Happy Birthday Mom

Today's my mom's 92nd birthday, and I wanted to share the card I made for her special celebration.  

My mom has loved flowers all her life,

so I wanted to make a card that featured some kind of floral stamping or design.  

My original idea was to stamp a Circle Thinlets card base with the Stippled Blossoms stamp set.  I was planning on working with Cranberry Crisp and Whisper White card stock and inks.  However, I changed my mind at the last minute, and I'm glad I did.

I chose instead to make the card base from Smokey Slate card stock and add  some floral designer series paper and a 3-dimensional floral image.  My inspiration for the card I'm about to show you came from my Floral Fusion class that I held last Spring. The card that influenced me sported a large free style flower on it's face.  I decided that was the perfect design to recreate for my mom's card.

Here's what I came up with:

Isn't this paper from the Watercolour Wonder Designer Series paper simply stunning?  The beautiful Cranberry Crisp and Calypso Coral rose images and Smokey Slate dots combined to create a soft and elegant background for my 3-dimensional flower and sentiment. The "happy birthday" sentiment from the Perfectly Penned stamp set, with it's bold curlicues is stamped in Basic Grey over a cluster of roses. 

I used another of the Perfectly Penned sentiments on the inside of my card and stamped the two-step rose from the Stippled Blossoms stamp set in the bottom right corner. 

Supplies:

Card stock:  Smokey Slate for the card base (5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at center), Cranberry Crisp for the first layer (5 1/4 x 4 sponge edges with Cranberry Crisp ink) and Whisper White for the inside of the card (5 x 3 3/4 attached with Sticky Strip at the top of card.

DSP:  Silver Glimmer Paper (scrap), Watercolor Wonder DSP (5 x 3 3/4")

Ink:  Basic Gray, Smokey Slate, Cranberry Crisp 

Stamp Sets:  Perfectly Penned, Stippled Blossoms

Accessories:

• 2 1/2", 1 3/4", 1 3/8 , 1 1/4" and 3/4" circle punches
• Bird Builder Punch for leaves 
• Dazzling Details
• Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons #127555 
• Paper Snips
• Sponge Dauber 
• Adhesive, Glue Dots, Dimensionals
• Stamp-a-ma-jig

To Make The Flower: 

1. Punch out a 2 1/2" and a 1 3/4" circle from Smokey Slate.
2. From both pieces snip out small "V's" leaving the same amount of space as you work your way around the circle. 
3. Use a sponge or sponge dauber to distress edges of the flower petals with Smokey Slate ink.  Curl up the edges with your bone folder.  Adhere the smaller petal round to the larger one with sticky strip.
4. Punch out a 1 3/8" circle from the Silver Glimmer Paper and adhere it to the center of the flower with sticky strip.
5. Punch out a 1 1/4" circle from Cranberry Crisp Cardstock and sponge the edges with corresponding ink.  Adhere to Glimmer paper with a large glue dot.
6. Punch a 3/4" circle from Smokey Slate.  Sponge the edges with Smokey Slate ink and adhere to center of Cranberry Crisp piece.  
7. Adhere a small clear faceted button to the center of the flower with a large glue dot and place a medium sized basic rhinestone in the center.  
8. Cut four wings from Pear Pizzazz card stock using the Bird Builder Punch.  Attach these with glue dots to the bottom of the flower, arranging in clusters of two.  
9. When flower is finished add some glitter to the gray flower petals with Dazzling Details.  Just enough to give a wet look around each petal.  
10. When the Dazzling Details is completely dry attach the flower to the card front with dimensionals. 

  Here is the card along with the one that inspired me.

To change the look of this card I made a few simple changes such as the addition of a card stock layer, changing the DSP, the card and flower petal colours.  I also switched the layering of the flower center to card stock instead of the bottle cap.    

Here you can see the original card along with others in the Floral Fusion set. 

And one final look at my finished card.  My mom loved it.

To bring out the gray dots on the Watercolour DSP piece I sponged around the edges with Smokey Slate before adhering to the Cranberry Crisp layer.  This really worked to bring in those soft gray tones.

Thanks for taking a look at this card.  It was a joy to make.  I'd love to hear from you, so leave me a comment if you like this card design too.