Mom's Birthday Card

Happy Labor Day Monday, everyone!

I hope you are all getting to spend some quality time with family and friends today. My hubby is working today (easy OT for him) and I'm getting a few things caught up in the studio before spending the rest of the day with Emma getting her ready for her first day of 6th Grade tomorrow! Yikes, where have the years gone?

Today I wanted to show you the card I made for my Mom's birthday. Her special day is not until 9/11, but we celebrated yesterday with a cookout since we can't be together on the actual day.

Mom's first name is Iris, thus the image I chose to use just for her. The stamp is one I purchased about 10 years ago with the express idea of stamping her some cards. Sadly, making this card is the first time it has seen ink. In fact, this stamp is so old, the company that made it has gone out of business! Good thing I can always count on SU! to be around for me!

The stamp was inked with Basic Brown ink onto Very Vanilla cardstock and watercolored in with my Aqua Painters and Stampin' Up! ink refills in these colors: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Close to Cocoa and Pacific Point. I am not much of a watercolorer, so I appreciate how easy the Aqua Painters make it for me to blend color on an image. It's kind of like paint by number. I put the most ink on the darker areas of the image and work out from there. At least, that works for me!

I gave this an antiqued feel by tearing the edges of my cardstock and sponging it with Old Olive ink. After curling the edges a bit, I put Stampin' Dimensionals on the back so I could easily mount it to the front of the card.

The card base itself is Soft Suede cardstock. I've taken a piece of Old Olive cardstock and run it through my Big Shot with the grid side of the Perfect Details Texture Plate. This was then sponged with Old Olive ink to give it depth and bring out the texture. I've layered this piece onto a piece of Rich Razzleberry cardstock to emphasize the color of the flowers.

For the final touch, I used a piece of the NEW Old Olive 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, wrapping it lengthwise around the layered cardstock. It's attached with SNAIL to the back and these layers are attached to the Soft Suede with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I was so happy with the final result of this card, and best of all, my Mom loved it! She used to be an oil paint artist and I'm always a bit worried that my "art" won't quite measure up. I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, I can't even draw a decent stick figure, but I love that I can let my stamps be my guide to express my creative streak!

Thanks for checking in today - be sure to stop back tomorrow for another creative project idea! If you were inspired by any of the fabulous Stampin' Up! products that I've used here today, you can always shop from my website 24/7: http://www.robinstamps4u.stampinup.net/

There is even more creative inspiration to be found there!

Stamped blessings,

~~Robin