Birthday Groundhog!

My husband is a Groundhog baby!   I've been thinking about making him a birthday card since I started making cards five years ago that depicted a groundhog on his card, but did not have an image to use.  I have a subscription to Elizabeth Dulema's Coloring Pages, which is free.  I get a free image once a month in her newsletter along with information about her children's books as well.  Finally, this year she sent a groundhog image, and he was too cute!  I decided then and there it would definitely have to be the theme of John's card this year!  

I dove in ready to make John's card a few days ago.  I cleaned up Mr. Groundhog a bit in PaintShop Pro and dropped him into Microsoft Word to resize him to fit the oval Spellbinder dies that I decided to use for his frame.  I found some papers I wanted to use, and colored Mr. Groundhog with my Copics to coordinate with these papers.  I decided on the navy glitter paper for his frame, but it was there my mojo came to a standstill.  I mulled it over for several hours, trying this and that, and finally went to bed.  

Sometime, in the middle of the night, I woke up thinking about a video I had seen a few weeks ago of Ashley Newell's "Angled Background" technique that she recently published through Papertrey Ink.  I turned on my light and fiddled with the papers on my craft table to see what I thought.  I was indecisive and too groggy to make much sense of it, and I thought I'd better wait for the morning.  In the light of the day, it seemed like just the right thing, and viola, here he is:

And, following is the finished inside to coordinate with the outside, and the little Groundhog Day poem for John.  I hope he like his card.

Recipe:  Stampin' Up papers:  Night of Navy cs, Gumball Green cs, Print Poetry dsp, Subtles dsp stack, In-Color 2012-14 dsp stack; Jillibean: Macho Macho Soup/ 2 Parts Boy (chevron); Core'dinations Glitter cs: Ball Gown.  Elizabeth Dulemba digi.  Copic Markers.  Spellbinders Ovals SM, Deckled Ovals LG.  EK Scalloped Photo Corner punch.  Stash:  Ribbons, Button, Scrapper's Floss.