Happy Mother's Day!

The deadline for Mother's Day cards to be at Send a Smile 4 Kids is April 15. So this week I decided to concentrate on making those for them. This is my first towards that effort.

I decided to use two stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs: the "Poppy Single" & "Hummingbird." I honestly don't know if hummingbirds are attracted to poppies in the "real" world. But I figure this is a card, not a biology textbook, so if they aren't, a little artistic license is OK! :)

I first stamped the images onto a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper with Colorbox Putty Archival dye ink. I wanted the lines to show enough for me to see where to color, but not overpower the images like black would. This was especially important on the hummingbird, since that has a lot of lines in the image. Once the ink had dried, I colored the images with Inktense pencils, using a damp paintbrush to blend the colors. I wanted a bold, vibrant look, especially on the hummingbird, and these pencils deliver that with no problem! Once that had dried, I applied a watered-down wash of Tumbled Glass Distress ink over the background, to create a soft sky. It is very subtle, but I just didn't want it to be stark white.

After completing all the work on the images and background, I placed a Spellbinders "Grand Ovals" die over the images, where I wanted to die cut. Because the die was smaller than the image area, I had to use a technique called "Outside the Box" die cutting. I marked where the die crossed the images lightly with a pencil, and then cut around the image areas outside those lines. I replaced the die, making sure the cut-out areas were on top of the die, then ran it through my die cutting machine. The die cut all around the images, but didn't cut off the outer portions. I think this gives such a cool effect!

To create the card base, I cut a piece of 110 lb. white cardstock to 7.25x9", and scored it at 4.5". I blended Cracked Pistachio Distress ink (LOVE this color!) over the front, to create a soft, somewhat mottled background. To help break up the space and add more interest, I die cut a piece of dark teal cardstock with Spellbinders' "Grateful Lattice" die. My lattice piece ended up slightly smaller than 4.5x7.25", so I did cut the card down a little. Once I'd die cut the lattice, I ran it through my Xyron Creative Station, to apply adhesive to the back. I then stuck that down (carefully!) on to the card front.

I still felt like there was too much empty space, and my design was not grounded. So I punched a piece of pink cardstock with a Martha Stewart "Garden Gate" border punch. I inked a piece of white cardstock with Pine Needles Distress ink, glued that behind the punched pink piece, and trimmed the green along the top edge. Then I glued that to the card front, and trimmed off the excess. That gave me the grounding I wanted.

For the greeting, I cut a banner shape from the same pink cardstock. I scanned it into my computer and opened that image in Photoshop. I chose one of the greetings from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Mother's Day Sentiments" digital stamp set, and sized and positioned it on the banner image. Then I printed that directly onto my little banner piece.

After gluing the focal panel to the card front, I popped my greeting banner over it with foam tape. I added a little clear Wink of Stella to the hummingbird, for some sparkle. Finally, I added a bit of detail to the bird's eye with black and white gel pens, just to bring it out a bit more, since it had gotten lost in the coloring. And that finished this card!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Designs' "Anything Goes with ODBD"
Send a Smile 4 Kids' "For Mom or Special Female"
Virginia's View Challenge #14: "Layers and Dimension"
Simon Says Stamp's "Work It Wednesday"