PGC #13 - Happy Birthday!

Thank you Judy Stech for the Birthday Challenge this time on The Paper Girls Challenge.  It couldn't have come at a better time.  My youngest nephew just turned 18 (YIKES!  That makes me feel old...), so of course, I needed a card for him.  My goal is to not buy a card, and so far, so good.  But, I have a hard time making cards for men, much less an 18 year old!  I wanted to do a card that had a lot of impact, without a lot of "gee-gah", as my sister-in-law calls it.  So I took this opportunity to try a fun new technique (at least to me) for his card. 
Using masks is all the rage, so I wondered how it would look as an embossed background.  So I grabbed my Studio Calico Bubbles mask, Versamark pad, American Crafts Zing Powder in Opaque Denim, and Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Peeled Paint, with a little blue painters tape and set about to giving this technique a try...

I taped the mask to my mat so it wouldn't move as I inked the paper...

I inked the pad directly on the paper.  My pad is a little sticky, which I didn't count on.  It started to move as I was inking the paper.  I should have taped the paper to the mask or my mat - lesson learned.  ;-)  Luckily, it didn't really affect my final product.  ::whew!::

I wanted a two toned look, so I sprinkled a little of the Peeled Paint powder on one half, knocked off the extra, and then sprinkled the Denim on, making sure I overlapped with the green a little bit.

This is what it looked like when I got done with the powders, before I applied some heat.

And this is after I added a little heat.  You can't tell too well in this picture, but it came out better than I could have hoped - the blue is a smooth finish while the green has a rough finish.  Even better for the contrasting look I could have hoped for.

And this is the final product.  I added a few mini-brads, some Sassafras Lass numbers, and a distressed cut from my Cricut machine with a scrap of green paper I had sitting on my table.  The numbers/cut are popped up for a little extra dimension.

Thank you for checking-in.  I look forward to celebrating every one's birthday creations. 

Remember, the more followers I get, the more prizes I give away.  I will give away my next prize when I hit 100 followers.

Cheers!