Happy Mother's Day

I based the design & floral embellishments for this card on Try Stampin' on Tuesday's Sketch #607 challenge.

I began by creating the flower layers with an old punch from The Paper Studio. I punched 3 layers for each flower, then glued them together, adding glue just to the centers. I finished them off by adding a gem in the middle of each.

I embossed the panel to go behind the flowers with the "Floral Fantasy" embossing folder from Cuttlebug (discontinued). I matted it with navy cardstock to help it stand out, then adhered that to my white A2 card base.

I cut a strip from an inky background I'd made several months ago. I adhered that to my card, and then glued the flowers over it.

I stamped a greeting from Simon Says Stamp's "All About Mom" stamp set in Lawn Fawn Deep Sea ink. Finally, I die cut a vine using one of the Spellbinder's "Sprigs" dies (discontinued), and glued that next to the greeting.

I'm also entering my card in 613 Avenue Create's May challenge: "Anything Goes" (playing the optional twist of "Say It with Flowers")

A Better Dad

I am excited to be the Guest Designer for this month's challenge at Send a Smile 4 Kids! Their theme this month is "Cards 4 Dads/Special Guys." I created this Father's Day card to go along with that theme. My design is based on Sketch #SC783 at Splitcoaststampers.com.

I stamped the mice & dandelion (from Lawn Fawn's "Dandy Day" set) onto a scrap of Strathmore vellum bristol paper. I colored them with my Prismacolor colored pencils. It doesn't show up much in the photo, but I added a little light grey to the fluff on the dandelion. Then I die cut them with the coordinating dies. I actually had to redo the dandelion, since I apparently really messed up aligning the die with the stamped & colored image! So I tried die cutting first, taping the die cut from the back into the negative space, lining up the stamp with the die cut, & stamping. It's still not absolutely 100% perfect, but like Jennifer McGuire says, it's handmade, not Hallmark!

For the background scene, I used one of the "Grassy Hillsides Borders" dies from Lawn Fawn to cut the grass from green cardstock. I added a bit of shading with Mowed Lawn Distress ink. I wanted the father & baby mouse to be looking up at the other mouse, hence my decision to have them on a hill. I found a blue patterned paper with a bokeh look that I'd gotten as a gift with purchase from Lawn Fawn. I thought the bokeh supported the magical idea of blowing dandelions, so I used it for the sky. I adhered my sky & grass pieces to a backing of white cardstock, just so I didn't have to fiddle with them as smaller individual elements. After gluing down my mice & dandelion to the background, I also stamped the flying seeds on the sky paper.

I stamped my greeting, also from "Dandy Day," in black on a scrap of grey cardstock. I cut that into a strip, as per the sketch. I adhered my strip & scene panel to a piece of patterned paper from Crate Paper's "Botanical Gardens" 6x6" pad. Finally, I mounted my card front to a white A2-size card base.