An Accordion Birthday card

Hello Blog friends both new and old.  Thank you for the wonderful response to my Tag Holders in my last post and I was thrilled that a few of you have visited Helen to buy the pattern.  You really will enjoy making the holders.

I do not normally blog family cards but when I was parceling up a card to send to my lovely Brother in Canada, I thought it fitted well into a couple of challenges that are currently running.  My older Brother is a larger than life character and having spent the whole of his adult life in the Canadian Navy he is quite a tough guy - but he has a big soft heart.  I miss him terribly as he lives 5,000 miles away and we do not get to meet up as often as we would both like so we tend to wear our hearts on our sleeves when we send cards to each other.  Anyway, on to the card which I think he will love.  These cards are always difficult to photograph because of their large size and today is a very grey and rainy day!  Click on the photos for a larger view.

I kept the design fairly simple as it is for a man. I embossed the outer frames with a Tim Holtz embossing folder and then after joining the four pieces together, the base card was painted with Walnut Stain Distress Paint but it was a little dark, so I painted over this with Antique Linen Distress Paint and then again with Broken China Distress Paint.  In real life the three colours are visible here and there on the frame.  I decided against any further treatment because I liked the 'worn' look that the three colours created.

The sentiment reads - Just a note to say, although an ocean apart, you are always in my heart.  Happy Birthday Big Brother.

The inside frame was coloured with Walnut Stain Distress Marker to create frame for the toppers.

The toppers were coloured with Walnut Stain and Broken China Distress Ink and then I spritzed and flicked water to create a more aged background.

On the first mat I added  mini Feather and Inkwell dies, coloured and edged with Black Soot Distress ink and paint.

For the second mat I coloured a mini Globe die cut which was coloured with Salty Ocean Distess paint for the water and the land masses were coloured with Peeled Paint Distress paint.  The outer edge of the globe is coloured with Brushed Pewter Distress paint.  I love the way the mini Movers and Shapers dies fit the accordian card mats so well.

A mini heart die has been added to the third mat and a birthday sentiment to the last mat.

This is a close-up of the heart, for extra interest I cut out a 'brother' definition from a dictionary, coloured this with Festive Berries Distress ink and edged it with Black Soot Distress ink.  I went around the edge of the heart with a charcoal pencil to give it some depth.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

The challenge at Frilly and Funkie is Warmth of Winter where you are to make something to warm the heart of someone dear.  As well as an opportunity to be a Guest Designer there is a $25 prize for a randomly chosen winner to spend in the Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Simon Says Monday Challenge is 'A' and as mine is an accordion card and therefore appropriate for the challenge.  Winning entries are Spotlighted and there is a random prize draw of $50 to spend at Simon Says Stamp.

Edited:  I have just seen that Inspiration Emporium have started up their challenges again and would like to add this, if possible, since it is all about die cuts (Dieing for 2014) and I have plenty on this card.

Thanks for looking and hopefully commenting, enjoy the rest of your weekend and I hope to see you again soon.  Hugs,  Anne xx