Mojo Monday 478 Contest | Scratch-off Birthday Card featuring Mama Elephant and SSS

Thank goodness for Mojo Monday! I feel like it definitely is helping me to find my card making mojo :) After I made my last card using the Mojo Monday 478 Contest sketch, I felt the urge to make another!

I began again with the Simon Says Stamp Snow Much Thanks Card Kit. I pulled the patterned paper that looked like sprinkles and immediately thought "birthday card." I decided I wanted to bring out the pink from the patterned paper, so I used the pink paper from the kit and also some Flirty Flamingo paper from Stampin' Up! as the two together made a create combination, and another color in the paper looked somewhat like a darker pink color. I also used the off-while cardstock from the kit since it was very prominent in the patterned paper - white paper wouldn't do.

Using the sketch, I cut down my papers to size and created my layout. I then used Evernote to search my birthday stamps and dies. I decided to use my Lawn Fawn Party Balloons die to put a balloon in place of the circle in the sketch. I also decided to put the strip of off-white paper towards the top of the card rather than the bottom as shown in the sketch. I also decided to use It's No Secret stamp set from Simon Says Stamp, which is a great stamp set that lends itself well to creating scratch-off cards.

I used the Flirty Flamingo dye ink from Stampin' Up! to stamp "to a wonderful friend" on the strip of off-white paper and "happy birthday" onto the star balloon die cut. I then adhered everything together and "finished" it off with a 1" scratch-off sticker from Inky Antics.

After the card was done, I felt that it needed a little more. I decided that I wanted to add some type of critter/animal holding onto the balloon. I searched Evernote for animal stamps and decided to use the the bunny from Mama Elephant's Lunar Animals stamp set. It just so happened that I had a bunch of critters from this stamp set already stamped, colored, or cut out. I found the bunny in my collection and it was already stamped, colored, cut and it was the perfect coloring to match the card, so all I did was add him onto the balloon with one little hand under the string to give the impression that he was holding onto the balloon!