Birthday Wishes

A little break from Christmas cards…

My friend asked me to make a birthday card for her 12 year old daughter.  When I saw this card that Susan Itell had made, I thought…perfect!  I changed it only slightly, as it really was just what I was looking for.

The image is from You’re Sublime.  I placed tape over the sentiment that is on the stamp and heat embossed the flower cart with black embossing powder onto water color paper.  Then the fun part ~ I watercolored the cart and flowers with my Aqua Painter and several different colors of ink.  I used the flower print in the English Garden DSP as a color reference and applied ink until I liked that way it looked.

The birthday wishes sentiment comes from Endless Birthday Wishes and I stamped it on with Basic Black Archival ink.

For added interest, I put a tiny silver brad through the center of the wheel, and a clear epoxy sticker over the heart in the cart.

I love the shine that sticker gives along with the embossed outline!

It is a 4 1/2″ square card with Pool Party, Soft Suede, and So Saffron layers.  I made my envelope with Pool Party paper and my Envelope Punch Board, then lined it with the English Garden DSP.

On the inside, I stamped another sentiment from Endless Birthday Wishes and lightly stamped the cake over the top in Soft Sky.  Here are all the fun sentiments that come in the set.  You can mix and match them as you please:

Endless Birthday Wishes #140273

Give the Aqua Painter a try!  I was really intimidated by it for a long time.  But I found that the raised outline from the heat embossing helps keep the ink and water where it belongs – great tip!  Let the ink dry between layers and just keep layering on the color until you get the look you want.

Go have a great day!

Karen