A Birthday and Retro Birdies

I've been quiet here for a week because, aside from celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary last week, we also celebrated my only son's 16th. Yes. The big 1-6. (He's the one in the white shirt in front of the bowl of ice cream with candles.) He wanted to have some friends over to play a MMOG (massive multi-player online game), so that was his party. They brought their computers (hard drive towers and monitors, not laptops), and set up in our basement. It went on all night long, but I was in bed. But with all the planning and partying, there wasn't much time for stamping.

Then I spent the early days of this week cleaning my house for out-of-town guests that arrive Friday. You know, fun stuff like mopping hardwood floors, cleaning bathrooms, and laundering sheets and towels. Today, I'm all caught up, so I was jonesin' for some crafting.

I scrolled through my saved posts in my blog reader, and came across this photo that I loved and wanted to try to replicate in a card. It's by illustrator Wayne Pate, and I was drawn to it by the retro feel and the whimsy.

Here's the card that resulted. I used my 2-Step Bird Punch, Whisper White and Concord Crush card stock from the new InColor Collection. I layered them on Poppy Parade card stock, also from the InColor Collection, and matted that on Whisper White. The base is 4.25" x 11" scored at 2.75" in from each end.

I used one of the sentiments from the Always stamp set and used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to place each part of the sentence where I wanted them on each bird. I was able to ink up just the words I wanted using the Concord Crush Stampin' Write Marker. I also used this to add the legs. For the white legs, I used something that didn't work out like I'd tested it. I used a White-Out pen. I have yet to find a really good, reliable, non-clogging white pen, but I made do.

The hearts are from the inside of a security envelope and were punched with the Small Heart Punch. I used the little flower buttons from the Designer Buttons Neutrals Collection. So cute! But I couldn't leave well enough alone. I felt like the button needed some thread so that the holes wouldn't glare at me against the Concord Crush birdies. So, I cut some very thin strips of Whisper White and used them as thread. Don't ask me how many tries it took me to get a simple tie, but it was worth it! I adhered them with Mini Glue Dots.

Well, this was a fun exercise. I'd love to see your take on Wayne Pate's birdies.