Congratulations!!

Now you might be asking why are congratulations in order?  Well, there really is no set reason.  I mean my wonderful niece is graduation from college this weekend and already has a job lined up.  I am truly proud of her and her accomplishments.  So I guess I do have a pretty good reason for saying it. 

It is funny how one day I am so inspired to make a card and the next I have no idea what I want to do.  Today was one of the days that I had no idea what I wanted to create.  As I was busy looking through some photos, I came across a picture of a card I made a few years ago.  It had a punch art character that I realized I had not made in a long time.  So there was my inspiration.  Are you ready to see this famous character of mine?  Well here we go.

 

Yes it is Tigger!!!  I love this guy.  He is jumping for joy which is exactly what my niece will be doing as she graduates.  Let's start with the base card as always.  I chose to used Lucky Limeade card stock for this one.  I wanted to use a color scheme that could work for either boy or girl.  The piece of Limeade was cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4".  For the top layer I went with the neutral color of Basic Black.  I wanted to be sure whatever I used would allow Tigger to pop off the page.  It is cut at 4" x 5 1/4".  Using my 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch and the circle from the itty bitty punch set I punched out circles in Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo and Riding Hood Red.  I scattered them on my piece of black and adhered them down using liquid glue.  Once they were all attached, I ran it through my big shot using an impression folder called Tiny Stars.  I bought this particular folder at a local craft store.  It just seemed to fit since Tigger is such a star.  The black piece was adhered to the Limeade using a runner adhesive.

 

Here is a close up of the star himself.  Once again, I turned to the punch queen Ellen Kemper to learn to make him.  That being said, I will not list all the punches used and instead would recommend visiting her blog to get the instructions.   Two of the punches used the the butterfly and the heart to heart punch which are on the retiring list.  So you have until May 31st to order these punches before they are gone.  All of the pieces except the tummy are outlined with black ink and the eyes and eyebrows are drawn on as well as the stripes.  I used the colors So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Chocolate Chip and Bravo Burgundy for him.  I adhered all his parts using a liquid glue and adhered the completed Tigger to the card using dimensionals.

 

For my greeting, I knew I did not want to use another happy birthday stamp so I chose a congratulations stamp.  This is a wonderful saying that covers many occasions including birthdays.  This particular one come from the stamp set called Curly Cute.  I used my Stampin' Up! markers in the colors of Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo and Riding Hood Red.  I colors every third letter with the same color until all were complete.  Since it does take a minute or so to do this, be sure to blow some air (huff) on the letters so the ink will be moist right before you stamp it.  I stamped this one on Whisper White and cut it out free hand using my scissors.  I attached it to the card using dimensionals.

Overall, this is a pretty nice card for someone who was completely uninspired to begin with today!!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a day full of inspiration.  I hope you will return to see if I can come up with another card to share.  Until then, thanks for dropping by today.