Happy Stinking Birthday Skunk Card and Little Stinking Visitors

Skunks, skunks, and more skunks.  That's what I've been smelling over the last couple of nights.  What a way of being jolted awake thinking you've got one in the room with you and then realizing that they're outside.  So you trudge over to the window and slam it closed.  Bad Move!  That just startles the skunks and the additional odor slowly seeps into the room forcing you to move to the other side of the house to get back to your beauty sleep.  So in honor of my midnight visitors I'm going to share with you a birthday card featuring a skunk.  I've even honored the odor of the skunk in the inside sentiment.  I call this birthday card my "Happy Stinking Birthday Skunk Card"...not very original, but fitting for both the skunk and the birthday!  It also meets this week's criteria for the Creative Card Crew Challenge which is anything goes.

You may wonder how I know that the skunks have actually been visiting my backyard in the middle of the night and are not just next door.  Well, besides the digging in the yard, my husband has installed a night vision camera for me.  You see, one night last summer my suet feeder disappeared and there was a large hole in the platform feeder sitting on the ground below the suet feeder.  I wondered what the heck had been able to get up high enough to grab the entire feeder and run off with it.  Then I found out that morning there was a black bear wandering around the neighborhood.  Although I don't have proof, I truly believe that the bear was my thief and had used my platform feeder to stretch up and grab the suet feeder.  I wondered what else might be going on around the feeder at night and mentioned it in passing to my husband.  Nice man that he is...he bought me a night vision camera for my birthday and mounted it outside so that I can snoop on the wildlife at my feeders during the night.

Here's my skunk proof.

 

All of these particular skunks have turned on our motion detector lights so that I got some decent pictures of them.  Most of the time they come in from directions that don't turn on the lights.

And how about this...

 

Two skunks in the same picture.  One at the feeder area and one closer to the camera.

And then there's this little stinker.

Notice that he's been spooked by a fox and has his tail straight in the air.  Lots of goings on at night in my yard!

Enough about the real stinkers and onward to the sweet little guy on my birthday card.


Creating My "Happy Stinking Birthday Skunk Card"


Card Statistics

• Final Card Size: 6.5" tall x 5.5" wide
• Tools: Martha Stewart scoring board, skunk stamp, Making Memories paper cutter, blending stumps, scissors, ruler
• Material: cardstock, cover stock, scrapbook paper, button, ribbon, adhesive, Stazon ink, Prismacolor pencils, gamsol, spray adhesive

Card Front

When I began thinking about creating this card I selected my scrapbook paper first and used it to guide me for my color palette.  I chose olive green and peach cardstocks based upon the colored circles in the rust colored scrapbook paper.  As you can see I elected to use the olive green cardstock for the card base.

My front panel consists of peach cardstock layered with a piece of the printed paper.  For my image I used white cardstock and colored the cute little skunk using colored pencils and gamsol.  I matted the completed image with peach and olive cardstocks and affixed it to the front panel.

I decided to keep the card simple and not place any sentiment on the top panel.  To add interest to the front of the birthday card I added a button with a ribbon threaded through it.  This completed my front panel and I affixed it to the front of the olive card base.


Angle View of Card Front to Show Dimension

As you can see, I did not add any dimension to the front of the card with the exception of the button and the threaded ribbon ends.


Inside Card

For the inside panel I printed "Happy Stinking Birthday!" on white cardstock and matted it on peach cardstock.  Again, I kept the design simple and decorated it with a layered band of the printed paper matted by olive cardstock.  I affixed the completed panel to the inside of my card base.

I constructed an envelope from heavy cover stock, but prior to gluing it together I printed a design in the lower left corner to compliment the card.  For the design I scanned the front of my card into the computer and then used Photoshop Elements (I love this program) to crop out the cute little skunk and deckle the edges around him in olive.  I sprayed the image with sealer to protect it.


Final Card and Envelope Ensemble

Didn't the envelope turn out cute?  I like that the components of the ensemble reflect one another.


Card Recipe Specifics

• Cardstock: Wausau, The Paper Company, Hammermill
• Cover Stock: Staples
• Stamp: Whipper Snapper
• Ribbon: Michaels
• Ink: Stazon black
• Prismacolor Pencils: pink rose, pink, black, cool grey 90%, warm grey 50%, poppy red, peach, olive green, kelp green, limepeel
• Tools: Martha Stewart scoring board, Making Memories paper cutter, ruler, scissors, blending stumps
• Misc: gamsol, adhesive, spray sealer, button 
• Techniques: stamping, gamsol

 
 

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