is run and populated by some lovely women who couldn't be more friendly or more creative.  I recommend it wholeheartedly.


The ATCs above are the first 'sit down and stamp' work that I've braved for a while.  Most of my papercrafting items have been boxed up for two years or more whilst I moved homes a bit.  I finally unpacked all the stamps and embossing powders this week and organised my work area.  This has spurred me into action.  That said, these first couple of ATCs seem a little too careful, a bit neat for my liking, but it is good to be getting embossing powder all over the place again.

Ingredients for Roll on Spring 1

Penny Black 'Brush Daisy' stamp

Archival Brilliances 'Graphite Black' ink pad, Stamp-n Stuff 'Crystal' embossing powder, heat tool

Anita's Aqua glass paint: Orange

Windsor & Newton inks: Canary Yellow and Apple Green

LuminArte Twinkling H2Os: Sunflower and Moss Green

Inkssentials Glossy Accents

DCWV floral print paper (off-cut) and pearlescent card off-cuts, ATC base

Thread, recycled ribbon, corner punch, deckle edged scissors, double-sided sticky tape

Pental 005 graph pen

Ingredients for Roll on Spring 2

Hero Arts 'Whimsical Flowers' stamps (from a set of six)

Archival Brilliances 'Graphite Black' ink pad, Stamp-n Stuff 'Crystal' embossing powder, heat tool

Mini tags, Allnight Media Sunflower pigment ink pad and sponge dauber

Gel pens (assorted colours and makes)

Sulky metallic thread, recycled wrapping paper, recycled ribbon scraps

Papermania brad, double-sided sticky tape

Pental 005 graph pen