A birthday card for the kid.....

I've been puzzling all week about how to make a birthday card for the kid that's about to be four!  Well, this afternoon, I finally relaxed and let my ordinarily very expressive self come back to life.  I don't profess to be an artist, but I do like to have fun with pen and ink and my wacom tablet and photoshop.  I take the attitude that if I like it, then you must also! 

Here's how....first, do the line drawing in photoshop.  I used my wacom bamboo tablet.  The eraser tool can always take away unwanted areas, but I don't stress over lines outside the box. 

Here's an easy way to color within.  (1)  select an area of the image using the magic wand tool in the tool bar.

(2)  double-click on the foreground color box at the bottom of the tool bar and open the color picker palette.  Select a color and click OK.  The new color should display in the foregound color box. 

(3)  On the top menu bar, go to the drop-down menu edit, then fill, then select foreground color from the fill dialog box and click OK.

(4)  The section will be filled with the foreground color.   Continue selecting each  area and use as many colors as desired to make your image happy. 

Hint:  As you are drawing, make sure the drawn lines are closed.  That allows you to select each closed area to paint within.

Now print this on fabric, as I did, or on cardstock, sign your name and you have an original  card each and every time you need one! 

I found a few complimentary scraps of fabric, stitched them together then stitched Finley's picture on top of that.  I like to use the sticky sided heavy pellon to sandwich between the front and back fabric of my fabric cards.  They can then be propped on one of those little artists' easels for easy display.