Wednesday 14 May 2014

Bright flowers

A friend asked me to make a card for her mum's 80th birthday. Her mum is a "young" 80, still an active member of her local badminton club etc, so I didn't want to do anything that looked too "old"! The only steer was "She likes flowers, especially poppies, and I'd like her age on there".

She also wanted a bigger format card - this is A5 size (for our North American friends, that's basically a whole sheet of cardstock folded in half to make the card base).

I did try something with an actual poppy stamp but I just couldn't make anything look right for some reason. I'd been experimenting with the carved flower stamps for something else so they were out on my desk and I thought if I stamped in red this one would look poppyish!

The vases are done by sponging through apertures cut with the Tim Holtz Apothecary Bottles die (small one done first and masked so it appears to be in front of the big one). As it's Distress ink, I was able to lift a bit of the colour with plain water to make highlights on the bottle shoulders - not sure how well that shows on the photo but it's quite effective IRL.

I kept her age subtle by stamping in Antique Linen and overstamping with the birthday sentiment. The panel is finished by adding a little patterning with a stencil and grounding the bottles with a darker ink before running a tracing wheel round the edge for a quick pierced detail and sticking to the card base with gel glue for a little "lift".

Stamps: 
Carved Flowers by Darkroom Door
A&P Numbers by Ma Vinici's Reliqary
Say It All by Hero Arts

Paper: Laid texture cardstock

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Pearlescent Chocolate (for sentiment)
Distress ink by Ranger (Barn Door, Fired Brick, Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain)

Other:
Cressida stencil by Memory Box
Apothecary Bottles die by Tim Holtz
Tracing Wheel

Thanks for stopping by!

11 comments:

Kath said...

Those vases look so real, Joanne. lovely effective card. Love the discreet number.

Regina de Koning said...

Wow, very very nice. I love the stamp from Darkroomdoor. I like the card.

Artyjen said...

Oooh! Gorgeous ;)
xoxo Sioux

Scrapmate said...

I love anything to do with poppies and those carved flowers by Godelieve have been on my wish list for a while. This is a beautiful card, I love the effect on the vases and the subtle addition of the age is perfect.

The Hardy Stamper said...

This is such a lovely card - perfect in every aspect! I love Godelieve's hand carved stamps and the feint 80 is so tastefully done.

Jenny said...

Brilliant sponging on the vases, they look so 3D!!!

Anonymous said...

This is a lovely card Joanne, those vases look fab and I like the subtle effect with the age x

Anonymous said...

A beautiful card Joanne. Love your flowers and those vases are very 3D. Your friend's mum is going to love this. x

Unknown said...

You are amazing and so talented! This is a gorgeous design...the bold blooms...the soft vases...flawless!!! I'm a new follower - happy to be :)

Joan B said...

jaw dropping. I thought this was a photo adhered to a card. amazing!

Godelieve said...

Wow, I really love this card! I like the way you've put the poppies in a vase.