Hippo Rainbow Birdie Becca!!

I don't know about where you are, but here in the UK we are enjoying quite the heatwave - summer is finally here!! I hope the weather will follow me to Finland next week as I only have three more days at work and then I will be away until the end of August. Which sounds like such a long holiday, but in fact we are close to the beginning of August already. How did this happen? It's been such a miserable and very typical British summer so far but maybe it will be all sunshine from now on. 

Today I got really inspired to create when I saw the new challenge over at Lawnscaping. The theme is to create something in the colours of the rainbow. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Rainbow is my favouritest colour. I was also super inspired by the wonderful inspiration images over at Becca's (Damsel of Distressed) big three-oh birthday bash linky party. I was super inspired by the artsy images and particularly (yes you guessed it) the rainbow colours. And because Becca is the Queen of mixed media I thought I would play with my Brushos to create a really artsy rainbow background for my birdday card - Happy (belated) Birthday Becca!!! I hope you like the card.  I was also inspired by the sketch over at Retro Sketches, although I flipped it on it's side. Last but not least I'm linking up with AAA Cards where the theme is Stash Favourite (mine is Brushos, since I got them I have been using them like crazy, I just love how easy and fun it is to creat random artsy backgrounds with them).

I started by cutting out a rectangle of watercolour paper and spritzed it with water using a mini mister. Then I randomly sprinkled on some Brushos - the secret is to not saturate the paper with either water or the colour crystals if you want that funky speckled background. I had a few accidents where I ended up with big piles of colour, not exactly planned but I think it looks quite random and artsy. Then I die cut a white frame using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Frames die. Next I stamped the hippo, the birdie, the party hat and the balloon from Hippo Birdie in black Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured them with Copics and a white gel pen before die cutting using the matching dies. I also used one of the Lawn Fawn banner dies to cut the banner for the sentiment. Last I adhered a leftover piece of Let's Polka In The Meadow paper to a white hammered card base and added the whole party scene on top. I have to admit I'm really chuffed with how the card turned out, one of those cards that surprise you by turning out different - but better - than you initially imagined. 

Card: 300 gsm white hammered card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm watercolour paper, Neenah Solar card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Hippo Birdie and matching dies

Ink and colouring: Memento Tuxedo Black, Brushos, Copics

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Meadow

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangles, Stitched Rectangle Frames and Everyday Sentiment Banners dies