My Favorite Things Weekly Sketch Challenge - MFTWSC161 - Happy Birthday Sweet Boy

Greetings Friends!!  Thanks for coming by to check out my interpretation of this week's MFT sketch club challenge!

This week I've taken the sketch to create a birthday card for my darling, sweet son who will be turning 8 (gasp!) in March.  Here is the sketch we're working with:

I always seem to struggle a bit when there are circular elements on a card.  I'm not entirely sure why but I sometimes feel that I don't have the right 'something' to add there - besides your basic circle.  I like to try and think outside of the creative box so to speak but THIS week I've had no trouble because I have the fantastic "Free With $60" Mini Delicate Doilies Die-namics that I received from MFT with my $60 purchase.  I mean really...how can you go wrong?!!  The answer is...you CAN'T!!  They are beautiful!!!  

But first, let me back up.  I just took Jennifer McGuire & Friends - Stenciled class so I wanted to try out a new technique.  I started with the funky aqua/yellow background piece you see on the left side of the card.  I used watercolor paper and a Heidi Swapp stencil that I purchased at Michael's.  It's the only one I own...for now.  I've never been big on stencils, mainly because I didn't really know what to do with them, which is why I took the class.  But I digress.  I taped my stencil down onto the craft sheet with my watercolor paper underneath.  I chose watercolor paper because of its weight but I also wasn't sure if I was going to mist this in anyway so I figured I'd give myself the option.  I first sponged on Hero Arts Butterbar ink and then shifted the stencil a bit to the left and sponged Hero Arts Tide Pool ink.  When I lifted it I got this cool mix of the two making it look almost like a blurry polkadot image.  Way fun.  I then inked the amazing MFT Typewriter Text Background in Hero Arts Navy ink over top of my stenciled background.  I adore how the text really jumps off of the panel with the bright colors behind it.

My next step was to create the very back panel.  I chose navy cardstock the MFT Woodgrain Background inked with Unicorn White Pigment ink.  It came out tremendous!!  I coated the white ink with white embossing powder and heat set it.  My son wants a jungle theme party so I love how the woodgrain almost has the look of zebra print to it!!  Perfect!!  

I was so thrilled to use the"Free With $60" Mini Delicate Doilies Die-namics as the circular element!  I used heavy watercolor paper to cut this out with which held together really well as I wanted to keep all of the cut pieces in to have it maintain a solid look.  

I then set to work on the main panel.  I call my son my "sweet boy" so this all came together perfectly using two different sets to create this focal point.  I used Birthday Sentiments and LJD's On The Line.  I first stamped the 'make a wish' in black Hero Arts ink.  Followed by the 'sweet' in Red Royal Hero Arts ink and lastly the 'boy' in HA Tide Pool Ink.  I then used the little candle from the On The Line set in a rainbow order to fill in the bottom.

I stitched around all of my panels using white thread adding a little zig zag on the Fishtail Flag Stax and Layers.  I then stitched around my main layer using red thread to make it pop.   As a last touch I added a sprinkle of gold sequins adhered with a tiny dot of Glossy Accents.

I love how it turned out and I think he will too!!  Now I just have to tuck this away until March!!

Thanks for coming by today!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith