Superman Happy Birthday

Today's card was created for my son Brian's upcoming 36th birthday. I still can't believe I have a child that old but that's the sad reality. Cue heavy sigh!  Anyway, he is obsessed with Superman. My son is an advanced infantry airborne Ranger who is now a CWII Black Hawk pilot in the U.S. Army. Back when he was stationed with the 2/75th Ranger Regiment out of Ft. Lewis in Tacoma, WA he had a night jump that went horribly wrong and fell the equivalent of two stories from the plane. After recovering from his injuries he got a large superman crest tattooed on his back and jokes now that he's Superman because he can fly. I'm not as amused by that story as he is but he most certainly has earned the right to tell it. It doesn't hurt that he's as muscular as Superman so I guess there are similarities. 

Here is a photo of he and Erika, my beautiful daughter in-law. 

They most certainly are a handsome couple, yes? 

Anyway, to create his card I kept it pretty simple so the Superman figure would be the main feature. I started with a piece of patterned paper from the Bazzill's Adventures 6x6 paper pad and layered it directly onto my white card base. I then downloaded a Superman image from online and digitally altered it to fit my card. I printed it onto Copic-friendly cardstock and colored the black & white image using my Copic markers. I fussy cut the image out and lined the edges with my Memento dual tip black marker so it would appear to be a perfectly cut die cut image. I popped the image up off of the card using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals and then stamped the sentiment from Winnie & Walters The Big, Bold, & You stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink and while the ink was still set I covered it with Zing clear embossing powder and heat set it so it would have a nice raised, glossy look. I went around the edges of the card with a blending tool and some black soot Tim Holtz distress ink for a nice grungy look. I'm sure he will love it! Thanks for stopping by!

Play Hard

Today's card was created for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge. I started my card by layering some simple grey cardstock that I got from Hobby Lobby onto my white card base. I cut down some patterned papers from Bazzill's Adventures 6x6 paper pad and layered them onto the card. I die cut two circles using dies from MFT and Spellbinders and layered them together setting them slightly off center from each other. I love that funky, asymmetric look. I stamped the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's All Boy stamp set onto the panel and then stamped the game controller, the stars, and the rest of the sentiment onto the circle. I stamped the controller again, colored it using Copic markers, fussy cut it out, and popped it up off of the focal die cut panel. To finish off the card and to add some interest and define the edges and angles I added some black faux stitching around the layers and the outside of the card. I hope you like it!