Pinwheel Birthday Card for Retro Rubber Blog Challenge #12, Use Brads

For the embellishment challenge over at Retro Rubber Blog Challenge I wanted to use my brads in a functional way. 

  

That led me to think of pinwheels and a couple fun retro stamps by Magenta.  I have owned these stamps since the late 90's and they are still fun to play with, especially with this design.

These stamps have designs inside squares that would be perfect for pinwheels.  I wanted to try several different coloring techniques so I stamped my images on Strathmore Bristol 100- pound paper with Tsukineko StazOn Cactus Green.  The images were trimmed to the size square I planned to use.  Using the Stampendous stamp-a-liner and StazOn ink on acrylic sheets to position the image I stamped the reverse side with the same image.  They are not exact, but once the pinwheel is assembled the designs looked great.

Next I went to town with my Rexel Derwent watercolor pencils.  (Deep Cadmium, Rose Pink, Light Violet, Blue Violet, Dark Violet, Smalt Blue, Grass Green, and Sap Green.) They give a nice watercolor blend and bleed when water is applied with a small paintbrush to the colored areas.  The 100-pound Bristol paper works very nicely for this technique, as it does not curl when wet.  After the images were dry I used my Creative Imaginations Centering Ruler to mark from corner to corner at the same distances.  Then I snipped the shapes and punched a hole in the center and each corner with the Cropidile.  Using small glittered brads from my stash I assembled the pinwheels.  I trained the curves in the paper around a pencil.

Looking around my craft table for candidates to serve as a stick I spied a few cotton swabs with paper handles.  Just as an aside I prefer these over the plastic ones, especially when I do flame tests in Chemistry.  Ok back to the card!  After stripping the cotton off the ends of the swabs I sponged StazOn Cactus Green on the stems and the attached the pinwheels with glue dots.

To create the background I used purple card stock (4 1/2" x 6 1/2") and the Spellbinders Fancy Lattice die.  The edge designs were folded back and Recollections double-sided pink tape adhesive was applied.  I left the liner in place until I was ready to adhere it to the card.

Spellbinders Nested Lacey Pennants provided the thin banner that would fit through the brad slots.  This was die cut from the remnant section of the light green card stock from my stash.  The sentiment by Boxer Scrapbooking was stamped in StazOn Cactus Green.  A strip of dark purple card stock is mounted behind the die cut lattice and the brad prongs are poked through and secured.  The whole lattice layer is adhered to the light green card stock base.  The banner is threaded through the brad and secured with a glue dot to the brad.  The banner is secured with a dimensional foam adhesive dot to the front of the card.  The three pinwheels are secured with strategic glue dots.

This was a fun card to make especially the custom colored pinwheels.  I was able to use two types of brads from my stash and created a whimsical birthday card.  Please come play along with us over at Retro Rubber Challenge Blog and show us what you've got with brads!

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Hiding in my Craftroom #196 Freestyle

A Gem of a Challenge #142 Spring is in the Air

Aud Sentiments #129 Birthday

Creative Moments #66 Spring or Easter 
Artistic Inspirations #129 Anything Goes with a Twist of Spring

Recipe Winner at:
Crafts 4 Eternity #222 Spring