Deer in the Birch

I wanted to create a clean masculine card for my dad for his birthday this year.  I used some dies from Taylored Expressions for the birch tree panel and the fabulous deer.  I used watercolor paper for the trees so they would stand out and some black cardstock from Close to My Heart for the deer.  I really love our black cardstock.  It almost has what looks like a very faint shimmer and cuts so nicely!  It does have a white core so I just took a black marker and ran it along the edges and no more white showing!

I also wanted to try a new technique that I've been seeing lately.  I created the sunrise background using several Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  I don't have too many colors in my collection so I used what I had available and while it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for I still like it very much.  Lawnfawn has a really good video tutorial on how to use this technique.  Here's a link:  http://youtu.be/K7lPcQ8QQ_M