Happy Birthday to my Sweetheart!

Sunday is my sweetheart, Jeff's 40th birthday! I love this man more than anything (even stamping) so I hope he has at least another 40 more years to spend here with me. He is such a wonderful, caring man who makes me laugh and appreciate every moment. This picture is of us at Alex's graduation. He was so proud of Alex and so happy to be there with us. Since I love Jeff so much I wanted to make him the most special card ever for his birthday. It is no secret (if you actually read my blog) that I have been trying to figure out the whole Prismacolor Pencil technique after purchasing the full set of pencils several weeks ago. Well, they came out again today for this card. Here are my supplies- although I used baby oil to blend on my last couple cards I pulled out the Odorless Mineral Spirits again today.

That's the jar I keep my Odorless Mineral Spirits in. My friend Jimmi and I split a container so we could try out the pencils. A little goes a long way- I don't see me needing to replace the product anytime soon HOWEVER I may need to purchase one of those nifty pump bottles soon.
I do think I prefer the OMS to the Baby Oil for blending although both work well. In trying to figure out the technique I have realized that less is more, simpler is better. I was trying TOO hard and achieving fantastic results with the pencils is actually relatively easy.
I chose the fruit image from Stampin Up's For Father set because Jeff is a farmer in addition to everything else he does. Currently, he only farms one acre but starting next year, he will farm at least 50. It's his first love, besides me, of course.
I also used the Faux Wood grain technique on the two panels that I placed following SCS Sketch # 234. I used a leftover scrap to stamp the sentiment on and popped it up with dimensionals. Here's the finished product:

Stamps: SU For Father and It's Your Birthday

Paper: Old Olive, Real Red, Night of Navy, More Mustard
Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, Close to Cocoa, White
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Brads, Dimensionals, Cuttlebug, Weathered Stripes Embossing Folder, Nestablities

I really hope you and Jeff like this card. Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!