Emily's Extra Large Owl birthday card

Well, it was a certain little girl's birthday coming up so here we see her card - as it turned out after much chopping and changing.
I usually have rough idea/ sketch at the beginning and sometimes I fly through it, and sometimes sort of hobble through the card. Some are more epic in creation than others and this was one of them.

Half way through I was not sure if liked it or not. The card was made on craft paper, and the DP is one bought ages ago now when someone was selling off stash.The body brown/gold shades were made with some new wee ink pads had bought - lovely frosty shades by Tsukineko Brilliance Pigment Ink, first seen on my friend Anne's blog - then few weeks later saw them (and could try the colours out - joy!! try before you buy!) in dew drops at show, first and only one here in town, and yes splurged a little..
The beak and number was glossed up with Dimensional Magic - like Glossy accents but doesn't seem to clog if store lid side down, love it!
Owl's eyes were done with Spellbinder circles, using black, craft and DP for them.

Back of the card in DP spots from same set - mounted two shapes on black card and then cut around them for fine edging. Then attached them with tabs - two at top near eyes on front side and then one larger tab at the bottom so would stand.

I coloured the feet with ink to match and used more Dimensional Magic to stiffen the feet so they would stand nicely.

Poem and greeting were computer generated - and yes, made the poem up. :D as you can tell! Owl was bought pre-punched with SU set on eBay, but changed shirt colour and colour of the owl to match, the leaves came with them.

Needless to say, when I saw her delight as was up there when she was given it and her big eyes and huge smile of surprise made it all worth it, especially when she realised it was for her. Not normally there when folks open cards, so it made with one special.

Many thanks every one for popping over for a peek and chat and may God bless your day wherever you may be.

Shaz in Oz.x
Don't forget this blog's candy ~ link here!

{EDIT: for those wondering how I arrived at this layout for the card I looked online for ideas then ended up using the SU punched owl for the design - bought pre-cut on eBay. See photo right, for when was working out the hand drawn design and colouring.}

Would like to link over with:

1. Di's Snippets challenges - used snippets on this card

2. Word Art Wednesday - Anything goes (Wed. 16th)
3.Artistic Inspirations - any goes - make it girly (Mon.14th)
4. Stamping Sensations October challenge - all creatures great and small - end of month
5.Penny Black October Challenge - "Spooky!" this Owl as spooky as I go! end of month
{Apologies, as commenting still rather limited .. but thank you so much for each of yours!!}