Birthday card using Notably Ornate

Today I want to show a birthday card I made for a lovely lady who has always got a kind word for everyone and is a pillar of the community. My sons think she's wonderful (she's the grandma of two of their friends) and they have excellent judgement! I chose these irises for her because she once mentioned that she likes the colour purple.

This is one of those cards where I've used stamps from all sorts of sets. As I've said before, I don't do this very often because it's harder for readers to recreate, but it is one of my greatest pleasures so I hope you'll forgive me! What I'm really excited about is the lacy background which I created with the frame image from Notably Ornate. I stamped it in river rock - which is the perfect ink to have when you want a neutral background with a bit of a subtle gold feel.

The floral image has been water-coloured with my aqua painter. I stamped and coloured each element separately leaving each one to dry between each layer. The card is finished with a knot of the 1/8" taffeta ribbon - one of my favourite kinds!

Here's how to make this card:

• Take a 21cm x 12cm piece of Very Vanilla card stock, score and fold it in half to make a card base. (This isn't a standard size but you can adapt this card to any size.)
• Stamp the frame image onto the card front in River Rock ink using a stamp-a-majig. The images will need to overlap if you want the 'lace' to show evenly on each side of the focal image. 
• Cut a 9cm x 5cm piece of Elegant Eggplant and knot a piece of Old Olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon around it.
• Stamp a sentiment onto the card front in Elegant Eggplant ink, using a stamp-a-majig, then glue the card stock above it.
• Now make the floral tile: Cut a 4.5cm x 6cm piece of watercolour paper. Stamp the leaf in Always artichoke and use the aqua painter to pull the ink into the centre of the leaves. Let this dry before colouring the iris stamp with Old Olive and Perfect Plum markers and stamping over the top of the leaf. Add definition to the flowers with the Perfect Plum marker and smooth the colour with the aqua painter. Leave to dry and then repeat with Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant.
• Curve the corners of the tile with a corner rounder and attach to the card front.

Supplies
Stamps: Growing Green, Just Believe (for the tile), Notably Ornate, So Happy for You (retired sale-a-bration set)
Ink: River Rock, Always Artichoke
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Elegant Eggplant, watercolour paper
Other: Old Olive, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant markers

Have I mentioned before how much I love my aqua painter?! You can get all sorts of wonderful effects using it and it's such fun experimenting - so much fun, in fact, that the housework might never be done again! Hmmm. Actually think I'd better slink off and see if I can find the hoover...

I've got a great idea for Three Minute Thursday this week so if you have a minute, do come back tomorrow and see! Hope to see you then,