Today has been another one of those days where everything just seems to have taken forever. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected to be completely recovered from COVID just because I no longer need to self-isolate. Still it’s very frustrating not be able to achieve as much as I want to in a day. Today’s project is a pretty birthday card inspired by two different challenge blogs. I definitely wouldn’t have created this card without their input. I hope you like the finished result, despite the lateness of my post.

CHALLENGE #1 – COLOURS

My first challenge came from the Paper Players – PP582. It’s a colour challenge using Daffodil Delight, Mango Melody and Pear Pizzazz. As well as these colours I chose Very Vanilla as my main card colour, and Early Espresso for a contrasting neutral ink.

For my stamped images I couldn’t resist the flowers and leaves of the Sentimental Swirls Stamp Set. This is a two-step stamp set and I chose the four-petal flower and single leaf images, with both the solid and outline stamps.

Lining up the images was easy as I started by stamping three of the flower outline using Early Espresso ink. Then came twelve leaf outlines on a strip of Thick Very Vanilla Card using Pear Pizzazz ink.

Next I used the corresponding solid stamps to add colour to the images, starting with more Pear Pizzazz on the leaves. My Mango Melody flowers were a bit of a happy accident. You see that stamp pad really needs re-inking as there’s a large area in the centre that is obviously lighter than around the edges. This meant that when I inked up the solid stamp there was a variation in the amount of ink picked up. So when I stamped into the flower outline the petals weren’t an even colour. In fact I quite liked the effect!

With everything stamped I punched out all the pieces using the coordinating Flowers & Leaves Punch.

By this point I decided to use that flower image as the coordinating feature for the project. So using Early Espresso ink I stamped the out line in the centre of the flap of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope. Then after cutting a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card I stamped the flower in the centre near the top, Finally using Mango Melody ink I coloured the two flowers and set these pieces aside.

That just left the card base to make and for this I chose Thick Very Vanilla Card. Using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored the card, folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with Bone Folder.

CHALLENGE #2

Now it was time to factor in the challenge from Freshly Made Sketches FMS527. It looked simple enough although I did tweak the sketch just a little.

Using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed four leaves to the back of each of my three flowers. These would correspond with the three blocks on the sketch. But to be honest they looked a bit lost when I laid them out on the front of the card base. Then I had an idea…

I took a piece of Paper Lattice and using Paper Snips cut out three little ‘window pane’ pieces. Then I fixed one of my assembled flowers to each lattice piece with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Suddenly the blocks made sense. But I still hadn’t used Daffodil Delight, the third colour required the Paper Players Challenge. So I cut a 1/4″ x 5-1/2″ strip of card and glued that to the card front 3/4″ from the right-hand edge.

Now I could add the three floral pieces over the Daffodil Delight strip with Stampin’ Dimensionals supporting the flowers and liquid glue anchoring the lattice.

For my sentiment I went back to the Sentimental Swirls Stamp Set and chose “happy birthday”. Using Early Espresso ink I stamped it onto some Thick Very Vanilla Card. Then I cut around the sentiment before adding it to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Finally using liquid glue I fixed the stamped Very Vanilla layer to the inside of the card base and my project was complete.

I am delighted with how this project turned out and the inspiration provided by the challenge blogs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I really should take part in more challenges.

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – As well as coordinating with the Sentimental Swirls Stamp Set the Flowers & Leaves Punch also coordinates with the Flowers Of Friendship Stamp Set in the Annual Catalogue. Although I didn’t use this other stamp set today it is the one included in a discounted bundle with the punch. You’ll see that I’ve included the a link to the bundle so you can explore this option further if you are interested.