Ramen Birthday Card

I made this card for my son who loves ramen and could eat it everyday.  He is also a very talented origami crafter. He can make turtles and butterflies smaller than a thumbnail!  The background for this card was inspired by a craft magazine article that explained how to use Distress Archival Ink and alcohol on Yupo paper.  ( These supplies are available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.)  It was simple to apply ink onto an acrylic block, spray it with alcohol, and then apply it to the Yupo paper. I also sprayed Distressed Mica ink over the inked paper but it wouldn't dry (Yupo paper is not very porous.) so I blotted off the Mica ink.  This left a milky inky color which I thought was quite nice.  Next I stamped the Hero Arts ramen image in blue permanent ink on white marker paper.  I used the Hero Arts matching die to cut out the bowl of ramen noodles and colored in the image with colored pencils. The ramen image was attached to the card with foam dot adhesives.

The words were also were stamped with blue permanent ink and hand cut out to be a word bubble for the origami crane.  (The two squiggly lines above the words were wiped away before stamping the words.)  I folded the crane (the only thing I can fold without instructions) out of a small piece of patterned washi paper and glued it onto the chopsticks.  Since I had a rubber stamp with Japanese characters expressing 'happy birthday', I stamped it in the lower right hand corner of the card. The ink wasn't dry when I smudged it so I decided to wipe it off and cover it up with a stamped paper seal, but I liked the faded look so I just left it. Inside the card I stamped, 'have a souper day' by curving the words on the acrylic block before stamping.  As a final touch, I added a little kamaboko image from the Hero Arts stamp set. I think (I hope) that my son will like this card designed just for him.  It's a special card for a special person!