Special birthday

I was recently reminded that a very special brother-in-law will soon turn 80.  I wanted to help him celebrate across the miles.

This card has the appearance of a lot of texture, but is quite flat in real life.  The background is from DCWV and has small glossy dots.  The sentiments are unmounted and stamped with red Colorbox ink and embossed with Ranger Chinese Red embossing powder.  This powder has small bits of gold mixed with the red.  Pinked circles are cut with Spellbinders Nestability dies.

Ink Smooshing

Recently, I needed a sympathy and decided to try ink smooshing for the background.  I had seen this technique recently on this blog.  I didn't remember exactly how it was done, so I just put distress ink on a piece of acetate, spritzed it with water and placed watercolor paper on top and peeled it off.  In case you're tempted, don't use regular cardstock for this.  I tried that first and had a big fail.  After the background was dry, I stamped the image and sentiment onto background with Versafine Smokey Gray ink.  I cut it out with a die and added a frame, then mounted it on white card base.

Fruit challenge

Once again, a challenge from Karen on Gingerwood Bulletin Board inspired me to make a card.  The challenge is to make a card using fruit.  Strangely enough, I have very few stamps of fruit.  I did find this one and decided it would make a good birthday card for a female relative who works hard and would like nothing more than a day to relax on her birthday.