it's better to travel well then to arrive - buddha; a birthday wish

I really wanted to make something extraordinary and special for my awesome, amazing friend, however, when I set out to design his birthday card I didn't have a plan.  Isn't it much harder to be creative without at least a bit of a plan, or is it just me?  It took a while to decide on two items: the Parisian street map and the city scape die cut and once they were on the table the rest fell into line.  I went with a city theme: street map, skyline, birds on a wire, a novel to read as you travel and a balloon ride.  Oh my goodness, I'm such a dork trying to make it all come together but I'm a sucker for cohesion.

The background of the card was stamped with a large script stamp and the whole card was distressed with Tim Holtz vintage photo. Some of the script was embossed to increase texture.  I randomly Modge Podged torn book pages and gave the card a good spray of Ranger Dylusions calypso teal Ink Spray.  The ink blotches are diluted acrylic paint added with a pipette and heat set.  I love ink blotches.

The balloon and Parisian street map stamps were stamped onto torn watercolour paper which I first ran through Tim Holtz tea dye.  The border was hand-drawn.  I think the border adds authenticity and grounds the image.

The Memory Box city scape die is one of my recent favourites.  I have an idea for a chalkboad/city scape card bouncing around in mind which I will attempt to tackle once I finish up some other priority projects:  my dad's and my brother's birthday cards and the November PJ Challenge.