A Special Card for Mom's Birthday!

As is true every year. . .I always want to make an extra special card just for Mom for her birthday.  It needs to be something pretty and feminine that she will love.  My gosh, it is difficult to believe, but Mom will be 91 this year!  I just returned from a long and wonderful visit during May and the first half of June, and I am happy to say that she is just as spry as she has always been.  She always was able to walk my legs off on any mall shopping trip.  

For her card, my creative juice have been fermenting for quite some time while I was busy making other cards.  I had definitely decided that somehow I was going to use flowers on her card by using my new Stampin' Up Botanical Builder framelits that I had purchased in the early spring and somehow had never gotten around to using them!  Shame on me!  Take a look at my finished card that I finally decided upon, as well as the finished inside to coordinate with my outside creative design.

Ingredients:  Bazzill Platinum Frost Vellum.  DCWV: Watercolors Stack.  Darice Glitter Silk: Opulent Opal (glitter paper).  SU products:  Pretty in Pink cardstock, Gold Foil, Pretty in Pink Ink, Botanical Builder framelits.  Digital image by 2 Cute Ink: Pretty Ostrich.  Copic Marker coloring.  MFT dies: Zigzag Stitched Ovals.  Spellbinder dies: Big Scallop Ovals SM (largest).  EK punch: Arrows.  Wink of Stella: Gold.  Technique: Cloud Sponging.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".

The Story + Tidbits

Not only did I know I wanted to add flowers made with my Botanical Gardens thinlits, I also wanted to use a flamingo, which seems to be all the rage right now.  I found this darling flamingo paper in a DCWV stack called Watercolors.  It was shade in the ombre style in a light pink-violet shading into almost white at the bottom.  It was really just was I was looking for except I was looking for more of a real pink shade without the violet tinge.  My solution was to choose the perfect pink for my cardbase, which turned out to be Pretty in Pink (a retired Stampin' Up color).  I then sponged the flamingo paper with the Pretty in Pink stamp pad ink until I got the depth of color I desired.

In my mind's eye I had light pink vellum mixed with Pretty in Pink shaded petals and gold foil for the leaves and flower centers to match the gold foil flamingos.  I had some really pretty frosted platinum white vellum that looked pearlescent.  I sponged the back and the front of the flower petals with the Pretty in Pink stamp ink, which doesn't really show up in the picture.  Next, I chose Pirouette Pink cardstock for the base of the flowers and shaded them with the Pretty in Pink ink as well so it had different shadings of light and darker rather than a flat color by just using the color of the cardstock.  It made for a prettier more realistic flower, though I don't think the picture does it justice.

I colored my 2 Cute Ink digi image with Copic Markers to match my cardstock and patterned paper colors, choosing a darker shade for the head flower and body flowers on the little flamingo.  I also used Wink of Stella: Gold on the digi images flower centers.  Except for the larger head flower, I'm not sure this gold glittery effects shows up elsewhere.  Next came the background behind my flamingo digi.  I didn't think just a brushed light blue with my Copic markers would really look that good and I thought it needed clouds.  So, I used the cardstock template idea made with a scalloped die to get the look you see on the card picture.  I had seen several YouTube videos showing this technique, but never tried it myself.  I think it turned out okay, but feel I still need a bit more practice to feel totally comfortable.