Happy Crazy Birthday

I am sitting on the sofa waiting for the Culinary Consultant to finish cooking dinner. We are having barbecue, for the third weekend in a row. I have absolutely no complaints! I am only expected to prep the sweetcorn and chunky oven baked chips and then all I need to do is enjoy. I love summer! I'm trying to not think about the fact that days are already getting darker again, and evenings are getting a bit nippy. I don't want summer to be over yet! I have a feeling this fall will bring with it some changes in my professional life, and my peaceful days of manageable workloads are coming to an end. But we never know what the future holds, so all I can do is wait and see and take things as they come. 

To keep my mind on happier thoughts, I made a Bird Crazy birthday card to a family member who is going through quite a crazy time right now. Hopefully the crazy little feathered friends will bring a chuckle to their face. 

I was inspired by the colours over at colourQ. I am also linking up with Addicted to Stamps where the theme is Make Your Mark, Bloggers Challenge where the theme is Birthday, Fab and Funky Challenges where the theme is Things with Wings, and the Anything Goes challenges over at Crafting With an Attitude, Simply Create Too and Crafting With Friends.

I started by stamping the present in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I then transferred some ink from Tim Holtz distress markers onto a clear block and used them to watercolour the present and the background. I inked up some splotches from Gorgeous Grunge and stamped them around the present. Then I die cut the background using Stitched rectangles, and inked around the edges using Walnut Stain. I stamped two of the birds onto white card in black ink and heat embossed in clear ink. I coloured the birds in watercolour, and die cut using the fantastically precise matching dies. Last I die cut the Happy Birthday from orange and brown card and adhered to the card. I also stamped and coloured one bird inside the card with the funny speech bubble from Just Sayin'. 

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Early Espresso, Calypso Coral 

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Walnut Stain, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers, Ripe Persimmon,  

Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Birthday Blueprint, Bird Crazy, Stampin' Up Just Sayin', Gorgeous Grunge

Other: Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday border die, Stitched Rectangle dies, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Ranger clear embossing powder