October Birthday for a Son. . .

My youngest son, Mark's, birthday is in October is just a few days.   I was thinking about what theme I should use this year and it was a bit of a challenge.  For previous birthday years, I've done a vintage truck (representing his very first vehicle that he owned), tools used as a building contractor, and his dirt bike riding hobby. . .so what to do this year?  After pondering a bit, I know Mark has always loved the outdoors.  As a teenager, he used to ride his dirt bike in the forest behind and around the area where we live with a couple of his high school buddies, and as they grew older, they added camping with bike riding trips to their hobby list.  I remembered two stamp sets: "The Great Outdoors" and "Under the Stars" by Stampin ' Up, which I thought both had great potential.  

I had a vague memory of seeing "The Great Outdoors" bear carrying a bear stein.  I went in search of it to refresh my memory and found Michelle Surette's beer-bearing bear card with a "Cheers to You" sentiment.  I thank her for the idea as beer is Mark's beverage of choice on a hot day and especially after the dirt bike riding is done for the day.  I wanted to do something with camping and a forest scene involved, and I thought the bear with the beer could be somehow incorporated.  The problem was I didn't have a stamp with a beer stein and the one Michelle Surette used was retired after 2010.  Whoa is me!  To the computer I went. . .I found a free, black and white line drawing of beer in a stein very similar to the one Michelle used, but much larger.  I downloaded it and put it into PaintShop Pro and fixed it up a bit and saved a mirror image of it as my bear is a two-fisted beer deliverer, and I was ready to go.  

The card evolved as I progressed.  I decided I needed lots of trees so I could make a layered forest, so I used Stampin' Up "Evergreen," which is actually a Christmas stamp set, but then that is the kind of trees we have in the Northwest.  As I Copic colored eight trees, I had plenty of time to ponder and my mind got stuck on a big moon behind the bear with his delivery of beer.  The card is done, as well as the inside with my poem and embellishments too.  I think Mark will absolutely love it.  It was so fun to make!

Recipe:  SU Stamp: Under the Stars (bear).  Digital beer stein.  Ink: Memento Cocoa Brown.  Moon Sponging Inks: Memento Desert Sand, Cantaloupe; Stampin' Up So Saffron.  Paper: Darice Kraft cs; BoBunny-Camp-A-Lot Plaid/ Dots, DoubleDot-Mellow Yellow (moon);  PTI-Summer Camp (sky); X-Press It Blending Cardstock-White (w/Copics).  Copics: bear, steins, trees.  Dies: Lifestyles: Circles; Spellbinders: Fancy Tags 1. SU Corner Rounder mini punch.  Colorbox Chestnut Roan-distressing.  Stickles-Lace (beer foam).  Favorite Finding Buttons (mini). May Arts twine.  Computer-made sentiment (Font: Annie Use Your Telescope).