Mother's Day Wishes

 First of all, I want to wish any of you who are moms a very blessed Mother's Day.  Children are the best gift God has given to us.  Even if some days it just doesn't feel like it.  Come on, I know you've all had days like that when you're pulling your hair out and asking "why?".  But really, those moments are usually few compared to the hugs, laughs, and companionship of our children.  I certainly wouldn't trade either of mine in for another.  Then there's the sons-in-law, or daughters-in-law for some of you. God truly blessed me with a wonderful one.  And lastly, the grandchildren.  Need I say any more?  Grandkids are the very best!!!  Anyway, today's post is for sharing the card made for my daughter.  This is being posted late so she won't see it before it's in her hot little hands.   Don't want to ruin the surprise.

Here it is.  It uses some retired Fine Art DSP, some new Hues of Happiness DSP, and sentiments from two different sets - both current.  It's a fancy fun fold card too!  It took me awhile to get it made, like most of the afternoon!  But it's really worth it.  Just gorgeous!!  This is my version of a card made by JanB in the UK.  Thank you!

It starts with a card base of 11" x 5 1/2".  This is scored at 1 3/4", 3 1/2", 5 1/4", and 7.  The next layer (V-fold) is cut to 6" x 3" and scored at 3".  Then a 2 7/8" x 2 7/8" layer was cut.  I used Merry Merlot for all these layers.

Basic White layers:  2 7/8" x 2 7/8" - cut 2

                                 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" - cut 1

                                 3 3/4" x 5 1/4" - cut 1

                                 1 1/2" x 5 1/4" - cut 4

DSP layers:  design 1 -  1 3/8" x 5 1/8" - cut 2

                     design 2 -  1 3/8" x 5 1/8" - cut 2

                     design 2 -  3 5/8" x 5 1/8" - cut 1

Trust me on all these cuts.  It was a little confusing until I started putting it all together.

First of all, I die-cut the flowers from the Hues of Happiness DSP using the matching dies from the Happiness Abounds Bundle.  The pink shades of color on the flowers looked great with the painted look of the Fine Art DSP.  What a happy coincidence for me.  I ended up using 4 flowers and 7 leaf sets on the card.  

Decide what sentiments you want on the 3 white layers that show.  Make sure your embellishment (flowers) fit around the sentiments with no problem.  I used two sentiments from the Happiness Abounds set and the "Mother's Day" sentiment from the Daffodil Daydream set.  I used Merry Merlot ink for the sentiments.  Each sentiment layer was stamped, layered onto the Merry Merlot cardstock that fit.  Make sure you pay attention to the front and back of the 6" x 3" layer especially.   Then the flowers and leaves were added.  Set these aside.

Now work on the white strips and the DSP that fits on them.  Attach the four strips together.  I used MultiPrupose Liquid Glue to put all the layers together.  Decide how you want them on your card.  I did mine DSP 2 - front, DSP 1 - next fold, DSP 2 -3rd fold, DSP 1 - 4th fold.  On this picture, you can only see the 4th fold and the inside of the card.   The larger piece of DSP 2 goes on the large white layer and is attached to the inside of the back of the card.

Now it's time to add the single sentiment piece to the inside back layer.  Attach it with adhesive keeping it lined up in the middle and straight on both sides.  This is now your guide for adding the 6" x 3" V-fold piece.  Make sure you understand how this will go together before adding any adhesive!!!! 

I used a strip of Tear & Tape on the back very edge of the V-fold piece just where it will attach to the 3rd fold.  I took the covering off the tape for the back of the V and laid it over the back design, lining it up straight.  Then fold the front layer down over it to attach.  Now add one strip of Tear & Tape to the other back edge of the V-fold piece.  Fold in all the layers properly, then take off the covering on the tape and fold down over the 1st flap.

Here is another view showing how the folds and layers all line up.  I truly hope this makes sense.  It was confusing enough making it.  Writing how to put it together was even worse!

The final touch was adding a number of the Pastel Pearls in the pink color.  I thought these blended nicely with all the pink and rose shades.  Three pearls were added on the front panel, two on the middle panel, and one on the very last panel.  This would be quite bulky going through the mail and would absolutely require extra postage.  But it really is lovely, so I guess it's worth it for the right person.  😍

That's it for today.  Thank you for stopping by for a few minutes.  If you want to try this and really get lost, call me.  Or check out JanB - UK who has a blog post on May 8th.  She also has a video, but she was using measurements for the UK.  It was pretty confusing.  But like I said, the card really is gorgeous!  Have a very blessed day.

Happy Mother's Day, my friend,

Sharon

Happy Mother's Day!

 I hope all of you that are mothers out there are spending some time today with your families and enjoying the many benefits that motherhood can bring.  I know all of you aren't mothers, and that's all right.  You can still celebrate the memories and good times you've had with your own mother.  Today brings me lots of memories of my own mom and reminds me of what a loving and wonderful God-fearing woman she was.  I still am trying to live up to the legacy she left with us as a guide to how we should live too.  And that's the legacy I'd like to leave with my own grown-up kids someday.  (Hopefully just not too soon!)  Today's card is the one I made for my own daughter.  She's on a black & white kick lately, so I had to use that for a starting place.  Of course, you know me and pastels, so...

This is it.  I have to say, using the Blending Brushes and then die-cutting flowers and leaves with the Pierced Blooms Dies is totally addicting.  I had trouble stopping myself from making a bazillion flowers in multiple colors.  I ended up with two cards finished and enough layered flowers leftover for another 3-4 cards.  Like I said - truly addicting!

To make the flowers, just blend your favorite colors onto Basic White cardstock using a light touch with the Blending Brushes.  Love, love, love those Blending Brushes!  Make sure the colors touch each other and sometimes blend together to make even more soft colors.  I was using many of my smallish scraps of white to play around finding colors I liked and seeing how dark I wanted to make them.  Here's the list of ink colors I used:  Daffodil Delight, Pale Papaya, Polished Pink, Fresh Freesia, and Just Jade.

If you look closely you can see that many of the flowers are more than one color with the edges or even different petals a blended color.  This is really, really fun to do.  Even the leaves have some of the other colors blended on them, especially the pink and yellow.  

The card base is the Basic White with a smaller layer of Basic Black.  Then I added a triangle of white with black polka dots from the True Love Designer Series Paper.  Unfortunately, that has been retired now and makes me sad, but I will still be using this until I can find something to replace it!

The die-cut for the sentiment is also part of the Pierced Blooms Die set.  Isn't the shape pretty?  And I love the stitching accents too.  The sentiment comes from the Welcoming Window set.  It was just what was needed.  I stamped it using Memento Tuxedo Black ink to stay with the crisp black and white look.  This was attached to the card front using a few Dimensionals.

The different flower sizes were layered together using just a bit of MultiPurpose Liquid Glue.  It was fun playing around with all the different sizes,  shapes, and colors to get the look I wanted for each flower - that's why it makes sense to make a bazillion different flowers to choose from!  Don't you agree?   Some flowers are only two layers and the largest one on the card has three.  Just keep playing until you get the look you want.  After all the flowers were made, I arranged them on the card front then attached some with Dimensionals and some with MultiPurpose Liquid Glue.  I added just a few sequins from the Woven Threads collection.  Yes, they are retired, but just the right colors!

I hope you like this idea using the look of soft pastels to offset the bold black and white of the card.  And definitely give those Blending Brushes a try if you haven't already.  They are a definite must-have item in my stamping world!  Have fun making your world bloom in lovely flowers using these ideas.

If you are planning on ordering this month, please choose me as your demonstrator and use this Host Code for the month of May.  I really appreciate your order and love to send out little goodies as a thank you.  Will I be sending you something at the end of this month too?

Blessings to you and enjoy the day!

Sharon