Swirly Happy Birthday Bird Card

Dodging the remaining Christmas cards I have to make, I decided to play with a bird stamp instead.

I used my Misti to stamp the bird and the sentiment, then created a mask to temporarily cover them.  I then used a foam pad to blend the Distress Ink background from yellow, through, orange to brown.  I then splattered different shades of ink from a paint brush.  I then used my Stampin' Up "Gorgeous Grunge" speckled stamp for the black specks of ink. I then removed the masks and coloured in the bird with two shades of brown Promarkers.I was reasonably happy with the finished result (below).

I then had a blinding bit of inspiration to add further interest.  I used a Visible Image "Time Tunnel" stencil and a "Picked Raspberry" shade of Distress Ink to create the swirl.