Mom Deserves a Beautiful Birthday Card!

My mother's birthday is coming up in mid-August, and with the title of this post in my mind, I wanted to do something really special for her, while venturing into new cardmaking realms that I had not traveled before.  Foil seems all the rage right now, so I decided I would try using foil paper for her card.

Stampin' Up has a beautiful set of papers out in their new catalog, named "Gold Soiree," that I recently purchased and absolute loved the look of it...gold metallic with a creamy white petite rose print.   I thought it would be fun to try and make my own patterned paper using an embossing folder and brayering white over top.  My first learning experience:  white Craft ink pads do NOT work on foil papers, because they never dry!  My next thought was white StazOn, which worked really well and dried in less than 30 minutes!  But, it was a bit messy to clean the brayer when finished.

Here we go back to my same dilemma, I like cards that are at least 5-1/4" x 5-1/4," and am not overly fond of the basic A2 sized card (4-1/4" x 5-1/2"), because they just seem too small.  Embossing folders are generally about A2 sized; therefore, I realized right off the bat this was going to be a problem to emboss my entire 5" by 5-1/2" card front layer.  The embossing folder I chose, was not a repetitive pattern like wallpapers, so I could not place the paper back in the folder and match up the already emboss image along its edges.  Fortunately, to solve my problem, I was able to turn my embossing folder sideways as its pattern could be used either way.  I then used a border embossing folder to finish off this unembossed area bottom at the bottom and planned to use a vanilla cream satin ribbon to cover the area where the two types of embossing met cover up the seam and any "messy and unbeautiful stuff."

I also had not worked a lot with vellum and embossed sentiments.  That was pretty easy, but adhering it to my frame was a little tricky as the vellum wanted to pucker with the glue...I probably should have used a tape runner or only attached the top and possibly the bottom, but not the sides as that is where the puckering happened.  Also, anything below the vellum showed right through, making it very "busy," and thus, the sentiment didn't stand out.  To solve this issue, I adhered a piece of vanilla cardstock beneath the vellum...this worked really well.  The rest of the card went together very quickly once I finished the embossing texture, white brayering, heat embossed sentiment, and die-cut its frame.  

I am pretty pleased with the results, considering the cardmaking process was not at ALL smooth, but it was certainly a "learning lesson."  I finished the card off by creating a birthday verse for inside and decorations to compliment the outside design.  I hope my mother loves her card and knows it was made especially for her with love in my heart.

Below is a peak at the inside verse and coordinating design, where I used a gold metallic spritz before printing the verse.

Recipe:  Stampin' Up papers:  Very Vanilla cs, Foil Sheets, White Vellum.  Stampin' Up stamps:  Happiest Birthday Wishes (ret.), Flower Shop, Petite Petals.  Ink:  Encore Gold Metallic; StazOn White (brayered).  Stampin' Up punches:  Pansy, Petite Flower.  Sixxiz Sizzlit:  Little Leaves (ret.).  Martha Stewart Butterfly Double Punch. Lifestyles die: Eyelet Squres.  Stampin' Up Folder:  Lovely Lace, Delicate Designs borders.  Other Stampin' Up: 5/8" Vanilla Satin ribbon;  Half pearls; Gold Embossing Powder.  Stash:  Metallic Inca Gold Spritz (homemade). (Card size: 5-1/2" x 6".)