Happy Mother's Day Cascade Card

My brother asked me to make a Mother's Day card for a friend of ours, who is kind of a second mother to him. I wanted to make something a little fancy for her, so I went through some of my pins (of other people's cards) on Pinterest, looking for ideas. I came across one of a cascade card, and thought that would be perfect. I also found this video on YouTube, which gave me the visual step-by-step directions I needed.

I created my base from 2 pieces of green cardstock, cut per the instructions in the video. Then I cut several pieces of patterned paper from the "Unforgettable" 6x6" pad by My Mind's Eye (part of their Collectable collection). To keep it straight what papers went where, I temporarily assembled the card base, and numbered the panels. Then I took it apart again, and adhered the patterned paper pieces in their proper locations.

For the greeting, I die cut & embossed a panel from white cardstock, using one of Spellbinders' "Labels 18" dies. With the cardstock still in the die, I inked the center portion with Spun Sugar Distress ink, just to give it a little added interest.

I had seen this video by Kristina Werner, where she talked about printing computer-generated text--or a digital greeting stamp--in a very light color, and then going over it with a pen by hand, to give it a hand-lettered look. She pointed out that was also a good way to change the color of the text. Sine I used one of the greetings from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Mother's Day Sentiments" digital stamp set, which is only available in black, I decided to try this. So I scanned the greeting panel into the computer, and opened that image in Photoshop. I superimposed the greeting over the label image, and reduced the opacity of the greeting layer, effectively changing it to a very light grey. Then I printed it directly onto the label, & went over the letters with a rose-colored gel pen. Finally, I glued the greeting label in place on the front of the card.

Angled view of the card

I felt the upper edges needed some embellishing, so I decided to punch some more green cardstock with a border punch, then cut that into strips and glue them on the card. Well, best laid plans and all, it didn't work. I'm not sure if it was the high humidity we've been having affecting the paper, but the punch tended to fray the paper more than punch it cleanly. So I ended up getting some lace trim at Hobby Lobby, and glued that to the upper edges of the card instead. I think it came out at least as well, if not better!

I adhered a piece of white cardstock to the back side, to give my brother & his wife a place to sign the card. Of course, I had to explain to them how the card "worked," when they took it out of the (unsealed) envelope to sign it! My mom & I delivered it (and the tree my brother had gotten for her) to our friend on Mother's Day. She loved both the tree AND the card!

I'm entering my card in Virginia's View Challenge #14: "Layers & Dimensions."