Birthday Mum

 

 The sketch for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge inspired the design of this card. I got my general color inspiration from palette #127 in Volume 1 (1st edition) of Sarah Renae Clark's Color Cube system.

 

 

 

I saw this card by Lin at her Hearts, Hugs, & Flowers blog, & liked the general floral arrangement. I don't have a sunflower die, but thought I could get a similar effect with some old layering flower punches by The Paper Studio I have. I punched one of each size from each of 3 different shades of yellow/orange cardstock. I glued together the 3 layers of each individual size, adding the glue only in the center & kind of fanning the petals apart as I glued the layers together. After the glue had set up, I added more glue to the center back of each of the 2 smaller layers & adhered them together, largest to smallest. While I liked the result, I felt it now looked more like a mum than a sunflower, so I decided to pivot & just go with that.

 

I cut some smaller flowers using dies from Scrapbook.com's "Sunny Lane Florals" set. I ended up not being able to make a good-looking arrangement with those & my mum, though, so I gave up on that. (I am keeping those flowers for some other project.) I did cut a flower center for my mum from my darkest shade of yellow-orange cardstock with one of the dies in that set, as the center of the flower looked a little stark without it.

 

For the stem, I used a branch die from Honey Bee Stamps' "Winter Greenery" set. I die cut it from green cardstock, & trimmed off most of the "branchy" parts from the main section with my scissors. Then I used double-sided tape to adhere the top end to the back of my flower. I added glue to reinforce the adhesion, and set that aside to dry.

 

I die cut 3 leaves from the "Skeleton Leaves" set by Tim Holtz. I adhered each to a different shade of cardstock, & then fussy cut around the perimeter, so I would have a solid backing to each leaf.

For my greeting, I first stamped one of the banners from Avery Elle's "Build a Banner" set (discontinued) onto white cardstock. I used Hero Arts Pool ink for the outline, Lawn Fawn Sunflower ink for the main background, & My Favorite Things Pineapple ink for the 2 bits where the ends fold under. Then I stamped the greeting, from the "Sentiment Strips: Birthday" set from Pretty Pink Posh in My Favorite Things Coral Crush ink. Finally, I die cut the banner with the coordinating die. I die cut 3 more banners from white cardstock, & layered them behind my greeting banner to give it a little more oomph.

To assemble the card, I cut a piece of blue gingham patterned paper from my scrap stash to 4-1/8 x 5-3/8". I laid out my elements until I liked the arrangement, then glued them in place. For the leaves, I added glue only to the base sections so the ends would kind of pop up around the flower. I added glue to the flower only in the center, & stuck that down on top of the leaves. I glued the stem all the way to the background, & trimmed off the bit that overhung at the bottom edge of the panel. I added my banner, & adhered my panel to a navy cardstock mat that I'd mounted to a white A2 card base. Once the glue dried, I zhuzhed the petals on the flower to fluff them up a bit, just for a bit of added dimension.

 

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

 

All Sorts Challenge #835: "Autumn Colors"

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "Add Some Texture" (added texture with top layer of die cut leaves & fluffy mum)

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Anything Goes"

The Paper Funday Challenge #81: "Anything Goes" (not playing the optional twist)

Creative Knockouts Challenge #557: "Halloween or Fall" (used fall leaves & flower)

Ellibelle's Corner October Garden Party Challenge #8