Modern Blooms

This is a card that I just made recently.  I was playing around with MFT's (My Favorite Things) Modern Blooms stamp set and matching dies.  I think that it turned out really cute!

To start with, I cut a panel in Black Licorice card stock and then arranged some of the flower and leaf dies on it and ran it through my machine.  This created negative spaces in the panel.  I then glued a piece of Neenah Solar White card stock to the back of the black piece so that I could stamp the coordinating flowers and leaves, through the black layer and down on the white layer beneath.  This effect would be accentuated if I had bumped up the black panel on foam squares, but I didn't choose that this time.  I also ran into a bit of an issue because the red flower didn't exist in the stamp set!  Somehow, I had this random die in the envelope with the others, and used it on the black piece without realizing it.  When I was later stamping and saw my mistake, I grabbed a Fantastix coloring stick and used it to draw in my own flowers.  I think they look just fine :-)

When the stamping was done, I felt the panel needed something more, so I used my white gel pen to draw dashed stitch lines around all of the shapes.  This really helped tie them together, and I think gave the panel a cute sewing-pattern look.  To play up the pretty red flowers, I attached the panel to a sheet of red & white pinstriped paper, then tied on a double layer of red & white baker's twine and tied a double bow.  The finished panel was then bumped up on 3M foam tape over a coordinating green patterned paper and attached to a top-folding card base made from Neenah Solar White card stock.

As is often the case, adding a sentiment was the final step.  I decided on a little stitched-edge tag, then found 2 different Simon Says Stamp birthday sets to create a custom message.  I just tucked the tag under the bow (they aren't tied together) and then secured it with a piece of double-sided tape.  Viola!  A bright and happy birthday card that would work for just about anyone!

Here's a list of most of the items I used for this card:

• MFT Black Licorice card stock
• Neenah Solar White card stock
• Echo Park "Sunny Days Ahead" paper pack
• Baker's Twine Red/White
• UniBall Gel Pen in White
• MFT Lemon Drop dye ink
• Stampin' Up Hello Honey dye ink
• MFT Chocolate Brown dye ink
• Simon Says Stamp Green Apple dye ink
• Memento Ladybug Red dye ink
• Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush dye ink
• 3M foam tape
• Tombow Mono glue