Gorgeous Gus!

Hi everyone, today I would like to share my husband’s birthday card. He loves nature generally and birds in particular, and I love to make him a card which is on the “cute” spectrum. I previously made a cute owl card I was very pleased with here using the Lavinia owl Gus, so I decided to make a bigger and extended version of the same design for this one.

I cut a 7 1/4” square of stamping card, stamped Gus in Nocturne Versafine Clair then masked him and stamped the bough for him to sit on in Pinecone. I then masked the bough as well and stamped some extra branches. I added a large circle mask then blended Blue Atoll and Dark Denim Elements inks around the circle and the edges of the card to form a moon and sky; then I used the outer circle mask to blend some Stormy Sky Distress Oxide inside the moon to add depth. I stamped my background owl wording in grey, then stamped some branches in the top left and added a birdie on the branch, an owl in flight and a hedgehog in the bottom corner.

I removed the owl mask and coloured Gus and the branches using my Zig pens (I didn’t have them when I made the original card), used black fineliner to make his eyes and beak blacker, and added white gel pen highlights. I also added white gel pen highlights to the bird, owl and hedgie, and some shading using my new Stabilo All white pencil (thanks very much to Sarn for making aware of this .. I’m very pleased with it).

At this point I felt it needed something more to fill the extra space as it is a bigger card, so I added two background fairy castles in 1st and 2nd generation Morning Mist. I grounded them by adding some landscaping with my Mini Hill masks and Distress Oxide, and coloured the windows with Sakura Stardust pens which I also used to highlight the scene.  I stamped the sentiments onto separate card, cut out, edged with blue Promarker and attached, then matted the finished panel onto a blue pearlescent card border and an 8” square card blank. Finally I added some sparkle to the moon with my Spectrum Noir sparkle pen, and Glossy Accents to make Gus’s eyes shine … I was a bit anxious about this as my recently purchased bottle was a dud and I’ve not had chance to replace it yet, but I found an old gunged up mini bottle in my cupboard and managed to get it flowing! (phew!!).

Here's a closeup angled pic to show Gus's shiny eyes and the sparkle on the moon.

Stamps: Lavinia Gus, Vine Branch, Far World Castle, Brodwin and Maylin, Wallace Family, Bird Collection, Words From the Heart; Pink Frog Typewriter Sentiments;

Media: Lavinia Elements inks (Blue Atoll, Dark Denim); Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Stormy Sky, Hickory Smoke); Versafine Clair (Nocturne, Pinecone, Morning Mist, Twilight, Tulip Red); Kuretake Zig Clean Colour watercolour brush pens; gel pen (white); Sakura Stardust pens (yellow, clear); Spectrum Noir sparkle pen (clear); Stabilo All pencil (white); Glossy Accents;

Tools: Lavinia circle acetate masks, Mini Hill masks.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #5 2024 - Anything Goes

Allsorts #771 - Use Yellow/Anything Goes (2nd entry)

(I have used some yellow on my owl and the castle windows, but it’s mostly anything goes!)

Addicted to Stamps and More #463 - Birthdays

Creative Inspirations (March) - Anything Goes

Creative Moments #256 - Flora and Fauna (2nd entry)

Incy Wincy (March) - Birthday

Lavinia Creative Challenge (March) - Animal Magic (version without sentiment)

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2410 - Anything Goes

Unicorn Challenge #96 - For the Boys / Men

Word Art Wednesday #639/640 - Anything Goes

I really do love Gus and am very pleased with how this project turned out, so I’m hoping he will like it too! Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,