PDO Birthday Gnome

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season!  It's been great to spend time with family and friends but I think I'm ready to go back to a more normal schedule.  Today I've got a card for you that I created using the Polka Dot Orchard Caroling Gnomes stamp set.  I'm going to show you how to use an image that seems only good for holidays and use it for non-holiday.  I love when I can stretch my stamps!

Let's take a quick look at my finished card and then dive on in to the details.

I love gnomes and I thought this cutie from Caroling Gnomes would be perfect to create a masculine birthday card.  You see, this gnome is singing.  He could be singing happy birthday, Auld Lang Syne, Christmas carols or just about anything!  That's why I don't feel like he's limited to just the Christmas season.

I started by printing the gnome out onto Bristol Smooth cardstock.  I knew I was going to do a little stenciling and watercoloring and this is a great surfact for both of those things.  I also needed a mask for my gnome before I could do the stenciling.  I printed him out onto regular copy paper and spread a thin coat of Tombow Mono Multi liquid glue.  Once it dries, it becomes a temporary adhesive.  Absolutely perfect for a mask.

I put the mask in place and taped the plaid stencil on top.  The stencil I used is from Echo Park and is no longer available but I did link up to another similar stencil below.  I then used a blending brush and gray ink over the stencil.  I concentrated the color around the gnome and then let it fade the further I went out.

Before:

After:

Next it was time to color up the gnome.  I used a combination of Distress Inks, Distress Markers, Tombow and Marvy water-based markers to add the color to my scene.  Sometimes I added the ink directly to the paper and blended it out with a water brush.  Other times I smooshed the ink onto a block and then picked it up with the water brush.  It just depending on the depth of color I needed.

Here he is all colored up:

Now down to the card making.  I cut the gnome panel down with a Stitched Indented Rectangle die from Elizabeth Craft Designs.  I set the panel asided and started work on the card base.  I used a  piece of black cardstock to create a top fold A2 sized base.  I cut a piece of patterned paper from the Echo Park Little Lumberjack paper pad down to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  I glued this to the black card base.  I added foam tape to the back of the gnome panel and adhered to the card base.

The Happy Birthday sentiment comes from the Polka Dot Orchard Floral Flourish Background 3 set.

This set has several great sentiments and really cool backgrounds!  I plan to make some foiled background when I find the time...

I printed the sentiment onto white cardstock.  I cut it down to 2 1/2" x 1".  I glued it to a piece of black cardstock just slightly larger and then glued it on top of the gnome panel.  I let part of the left edge hang off over the panel. 

For the final touch I added some black pearls in assorted sizes.  That's it.  One masculine birthday card in the books for the new year!

Close up detail

I really appreciate you stopping by and hope that you will check out all of the great digital stamps available in the Polka Dot Orchard store HERE.

Toodles!
~Kristina

Supplies used:

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Tonic Studios-Retractable Craft Pick Shop at: SBC | EH	Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH	Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper Shop at: EH
Stitched Indented Rectangles - Elizabeth Craft Shop at: SBC	Barn Door Distress Ink Shop at: SBC | EH	Black Pearls - Kaisercraft Shop at: EH	Trinity blending brushes Shop at: EH
Little Lumberjack - Echo Park Shop at: SBC	Worn Lipstick Distress Marker Shop at: SBC | EH	Tattered Rose Distress Marker Shop at: SBC | EH	Fossilized Amber Distress Marker Shop at: EH
Black Soot Distress Marker Shop at: SBC | EH	Hickory Smoke Distress Marker Shop at: EH	Dark Jade 177 - Tombow Shop at: EH	Plaid Stencil - LDRS Creative Shop at: SBC