Lucky Ball Caterpillar Birthday Card

 As young boys my sons were always tempted by money-eating toy machines offering plastic balls with mystery prizes.  It was cute to see them hope against hope for that elusive, much-desired toy.  When I saw the Mama Elephant stamp and dies sets, I knew they would make nostalgic birthday cards for both my boys.  One of my sons was also a bug enthusiast who raised many caterpillars into butterflies on our dining room table. I thought it would be fun to combine both of his boyhood passions into his birthday card this year. The ball machine had a center space for a message but I decided to turn it into a shaker element with a caterpillar in it.  Hero Arts had cute bug stamp and die sets so I used them to make it seem like the caterpillar was in the machine and a butterfly had hatched.  (You have to feed the caterpillar lots and lots of crown flower leaves for that miracle to happen!)  By mistake I stamped the images with non-waterproof black ink so when I tried to color them with Copic pens they smudged.  I fixed this problem with color pencils which gave the card a child-like coloring book style which I liked.  I used a Spellbinder die set to cut the words from gold foil paper and added 3D sticker stars for even more bling.  Hopefully, my son won't think this card is 'too cute' and it will bring back many happy childhood memories of wishing for that 'lucky ball' !  Maybe it's time to go to Vegas!!!!!