Happy Mother's Day!

On Day 6 of Online Card Classes' "Stretch Your Dies" class, Debby Hughes had a lesson on doing an "Inlaid Background." She used a border die to create a background pattern with the inlaid die cutting technique. I didn't have a suitable border die, so I used Spellbinders' "Labels Eighteen" dies instead.

I decided to do an ombre design, so I pulled out 5 shades of green cardstock. I die cut my smallest label from the lightest color first. Then I took my second lightest color, and laid the smallest and next largest die on that, lining them up to cut a frame. I repeated this until I had 5 die cut pieces.

For the background, I found a piece of a parchment-type cardstock in my stash, & die cut that with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Small Stitched Rectangles" dies. Then I die cut the largest label die in the center of that panel. I die cut another piece from scrap green cardstock using the Lawn Fawn die, and ran that through my Xyron Creative Station, to apply an even layer of adhesive on one side. Then I stuck that to the back side of the parchment panel, and adhered my green die cut frames in place. Finally I double-matted that panel with kraft & yellow cardstocks.

For the flower, I used the Simon Says Stamp "Summer Garden" stamps and coordinating dies. I stamped the flower and leaves on a scrap of 140 lb. watercolor paper, using Ranger Archival Watering Can ink, and colored them with watercolor pencils and a damp brush. After I die cut them, I glued the leaves directly to the panel, and popped the flower up on foam adhesive.

I die cut a piece of cream cardstock using one of the "Stitched Tags" dies by Pretty Pink Posh, and printed one of the "Mother's Day Sentiments" by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps on it. I adhered that with foam tape as well. Finally, I adhered the completed front panel to an A2-size card base.