Birthday For A Lovely Lady and Friend!

I am down in Seaside, Oregon with my older daughter, Michele, working on some updating decore for her beach house.  We have stripped some 1980's country wallpaper from the dining room walls...really ugly, and definitely not beachy!  Underneath we found old 1970 manufactured wood paneling, which we have found before in other rooms we have re-done.  We used a soft light blue on the end wall with the slider to the back yard and a buttery cream on the side walls with white wood base boards and trim.  It looks so clean and refreshing.

While we are in Seaside, Michele's mother-in-law is celebrating her birthday, so we thought we would take her out for a very special gourmet dinner to a small little restaurant on the Promenade.  I brought my "To Do" card box full of unfinished cards and kits.  I went through my box and found a card that I started over a year ago, which was almost finished, and thought it would be perfect for Dina with it soft colors and touch of lace.

This card was started at a technique-learning class hosted by my Stampin'  Up upline and friend, Liz Thayer.  The technique presented was making our own embossing impression plate using dies and lightweight cardboard.  We chose the patterned dies we wanted...my choice was leaves.  I die-cut the leaves from the cardboard three times and glued like patterns together in a stack to make them thicker.  Then, we glued the stacks onto a 6-inch square of cardboard in an arrangement that we liked.  We then placed a piece of cardstock, which was pre-cut to the size we desired our front caed panel to be, onto the cardboard embossing plate and made a Big Shot "sandwich" with its plates and base and ran it through the Big Shot to "emboss" our Plate pattern onto the cardstock.  The last step to finishing my embossed cardstock layer was to lightly sponge its surface with ink shades of your choice, giving the leaf edges definition with these ink colors.

To finish my card, I decided on a few modifications to my card's layout.  I made each of my card front layer about 3/16" smaller  so they would frame my top layer with a bit more color.  Then, I centered the sentiment on its band rather than  offsetting it to the right.  I added more So Saffron yellow to my flower color and used the vintage brad as the flower center.  With this done, I placed my flower on the left bottom of my band instead of at the top.  I think Dina will be very pleased with her vintagey birthday card.

Ingredients:  Stampin'Up products:  Cardstock--Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Marine Mist.  Stamps: Because You Care (2015 Occasions hostess).  Ink & Stamp Write markers--Always Artichoke, Marine Mist.  Dies--Autumn Leaves.  Lightweight Cardboard--Designer Paper Cardboard backing.  Vintage Brads.  7/8" Sahara Sand Lace Trim.  Technique: Create an Embossing Plate with Dies.  (Thank you Liz Thayer for Original card design and technique class.)