Happy Mother's Day

Ellen Hutson is having a "Mix It Up" challenge at the CLASSroom blog. The idea is to use at least one Essentials by Ellen product with at least one product from their partner company. This month, the other company is Pretty Pink Posh. I decided to make a Mother's Day card to send to Send a Smile 4 Kids. These cards will need to reach them by April 15, so they have time to distribute them to the children's hospitals they serve.

I began by cutting a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper to 4x5.25". I used two of the flower stamps & the 2 leaves from Essentials by Ellen's "Bold Blooms" stamp set. I stamped them repeatedly in Distress inks (Mustard Seed, Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry; & Mowed Lawn for the leaves). After I stamped each flower or leaf, I took my water brush and brushed clean water over the ink, spreading it in a lighter tint to fill in the image, while still leaving a dark outline. I did have to mask off the flowers & leaves as I went, so that I ended up with a panel that looks like an overflowing garden.

After I completed the stamping & watercoloring, I dried the panel with my heat tool. I positioned the "Peek-a-Boo" die from Pretty Pink Posh in the middle of the panel, and die cut that. This particular die cuts lines from the middle to the edges, creating several flaps that open out along the score lines around the edges.

Card with greeting panel open

I temporarily adhered my panel to a piece of blue cardstock cut to 4.25x5.5", opened the flaps, and traced lightly around the opening with a pencil. I removed the stamped panel, and placed the cardstock in my MISTI. I used the "Happy Mother's Day" stamp from Essentials by Ellen's "12 Days Companion Greetings" stamp set for the greeting. I did have to cut apart the words, since I wanted each on its own line, and the stamp as is has them all on one line. I positioned the stamps within the outline on my cardstock, and picked them up with the door of my MISTI. I then stamped the greeting with Versamark ink, and heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder.

After the embossing had cooled, I erased my pencil lines, and adhered the stamped panel over the blue cardstock. Finally, I mounted that to a white A2 card base.

I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday challenge: "Use Something Floral."