A Mother-in-Law's Birthday Camping Celebrations!

As mentioned in the previous post, all of my children, their spouses, a mother-in-law, a girl friend, and the only grandbaby went on our annual family camping trip this last week.  We celebrated three birthdays while enjoy our time together in the great Northwest.  Birthdays celebrated were:  a daughter-in-law, a mother-in-law, and my own.  Mine was celebrated just a few days early, and theirs a bit late.  The celebration was filled with family time, games, a veritable birthday feast, including dessert, and campfire time.  This is the first year that daughter #2 brought her recently widowed mother-in-law, so I needed to get busy and make her a birthday card before we left.

Since I knew we'd be enjoying the great outdoors with many creatures, birds, and bugs, who live in the forest, I thought it only fair to honored at least one critter on at least one of the birthday cards needed, thus the mother-in-law card received a little birdie and his nest.  Normally, while camping with family and friends, many cameras are present; therefore, her card also has the "Shutter Technique" used to hide and expose the verse inside the card as it is opened and shut.  

Of course, challenges were checked on Splitcoasterstampers, and I used their inspiration to help me decide my card colors, including the blue bird as something that flies, plus a card I have never made before.  In this case, it means it is the first time I've made a birthday card for my daughter's mother-in-law!  Check out the card below, inside and out, that I just finished in the nick of time before leaving.

Ingredients:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstock--Tranquil Tide, Daffodil Yellow.  Pattern--Delightful Daisy.  Stamps:  Petal Palette (bird), Designer Tin of Cards (verse-retired)  Ink: Tranquil Tide (verse), Marine Mist (Bird outline). Dies:  Layering Circles, Flourish Thinlits, Swirly Scribbles, Petals & More Thinlits.  Punch: Banner Triple (shutter piece).  Journaling Pen: Black (bird eye).  Other: Copic coloring; Colorbox Chestnut Road distressed edges.   Size: 4-1/4" x 5-1/2".

A "Warframe Game" Shutter Sentiment for David!

I am always looking for ideas for birthday cards that suit the recipient, such as hobbies, sports favorites, entertainment favorites (movies, Pokemon, video games, etc.), and even food.  My oldest son, David, is a video gaming hobbyist and that should be in capital letters!  He had a birthday this past week, thus, I needed a card for our celebration held this past Sunday.

His current video game favorite is Warframe, so I started my research campaign a few weeks ago to find out what this game was all about.  I Googled it, asked other members of the family who might know, etc., because  I wanted his card to be authentic.  It took a number of hours to gather enough knowledge to begin.  I resorted to downloading colored digital pictures from numerous searches, and then I was ready to begin.

This game takes place in the future on Earth and in outer space with the players as representatives of the Tenno, descendants of an ancient and mystical civilization.  I wanted to make a galaxy night sky in watercolors inks, which I did using Stampin' Up re-inkers and spritzed watered-down metallic sapphire acrylic paint, which give it a pretty, almost silvery blue sheen.  I also wanted to try out the shutter technique for the inside sentiment area.  My card is larger than the typical A2 size, so I had to find my own measurements for the parts to make the shutter panel and lens.

The shutter technique is used with a gatefold card style and has a bellyband sleeve to hold the gatefold closed.  On my card, this bellyband hosts the Warframe game logo, which is an abstract lotus flower...quite pretty, I think.

When the bellyband sleeve is removed, a picture of Earth is visible where the inhabitants of the game reside at some time far into the future.  I added this element so the card front isn't so bare once the sleeve is removed.

The card inside features a picture gallery of a few of the characters one might run into while playing the game.  On the left panel at the top is The Lotus, the advisor of the Tenno, saviors of Earth, and below her is Alad V, who becomes an occasional ally when it best suits his interests.  At the top right is Captain Vor and below him is Vay Hek, who are leaders of the armies that the Tenno must defeat.  When the card is opened, the personalized birthday verse (made by Mom) is revealed as the eye of the shutter lens opens.

Ingredients:  Papers: Stampin' Up cs: Night of Navy, Rose Red; Recollections Seaside Cardstock Pack (Lt. blue); Ranger Watercolor Paper.  Warframe Colored Digital pictures.  Stampin' Up Inks: Night of Navy, Marine Mist, Rose Red.  Folk Art Acrylic Paint watered down for spritzing.  Dies:  Stampin' Up Starburst Framelits; Spellbinders Circles LG and Circles SM.  Recollections Opaque Marker: Snow.  Score-Buddy creasing tool.  Chatterbox verse/ computer prepared.  Size: 5" x 6-1/8"