Heartfelt Birthday Card

Well, here goes ... my first blogged card ... apologies in advance for the photography, it can be a bit hit and miss, with this card I really struggled to get the sentiment to show up in natural light so I took the last one with flash just so you could see it.

I bought a Heartfelt Creations Vintage Floret paper collection at the NEC in March, even though I had PROMISED myself I wouldn't buy any paper as I have so many CDs I could print from, but I have to say I really love this paper collection.  I have made several cards with it and this one was for my aunt in Ireland.

(See what I mean about the sentiment!)  I started off with a piece of 12 x 12 paper and cut it down to 8 x 8. I then stamped a whole piece of white pearlescent card (using Vintage Sepia Versafine ink) with a couple of big flowers, a few medium and then lots of the smaller ones, including some leaves.  I am not much of a stamper as I get result from just about okay ... all the way down to complete rubbish, but I did find this really easy as their stamps are cushioned.  I have found out since that I should be using something under my card / paper if I am using clear or unmounted stamps, but there you go ... told you I wasn't much of a stamper!

When I looked on YouTube for the best way to cut out the stamps I noticed that Emma Lou Beechy from Heartfelt Creations painted on some quick drying transparent colour onto her flowers.  Naturally I didn't have any so I used a bit of Iridescent Medium, a few drops of pink ink, a pinch of glitter and a blob of Glossy Accents and it worked, so I painted it roughly over the flowers and let it dry.  I did the same in green and painted it over the leaves.  After making sure it was absolutely dry I made some templates for my Vintage Floret dies by using some old card cut into squares and cutting out one of each die and placing over different areas of my A4 card and cutting out as many as I could in one pass, repeating till they were all done.  I did make a bit of a blooper (well more than one, but we'll get to that later) in that I then embossed them all; which if I had thought about it was a complete waste of time, as I shaped all the petals later and that gets rid of the embossing!!  The leaves I think are worth embossing as I didn't shape them much and you can still see the veins.

I then shaped all the petals with my white plastic shaping tool and bent the leaves into shape with my fingers. I then got out my new favourite toy, my hot glue gun ... and yes I have already burnt myself but honestly, even the most violent postman wont put much of a dent in those flowers, they are rock solid!!  I bought a Bosch one because it has a very fine end on it and it really is great.  The first two layers of petals you glue with the stamped bit on the outside (with the plain side up) for the bud, all the rest are glued with the patterned side up.

After that I stamped (in Perfect Medium and then Stampendous Gold embossing powder) the sentiment on one of the rectangles that come in the back of the Vintage Floret Collection and then mounted it on a bit of deep pink card and stuck it in the middle.  I then spent a while arranging and rearranging the flowers and the buds till they were where I wanted, added a couple of gems, corner chomped the corners and there it was!

Now for the blooper ... can you see on the biggest flower, just after the bud there is one set of petals with no stamping on?  Guess who stuck that set of petals on the wrong way round!  As I had glued it with hot glue it couldn't be undone.  I rescued it as best as I could with my pink iridescent medium mix!

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think.

Happy Crafting