Dinosaur Birthday Card

My 5-year-old was invited to a classmate's birthday party this weekend and the invitation featured a dinosaur scene. I like to make cards for these occasions. (It bolsters the argument that there's a reason for all these purchases. I think I'm way past the point of being able to argue that it saves us money, but at least if I make cards then I'm not buying cards too!)

In keeping with the dinosaur theme, I used my new dinosaur set, ostensibly bought for my daughter to play with, but to be honest, I'm having a lot of fun with this set too, even though it's outside of my stamping comfort zone.

I stamped the scene on white paper and layered it with some patterned paper scraps from another project. I knew I'd be using that paper so I coordinated the colours as best I could. The paper has a ribbon pattern on it, so I used another scrap, cut just to have a ribbon showing and used it as a ribbon horizontally across the card. The birthday sentiment is punched out and mounted on a designer label punch. I couldn't quite bring myself to use a new frame in that shape from the Occasions mini hardware kit. I know I'm supposed to be using, not hoarding, but this card is for a 5-year-old so I am granting myself special dispensation.

Back to the card. I felt it needed something else that was blue to make the visual triangle and colouring my little knock-off-dew-drops with chalk ink didn't work. (This is the first time I've wished I had Copic markers, but I suspect if I'd had coloured Sharpies they would have worked too. Or I could have used the blue ones I had, and lived with the fact that they were slightly the wrong shade.) As it turned out, I was able to get the look without the Copics and without having to deal with a card with mismatched shades of blue. I just used my 1/4" hole punch to make a circle from the blue paper and layered it under the k-o-d-d! I felt rather pleased with myself, if I may say so.

Anyway, that's the card. I got my daughter to write the message inside and together we used this stamp set to stamp wrapping paper for the present (a dinosaur floor puzzle). I let my daughter make the paper and she made lovely patterns of pteranodons and stegosauruses and apatosauruses all over the place. All the T-rexes had a pteranodon flying nearby to eat and she coloured in some shrubs here and there for the plant-eaters to eat. It was quite a scene. And she got quite experimental mixing colours on the stamps for some really fabulous dinosaurs. She loves the rock 'n' roll technique with those solid stamps and she has her own inkpads so I don't mind if the colours get mixed up a bit. I'd rather she learned how much fun it is to make something than how stressful it is to keep your inkpads looking brand new.

Well, must dash and get that girl to her birthday party!

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Back now from my trip to the party and the adventure of backing down a long driveway through high snowbanks with an audience. I hate reversing and I hate it even more when people are watching. Let's just say that it's a good thing snowbanks are soft. Hope those kids have a good time! They looked like they were all from the same class and a good bunch of kids so it should be a good party. Now I'm off to get my class supplies packed up, have some lunch, get dolled up and head into town for an afternoon of stamping :-)

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: Stamps: Prehistoric Pals, Circle of Friendship (Stampin' Up); Ink: Aspen Blue chalk ink (Versamagic), Groovy Guava, Certainly Celery, So Saffron; Paper: Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou, PTI white, Dream Street Papers - Forget-me-not Rachel's Ribbons; Other: ticket corner punch, designer label punch, 1" circle punch, knock-off-dew-drops, 1/4" circle punch.