Simply Sketched Hardwood Birthday

Today I have a masculine birthday card to share using the Hostess Set Simply Sketched, the new background stamp Hardwood and Gorgeous Grunge.

I used watercolor paper for the bird image and created the background by first lightly spraying with water and then using my largest Aqua Painter, adding some swipes of color with some Classic Ink, allowing the colors to bleed and blend together. While still wet, I stamped some ink splatters with the Gorgeous Grunge stamp. After my paper dried (I helped it along with my heat tool) I stamped the bird in Black Stazon and added a little more color to the image with my Aqua Painter.

I like the Hardwood stamp inked in White Craft ink and then stamped on Crumb Cake...it has that pickled wood look. Since this is a manly card, I used a stamped strip in place of ribbon and added a little paper piercing for some extra detail.

This cute little bird sitting on the green grasses has me longing for Spring...this has been such a coooold, snowy winter! I hope that wherever you are, you are staying warm!