Happy Mother's Day, Mama!

Amid all the flurry of making cards for Operation Write Home & Send a Smile 4 Kids, I took some time out to make 2 cards for my mom--one from me (and our 3 cats), and one from my brother & his wife.

I used the "Birds & Roses" digital stamp by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps for my first card. After sizing it in Photoshop, I printed it on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper. I colored the image with my Inktense pencils & a damp brush, using regular watercolor to paint in the sky. Finally, I die cut the panel with a Nesting Scallops Circle die by Lifestyle Crafts.

For the background, I trimmed a piece of patterned paper from Fancy Pants Designs' "Burlap & Bouquets" 6x6" pad. Because my card was a little longer than my patterned paper, I actually cut 2 pieces--one larger and one strip for the bottom--and covered the seam with a piece of white satin ribbon from Michael's. After adhering my background paper and focal panel to my card base, I cut a slit in the fold of the card, threaded the ribbon through it, wrapped it around the card front, and tied it in a bow.

I die cut a tag using one of the "Stitched Tags" dies by Pretty Pink Posh. I masked off all the edges, up to the stitching lines, and then inked the inner portion with Broken China Distress ink. I sized a greeting from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Mother's Day Sentiments" digital stamp set, again in Photoshop, and printed it directly onto the tag. Finally, I punched a hole in the top, threaded through some baker's twine by Queen & Co., and tied it around the bow on the front of the card.

My second card I made for my brother & his wife to give to our mom. They are both REALLY into airplanes, so I decided to make a card with that theme. I started by die cutting a piece of blue cardstock with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangles." After securing the "Rays" stencil by Tim Holtz over that, I daubed yellow paint through the openings in the stencil. It took a few times going over it to get good coverage, but it was worth it.

I die cut a piece of white cardstock using the same rectangle die as the background, to have the faux stitching around the sides & bottom. I then die cut my clouds from that piece using dies from both the "Landscape Trio" set by Mama Elephant and Pretty Pink Posh's "Stitched Borders 2" set. I inked both with Mustard Seed Distress ink, adding some Wild Honey towards the bottoms for variation. Then I adhered them to the bottom of my main panel, using foam tape under each layer. I was happy to get to build up dimension, since this card would be hand-delivered. I don't get to do that much for cards that will be mailed!

For the plane, I used the larger of Simon Says Stamp's "Small Planes" dies (discontinued), cutting it from red cardstock. I hand-cut a banner from white cardstock for the greeting. After scanning the banner into my computer, I opened the image in Photoshop. I chose another greeting from "Mother's Day Sentiments," and layered it over the banner image. I used the warp tool in Photoshop to make the straight line of text curve, roughly conforming to the shape of the banner. Finally, I printed it directly on the banner.

After gluing the plane on the background panel, I then adhered the banner. I used glue in certain places, and popped others up with foam tape, just to give it even more of a "wavy" appearance. Finally, I poked holes at the one end of the banner and on either side of the plane, near the tail, and threaded red pearl cotton through the holes, to "tie" the banner to the plane. I finished by mounting the whole panel on an A2 card base. The sentiment inside is a quote by Lisa Alther: "Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease." :)

I'm entering these cards in Virginia's View Challenge #14: "Layers and Dimensions."