MFT Sketch Challenge 504 Slimline Birthday

Hi crafty friends! Ready for another Wednesday Sketch Challenge from My Favorite Things? #504:

I am also playing along with Cupcake Inspiration Challenge for their 500th Challenge: Birthday Celebration! Wow, 500...that's a lot!

Also, another NBUS (I am starting to get worried...am I a stamping hoarder?)!

I started with MFT's Celebrate Speech Bubble, new to me, but unfortunately retired from MFT (I did find it on FranticStamper.com). 

Last weekend I cleaned up my desk area. I usually color all the images from a  stamp set at one time and have lots of images left over. I was keeping them in random little cups, but the walls started to close in on me! Umm...I thought if I put them in little plastic bags, they would take up so much less room, and they do! Also, I now know what I have. Now my goal is to try and use up all the bits and bobs in the bags! We'll see how that works out. 

I thought in lieu of the flag shown in the sketch, the speech bubble would be perfect. The stripes underneath are from MFT's card stock, Lemon Chiffon, Pineapple and Orange Zest, which matched my little "Sweater Weather" tiger guy perfectly (he was from my bags of colored images - Yah!). I had colored him on Ranger's Inkssentials Water Color Paper (love this paper!) with Derwent Inktense Water Color Pencils. Can you see how vibrant these watercolor pencils stay? They don't fade back.

In order for everything to fit in proportion, I made a portrait styled slim-line card. I used MFT's Cement Grey card stock and created a stitched border using Trinity Stamps Slimline Series: Stitched Frames:

The sentiment, from MFT's You WOW Me set (also retired from MFT, but available from Amazon), was white heat embossed on MFT's Orange Zest card stock. I used Honey Bee's Sentiment Banners die cut to cut out the sentiment. I have the hardest time cutting sentiments straight either by hand or my cutter. I much prefer to use sentiment banners and have several different sets in my stock. These particular ones have flag ends with a nice selection of sizes.

Both the sentiment and the little tiger were popped up with 3M foam tape for some added dimension.

Thank you for joining me today and thanks to the challengers: MFT's Weds. Sketch Challenge, Cupcake Inspiration Challenge and NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff)!

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