Arrrrrr...

My boys LOVE this pirate! So it's a favourite go-to set when I have to make cards for their friends' birthday parties (three in the next week - ACK!) I therefore used today's Technique Lover's Challenge on SCS as a starting point for my card. This week's featured technique is called a Square Spring Card - isn't it fun? It folds down flat and fits perfectly into a standard card envelope, too!

I am making a commitment to use some of my retired designer papers to make room for all the NEW DPs coming out next week (I've spied some of the designs on the blogs of demos who were at the SU! convention on the weekend - YUM!), so this card uses a DP that was retired a year ago (I can't for my life remember what it was called tho...). Also, the main image panel uses a technique developed by a fellow Canadian SCSer named Julie Buhler, which she calls "No Copics, No Problem!" (check out her fabulous tutorial here). Copic markers are outrageously expensive professional-grade, alcohol-based markers that were originally used by Japanese comic-book illustrators. They are now very popular amongst stampers and other paper-crafters, as they provide flawless colouring with infinite blending possibilities. Alas, as I've already mentioned, they are also outrageously expensive LOL! So Julie developed a technique that allows you to use our own SU! markers to achieve very similar results, with the help of aquapainters and watercolour paper. Yes, it is a painstaking technique, but it yields awesome results! I finished off the card with a photocorner adorned with some hemp twine, and a SU! button threaded with linen thread. It's now ready to go!! Not sure which of the three little birthday boys this one will go to - I will let the boys decide.

Happy Stampin'!