Stampin’ Up Magnolia Happy Birthday

Good Morning, Folks.

Another week nearly gone. I have been so busy working on a couple of volunteer projects I hardly get anything else done. I am having company next week and REALLY need to mow the lawn. However. Last Friday’s storm left so many sticks and limbs around that I haven’t been able to mow. I am nearly done picking up all of them, but it is slow going because it is so hot and humid. I don’t do heat well, so what I can do early in the morning (even then it has been too hot) is it for the day as far as yard work is concerned. Maybe tomorrow.

At any rate, being indoors gives me a chance to work on cards. This past week alone I needed two sympathy and two birthday cards. Here is one of the birthday cards.

I started with a card base of Crumb Cake. Over this I Liquid Glued a panel of Designer Paper from a book I had purchased long ago. I think it was Paper Studio. I thought this would be a good background for a magnolia from the Good Morning Magnolia bundle.

Also, it has script in the background, which I really like, and a bit of blue, which is the recipient’s favorite color. I cut it so that the top was even with the top of the card (this is a top-fold 5″ x 7″ card), with a border around the other three sides.

Next, I stamped the large magnolia in Crumb Cake on Whisper White, then colored it with my Stampin’ Blends. I used Light and Dark Old Olive,  Light and Dark Pool Party and Ivory, as well as the Stampin’ Blends Color Lifter. I didn’t want the leaves too dark, so used the color remover to lighten them a bit. Oh, yes, and Crumb Cake Light for the flower stem. I used the die from that bundle to cut it out.

Somehow it just wasn’t quite right. I wanted more blue. I did consider matting the designer paper on Balmy Blue, but that didn’t seem right either. My solution was to then fussy cut the magnolia, trimming off all the white around the edges. I die cut another one in Balmy Blue and used Liquid Glue to adhere the colored one to the blue mat. AHA! That works for me. Stampin’ Dimensionals (several of them!) were used to adhere the flower to the card front.

I cut a couple of pieces of retired Balmy Blue Organdy Ribbon and stuck them on the card front with Glue Dots. The Belated part of the sentiment is from Well Said, and the Birthday is from Happy Birthday Gorgeous (retired). I was going to use the birthday from Beautiful Bouquet, but for some reason it was missing when I needed it. So, I substituted Happy Birthday Gorgeous. I masked off the happy and the gorgeous as best I could and stamped Birthday (and Belated) in Crumb Cake on Whisper White card stock.

Using the Story Label punch, I Punched the sentiment out, and punched a second one in Balmy Blue. This one I cut in half lengthwise to make a mat for the sentiment label. Liquid Glue adhered them together, and more Stampin’ Dimensionals fixed it to the front of the card.

Well, there was a bit of a problem….my mask didn’t work very well, and there was a bit of the word gorgeous and a bit of happy showing. It was either make a new sentiment or fix this one. I used Pearl Basic Jewels to cover up the mistake. That seemed to do the trick, and I think it looks good. To complete the card I added another large pearl to the upper right front of the card and a smaller one on the flower.

On the inside, another panel of the designer paper, this time leaving on the printed flower, is the mat under the Balmy Blue sentiment panel. I used the Detailed Trio punch to punch the corners for a little pzazz and stamped the sentiment in Crumb Cake. The sentiments are from Beautiful Bouquet.

For the envelope I used more of the designer paper on the flap and stamped a Crumb Cake small magnolia bud on the front.

I will try to be more regular about posting, but it is summer and summer is BUSY! Please leave comments below.

CARD CUTS: Crumb Cake: card base 7″ x 10″ scored at 5″; Whisper White: magnolia 5″ x 5″, sentiment 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″; Balmy Blue: mat for magnolia 5″ x 5″, mat for sentiment 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″; Designer Paper: front 4-3/4″ x 6-1/2″, inside mat  4-3/4″ x 6-3/4″

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