Masculine Shadow Box Card

Hello, Crafters.

Today, it's my son's birthday, so I decided to make him a shadow box card, similar the the one I made for Sasha last week!

I chose Mint Macaroon with Tranquil Tide for the colour scheme, and hot air balloons for the theme. I used the smaller balloon in the Lift Me Up Stamp Set, and Mint Macaroon Ink stamped off once to decorate the front of the Shadow Box. 

I didn't want to use Glimmer Paper for Leigh's name but I wanted something shiny. My first thought was using our Fine Tip Glue as that dries shiny but I decided it'd be such a trial keeping the glue where I wanted it to be. Then I thought about acetate, so I put a layer behind the name and then added a layer of Tranquil Tide Cardstock (CS). I was really pleased with the result although it doesn't show up in the photographs! 

I also changed the scalloped glimmer edging around the window I'd put on  Sasha's card to a straight cut frame I die cut using straight cut dies nos. 7 and 8 from the Layering Circle Framelits. 

To decorate the Whisper White CS, I stamped five of the smaller hot air balloons using Basic Black Archival Ink. I coloured each balloon using a selection of different coloured Marker Pens. Then I used some die cut masks I always keep in with the stamps, to mask the balloons so I could stamp some of the larger clouds using Smokey Slate Ink.

I felt the white looked very stark and needed to be softened! I used the fine splatter stamp from the Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set (about to retire on 31st May 2017!), inked in Smokey Slate and stamped off twice. Leaving the masks on the balloons, I stamped randomly all over back. This helped, but not enough. Next I decided to sponge over the entire back using Soft Sky Ink. It worked to a certain extent and I decided to leave it, but if I was to do this again, I'd use a coloured sheet for the back, probably Sahara Sand.

To decorate the front I stamped one large and one small hot air ballon on Mint Macaroon CS using Mint Macaroon Ink. I die cut them using the Up & Away Thinlits, and adhered them to the left of the window using Dimensionals and overlapping them. The sentiment, which is from the same stamp set, was created and adhered in the same way as the hot air balloons 

For the gift card pocket at the back of the card, I stamped the same design as I did on the front except I used first generation stamping. I think my favourite design of all those I've done for this week's Shadow Box Cards is the one which was the Happy Birthday sentiment stamped several times in offset straight lines.

This afternoon I have a class and this evening we're celebrating Leigh's birthday at a barbecue at Vicki and son-in-law Leigh's house.  We'll also be having a belated toast to Sasha for her birthday last weekend, too!

It's going to be busy today but a blessed day. I wish you a very blessed day, too  Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.