Happy Birthday – Today Is About You | Spellbinders

Hi crafty friends!  Today I am sharing an A6 sunflower birthday card featuring products from Spellbinders.  The Sunflower Serenade die set has been on my to-do list for quite some time and today I decided… let’s make a card!

The supplies used:

Spellbinders – Sunflower Serenade Die Set

     Spellbinders – Essential Modern Ovals Die Set

     Spellbinders – Birthday Unboxing Hot Foil Plate & Die Set

     Spellbinders – Linen 3D Embossing Folder

     Paul Rubens Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper

     Spellbinders – Indigo Colorwheel Cardstock

     Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz – Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink Re-Inker

     Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz – Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink Re-Inker

     Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz – Mowed Lawn Distress Ink Re-Inker

     Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz – Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink Re-Inker

     Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz – Walnut Stain Distress Ink Re-Inker

     Ranger Ink / Tim Holtz – Ground Espresso Distress Ink Re-Inker

     Penny Black - #4 Round Paint Brush

     Spellbinders – Matte Gold Glimmer Foil

     Pinkfresh Studio – Metallic Matte Gold Pearl Embellishments

     Ranger / Tim Holtz – Distress Collage Medium Matte

     Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue

     Altenew Black Instant Dimension Foam Tape

     Scor-Tape Double Sided Adhesive

     Anna Griffin Empress Gild Hot Foiling System

     Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

Creating the Background Panel

To create the background, I took a piece of Spellbinders Indigo cardstock, cut it to 4-1/2” x 6-1/4” and embossed the panel using the Spellbinders Linen 3D embossing folder.  Normally an A6 card would measure 4-1/2” x 6-1/4”; however, after running the panel through the 3D embossing folder it shrank a tad so my finished card size will actually be 4-1/2” x 6-1/8”.

Creating the Focal Point

Using the largest die from Spellbinders’ Essential Modern Ovals die set, I die cut a piece of Spellbinders Indigo card.  Utilizing the Spellbinders Sunflower Serenade die set and sheets of Paul Rubens hot pressed watercolor paper, I die cut the flower 14 times, the three leaf style dies were die cut six times each, and the two flower centers seven times each.  I decided to watercolor the images versus cutting them from colored cardstock and used Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Ink re-inkers as my painting medium.  The flower petals were given a watercolor wash of Squeezed Lemonade followed by placing Carved Pumpkin toward the base of the petals and allowing the color to wick its way up each petal naturally.  For the flower centers, the larger pieces were watercolored using Ground Espresso and the smaller pieces were watercolored using Walnut Stain.  I separated the leaves into two even sets (three of each leaf style per set) and began watercoloring one set of the leaves using Mowed Lawn and the other using Rustic Wilderness.

Once the watercolored elements were dry, I used liquid glue to adhere two sets of the leaves together, the larger flower center die cut next, and lastly the smaller flower center piece.  I repeated this process until I had seven complete flowers.  I positioned the Indigo cardstock oval where I thought it looked best on my embossed background panel and began arranging the flowers on top of it until the oval was no longer visible.  When the arrangement was completed, I glued the flowers in place and began adhering leaves in random locations until I was content with the panel. 

Creating the Sentiment

For the sentiment, I chose to go with an older Spellbinders hot foil plate and die set called Birthday Unboxing Glimmer.  I hot foiled the sentiments onto Spellbinders Indigo cardstock using my Anna Griffin Empress Gild hot foiling system and Spellbinders Matte Gold Glimmer Foil.  I used the coordinating dies to die cut the sentiments and cut two extra Indigo pieces to glue behind each of the sentiments for dimension.

Assembling the Card

I added strips of Altenew black foam tape to the back side of the oval that I glued the flowers to and adhered it to the card’s embossed background panel while allowing approximate 1-1/2” of the oval to hang off the top of the background panel.  I used a paper trimmer and removed the excess oval and any overlapping flowers/leaves from the top of the card panel.  I used liquid glue to adhere the two sentiments to the lower portion of the card front and added a sprinkling of Pinkfresh Metallic Matte Gold pearls around the sentiments.  Lastly, I adhered the card front to a white, side-folding, A6 card base using a combination of strips of Scor-Tape and liquid glue (yes, I am an over-adhesive user!).

Thank you for stopping by and checking out today’s blog post, I really appreciate it. Until next time, happy crafting!