For the last two weeks, in all my non-work hours, I have been working closely with my brother to create a slideshow for his partner's upcoming 65th birthday celebration. The show was finally completed and it turned out pretty darn good!
During one of the half days when we weren't working on the slideshow, I got time to sit down and create my birthday card for Simone.
At first, because she likes flowers so much, I thought that something floral was the way to go but then I got an idea from looking at a new Walmart recyclable bag!
I loved the way in which the colorful autumn leaves popped against the blue outline of the bag. More inspiration for my card came from both
Denise Garrison's blog, where I discovered that I could use the Blends with one of our regular stamp pads without the stamped ink bleeding into the colors from the Blends, and from
Connie Collins, when I decided to use some of her layering elements.
Showcasing some of the leaves from the Roots of Nature Bundle against a blue background like on the bag (representative of a sky) was my intent and I chose to use my new favorite blue, Blueberry Bushel. I used the Tufted Embossing Folder to emboss my matte.
Since I knew I would also be including some gold foil for my card elements, I decided to play up the glitz by also using a Gold Foil Matte. After cutting the matte, I used a Gold Metallic Sharpie to edge the foil so no white edges would show. I adhered the embossed matte to the gold with liquid adhesive and then to a 4.75 x 6" Blueberry Bushel card front using Dimensionals.
Using a die from the Stitched Labels Thinlits, I die cut a label from Gold Foil. On top of that I layered a #3 oval from the Stitched Shapes Framelits after heat embossing with gold a sentiment from the Painted Glass stamp set.
At this point, I had to decide on how many and what size and color leaves I would use. Using Soft Suede, I stamped several leaves, big and small, onto Thick Very Vanilla. After heat setting them, I used Mango Melody, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red Dark Blends to color the leaves.
I did not want the card stock border that would result from die cutting the leaves so I fussy cut the leaves and then used a Soft Suede Stampin' Write Marker to edge the leaves so that no "white" edges would show.
After playing with the design, I decided which leaves I would need. I then used dies from Bouquet Bunch and the Petals & More Thinlits to die cut various "greenery" from both Gold Foil and the Copper Glimmer paper found in the Joyous Noel Glimmer Paper pack. I added these into my design and snapped a pic with my phone for reference.
After deconstructing my design, I applied both Dimensionals and some Fast Fuse to the back of my sentiment label. I wrapped up some Copper Metallic Thread for both sides of my label and stuck it to the Fast Fuse.
Next, I laid the longest of my greenery pieces and glued them into place on the card front. The leaves were then adhered with Dimensionals. After adhering the label, I added more "greenery" until I was happy with the result.
To add a little more glitz, I used the same Blends to color some of the rhinestones and attached these to the card front as well.
For the inside, I heat embossed with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder the three leaf cluster on Thick Very Vanilla. This was adhered to a Gold Foil matte and then adhered inside the card.
To hold the gift card for Simone, I embossed a small piece of Gold Foil using the Tufted Embossing Folder, scored, and then folded it in half. I used my 1" Circle Punch to punch a slot to enable the gift card to be pulled out easily and then used the Gold Sharpie to take care of the white edges. The sides were then secured with Tear & Tape.
Making this card for Simone brought me such a joy! Simone is a lovely person and I am glad my brother has her in his life.
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