Sunday, June 20, 2010

89 YEARS


My card is for Crazy 4 Challenges "Using paper flowers". It also is for
my mother's 89th birthday. My plan is to be there for a week and help her celebrate by taking her out to dinner. We always enjoy ourselves a lot when we are together. There is 20 years separating mother and daughter's ages but we share a lot of the same characteristics.

This is one of the most thought out cards I have made. I have wanted to make the spring-fold card for some time. It folds flat to fit in an envelope but when taken out, stands up or springs up and the front can be seen. There isn't an "inside" of the card so everything is on the front. My card uses 2 kinds of paper flowers that I made by hand.

Mother loves flowers, and I had recently won the Penny Black stamp with a flower basket sitting on a wood chair. I thought it might work out good. The way the card folds, there is a diamond shape that everything has to fit on. I made the diamond shape larger. My only regret is that I did not run it through the Swiss Dots folder on my Cuttlebug. The "hanky" looked a little flat. I wanted it to have that Martha Stewart eyelet lace edge. I fussy cut around my Penny Black image that I had colored with Stampin Up Markers. I matted the image in med pink, fussy cut around at 1/8th" and then matted on a darker shade of pink and fussy cut around that. I pop dotted the image on the white "hanky" and then adhered the hanky to the folded card. I added some striped pink paper on the base, and used double stick tape to help hold it in position. I used my double slot punch to make a place to tie the green ribbon I colored with a marker to make it the right shade of green. I stamped the "Happy Birthday To You" and matted it on the darker pink. I punched circles and used sparkle brads for the centers and made them look like the deep pink Cosmos that are in the image. I only had two of those brads so made a fake brad with Stickles to mimmic the real ones. Can you tell on the card which is the fake? I also punched tiny blue Forget-me-nots and put a creamy yellow pearl in the center of each. They look realistic to me. Lastly I added a shiny silver butterfly held on by double stick tape and some Martha Stewart "green frond leaves".

Jack has been coming into the craft area when I am there, tippy-toeing around until he is in front of me and makes a place on my cut scraps off to the right. It is nice to have some company while I am crafting. He was rescued by me in our MN neighborhood and was a stray and starving. He likes his Mama because she is the one who gets the food out! LOL! Thanks for coming by.

3 comments:

Davi said...

Martha, It turned out so pretty. Your mom will love it. The image is perfect for her, the punched edges look wonderful with the image and the flowers are the perfect complement.

Beryl said...

Oh wow - this is absolutely gorgeous. A rwa work of art - the design is great and the flowers are lovely - stamped and paper made. That MS punched used for the doiy is on my wish list (I must get it soon) - it makes such a pretty border. I'm sure your mom will love this card. I think I've caught up now. Sorry it's been a long time coming.You have been so busy since I last visited. You put me to shame. Take care.
Beryl xx

Ann said...

Your mum will adore herlovely special card Martha.
Ann