Grandmother’s 95th Birthday card

On Sunday it will be my Granny’s 95th birthday, the card is in the post, so I thought I would share it with you. I’m afraid this post is a bit picture heavy due to all the different flowers I made for the card – sorry!

I really wanted to try out a cascade card because they look so amazing, I also wanted it to have a woodgrain base and I had some Kraft coloured Simon Says Stamp Woodgrain Cardstock that I had bought ages ago, but just admired it and not used it, so I decided to use it for this project.

Note to self: when using someone else’s instructions for the first time, keep them right next to you instead of attempting to remember what they said or you WILL cut a slit in the wrong place and have to start all over again… AHEM!

So… with my kraft woodgrain base all slotted into place I started work on the front panel. I used Whisper White card stock and die cut the floral frame from the Samantha Walker Spellbinders Shapeabilities ‘Botanical Swirls and Accents’ set and used Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe and Strawberry Slush stampin’ write markers to colour the embossed design. I also die cut the leaves/branch from the same set in Pistachio Pudding card. I used the Memory Box Parker Numbers dies to cut 9 and 5 from Pistachio Pudding card. I used Hi-Tack glue to attach the branches behind the frame and Quicky Glue Pen to attach the numbers to the cut out. I wanted to be able to open and close the card easily so I didn’t want to attach the frame to both front sections of the cascade base, so the frame was attached with Hi-Tack glue to the left half of the card, and the cut out was attached to the right half, so the two halves could still move independantly.

For the back of the card I cut a piece of white card to fit on the right hand panel and stamped the ‘Happy birthday’ sentiment from the Waltzingmouse ‘Say it With Style’ stamp set and used roll-on glue to attach it to the back panel before too many flowers were added to the front panels and it would have been difficult to write on.

I used the four small flower shapes from the Crative Expressions ‘Camellia – Complete Petals’ dies to cut lots of flowers from Calypso Coral cardstock. I used the Heartfelt Creations Deluxe Flower Shaping Kit to make them more dimentional, then added some nuvo Crystal Drops in ‘Buttermilk’ to the centres and left them to dry overnight. I also used the ‘Camellia – Complete Petals’ smaller leaves dies to cut some leaves from Pistachio Pudding card stock and attached these and the flowers to the card base with Hi-Tack glue.

When I saw the Heartfelt Creations ‘Blazing Poppy Petals’ stamp with matching die I couldn’t resist, so I wanted to use them on this card. I stamped the image on parchment in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and used my heat tool to dry the ink, then cut out the shapes with the die in my Grand Calibur. I coloured the petals with the chisel nib of my Spectrum Noir PP4 pen, which didn’t dry very nicely – a bit blotchy, but I figured it was just the joy of homemade… Again I used the HC Deluxe Flower Shaping Kit to add dimention to the petals, then used Hi-Tack to hold the petals together (so glad I did – parchment is not keen on sticking!!!) When the glue had dried I added a generous blob of nuvo Crystal Drops in ‘Ebony Black’ and sprinkled on a few black Rocailles, then left this to set overnight. I punched some leaves from Mossy Meadow card using the leaf punch in Ruth Hamilton’s Pick of the Bunch punch and stamp set ‘ Rose – Pansy – Camellia – Gardenia’, shaped them, glued a few toghether, then attached them with the parchment poppies to the bigger panels towards the back of the card.

Having taken the leaf punch from the Pick of the Bunch set out, I figured I’d keep going so I created two pansies coloured with Spectrum Noir pens in OR2 and FL3.

I had wanted to have a butterfly on the card somewhere because the Red Admirals and Peacocks are out in force in my Mother’s garden. I used a Martha Stewart punch to get a black outline, then stuck it to some parchment with Hi-Tack glue and when the glue had dried I coloured in the sections with DR4, then cut the parchment around the edges of the butterfly and stuck it to the card base.

As per usual I had been taking my time, doing a bit here, a bit there, and suddenly I needed to post the card this week and the left side of the card was finished, the right… not so much – eek!! So, my lastminute.com nature kicked in and I decided to make some really quick and simple bits to stick on the panels – I had been planning to make roses, but that would have taken too long!

I used the Wplus9 ‘Fesh Picked’ stamps and matching dies to make some strawberries and leaves for the back panel. The flowers on the middle panel are the sepal punch from the Pick of the Bunch set punched in white with a dot of nail varnish in the middle, the leaves are Sizzix Susan’s Garden (658413) cut from Lucky Limeade.

Phew!

Wishing you a lovely weekend, I hope you have some sun to get out in and enjoy!