Birthday Blossoms Larkspur and Waterlily to Celebrate July Birthdays

Hi Everyone,
The two birth flowers for July are both relatively unusual, certainly in crafting terms, meaning that there is not an abundance of larkspur and waterlily craft supplies available, however,  I found a lovely waterlily die cutting set from Heartfelt Creations which I used for the first card and a larkspur stamp and die set which I used for the other two cards.

I have been meaning to have a go at making an easel card for a while and this card seemed like the perfect opportunity, using the die cut waterlily as the 'prop' for the upright part of the card.

There are three main elements to this card so I have split them up so you don't have to read the whole thing if you are only interested in part of it.


Card Base
I cut two pieces of blue card for the base, one measuring 12 x 24cm and another 12 x 12cm. I scored the longer piece at 12 and 18cm and folded the card on both these score lines to form the base.  I forgot to photograph the base at this stage to show you how it is folded, so I have borrowed this photo from Pinterest. This shows the base with the smaller piece of card attached, but I didn't attach mine straight away as it was easier to make most of it first. You can make the card any size you want the main principle is that the longer piece of card is scored at the half way and three quarters marks and folded to make the support for the upright part of the card.

I cut two pieces of white card 11.5 x 11.5cm sq and used Broken China and Old Paper distress ink pads to color them. I wanted the card to look like a lily pond with sky above so I used Broken China all over the card and added Old Paper to the area that would be the pond to give it a greenish hue.

Waterlily Flowers and Lily Pads

The gorgeous lilies and lily pads are all die cut using the Heartfelt Creations Waterlily and Frog die cutting set. Waterlilies can be both white and pink so I chose pink card for mine. Once cut, I inked the edges of the petals with pink ink, then pinched them to almost fold them in half and curled the ends over. There are two sizes of flowers in the die set so I cut one of the bigger ones and a few of the smaller ones, each one has self adhesive pearls on the center for the stamen. The lily pads (or leaves) are cut from green card and the edges inked with a slightly darker shade of green.

The dies cut a range of sizes of petals which you can combine in any way you like.

Dragonflies

I have been wanting to use this lovely dragonfly die cutter for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

The die set cuts a whole dragonfly as well as a separate set of wings and a separate body. I wanted to make the dragonflies look as realistic as possible so I cut a whole body from green mirror card, and two further sets of wings one from blue card and one from acetate. I covered the acetate ones with clear Wink of Stella to give them a bit of sparkle. I glued the blue wings underneath the green body so that they show through the green wings and the acetate wings over the green body to give the iridescent shimmer. I bent the green and acetate wings up slightly so that they were raised from the background. I am very pleased with the way they worked out.

The final step was to make the greeting and assemble the card. For the greeting, I inked a small piece of card to match the colors of the pond area of the background, stamped the message in Stormy Sky distress ink and also used that to ink the edges. 

I had a couple of lilies left over so I used them to make a matching gift tag. I thought the die cut dragonfly would be a bit big for the tag so I stamped one using the dragonfly stamp from the Cardio Dragonfly Garden stamp set. I stamped it in Broken China distress ink and heat embossed it with clear crystal powder so that it had a little bit of sparkle. 

I'm pleased with the results! The easel part was very easy and the card looks just the way I wanted it to. 

Materials used:

• Blue, green, pink, and white card, and green mirror card.
• Heat Resistant Acetate
• Wink of Stella Clear Glitter brush pen
• Broken China, Old Paper, Stormy Sky distress ink pads
• Pink pigment ink pad
• Foam ink blending tool
• Waterlily and Frog die cutting set
• Dragonfly die cutter
• 3mm Pale Gold self adhesive pearls
• Hero Arts Many Messages clear stamp set
• BoBunny Terrific Tags Die cutting set
• Cardio Majestix Dragonfly Garden stamp set
• Crystal Clear embossing powder
• Mint Green Super Sheer organza ribbon

For my second card I used the Larkspur stamp and die cut set. I stamped the flower in black ink, colored it using marker pens, die cut it and mounted it on a die cut oval of white card and then on an oval of purple card to match the color of the flowers. 

I used a 12.5cm square white card blank, layered that with more of the purple card and then cut a piece of white card to make the stamped background layer. I used the Scratches background stamp stamping first with Tea Dye distress ink, then rotating the card 90 degrees and stamping again with Tea Dye, then rotating again and stamping a third time but this time with Old Paper. Once all the stamped layers were dry I inked over everything with Bundled Sage. I attached the purple and stamped layers to the card front using our new Glue Dots Tape Runner which made it very quick and easy. The Oval was attached with adhesive foam pads to raise it a little.

The greeting comes from a sheet of gold and white die cut greetings which I inked around the edges with a Violet pigment ink and attached with foam pads at one end and a dab of glue at the other. The last thing was to add some adhesive gold metal dots to the corner.

Materials used:

• 12.5cm white blank card and envelope
• White and purple card
• Tea Dye, Old Paper and Bundled Sage distress ink pads
• Black and Violet pigment ink pads
• Larkspur stamp and die cut set
• Scratches Cover a Card background stamp
• White and gold die cut birthday greetings
• Gold adhesive metal gems
• Glue Dots tape runner
• 1mm adhesive foam pads
• Foam ink blending tool

I wanted to do something different with the larkspur stamp this time so chose to emboss resist on a watercolour style background.

I stamped the larkspur flowers onto watercolor paper with watermark ink and heat embossed with opaque white embossing powder.

Working on a craft mat I spread some Dusty Concord distress ink and spritzed it with a tiny bit of water, using a 1.5cm wide paint brush I painted a strip of purple across the top of the stamped image. I then added a bit more water to the ink to lighten the color and painted a second strip and repeated this until the flowers part of the stamp was covered. I repeated the process with Old Paper distress ink over the leafy area at the bottom of the flower. Once the 'paint' was dry I wiped over the stamped image with a cloth to remove any ink from the embossed areas.

I trimmed the watercolor paper to 8.8cm and scruffed the edges, then mounted this on a 9.2cm square piece of lilac card and in turn mounted this in the centre of a 12.5cm sq white card blank.

The greeting is stamped in black at the bottom right corner of the card blank.

It was nice to do something different, I love the watercolor effect of the background.

Materials used:

• 12.5cm Square white card blank with envelope
• Purple card and white watercolor paper
• Larkspur stamp and die cut set
• Watermark ink pad
• Opaque White embossing powder
• Dusty Concord, Old Paper distress ink pads
• Black Pigment ink pad
• Hero Arts Many Messages clear stamp set
• Paper Scruffer tool
• Glue Dots tape runner

Thank you for visiting, I have thoroughly enjoyed making all these cards, I hope you like them too, please leave me a comment to let me know what you think or if you have a question to ask.
Debbie x