Growing Green birthday card

I didn't tell you about my birthday did I? For my birthday treat I was taken to the David Austin rose garden at Albrighton to smell the roses! I adore roses - the many shapes, colours and fragrances of them - and I also LOVE the idea of slowing down our lives and taking time to 'smell the roses'. Anyway, before you go off yawning, the only reason I mention it is that my card-making seems to have been inspired by roses a lot just lately - you'll see a couple of floral cards this week!

This one was triggered by this week's Make My Monday challenge where we've been asked to make cards with red flowers.

I've recently rediscovered my Growing Green stamp set and this card is made with the rose image from the set. Last week I found that you can water colour nicely on the Confetti range of card stock - so naturally I've not been able to stop doing so! These roses have been stamped in Riding Hood Red and then the colour has been smooshed around haphazardly. (And no, I didn't think spellchecker would like the word 'smooshed'!)

I wanted a graphic look for this card so I used this punchy sentiment from the hostess set Afterthoughts and added a scored border round the card front. I did this really easily using my Fiskars trimmer and a bone folder. Honestly, I really could not do without my Fiskars - I sometimes think I could ask it to make me a cup of tea and it would oblige!

The card really needed something to link the sentiment with the pile of roses so I added my favourite embellishment of the moment - these gorgeous butterflies made with the Beautiful Wings embosslits die. And then, because a girl sometimes gets carried away, I added a touch of Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the roses! Can you see that in the photo?

Here's how to make this card:

• Take an A5 piece of Confetti Cream card stock. Score and fold it in half to make a card base.
• Stamp the bottom and right of the card front with the rose image from Growing Green using Riding Hood Red ink. Use an aqua painter to pull some of the colour out to fill in the petals.
• Use a ruler and a soft pencil to mark the corners of a border on the inside of the card front - my border is half a centimetre in from the edges. Use the pencil marks as a guide to score your border, then rub them out with an eraser.
• Sponge Marina Mist ink over the sky areas on the front of the card - the raised border will catch a lot of the ink. Sponge Riding Hood Red over the rose-stamped parts of the border.
• Stamp a sentiment in Riding Hood Red ink, using a stamp-a-majig for accuracy.
• Add three Baja Breeze die-cut butterflies and some touches of Dazzling Diamonds glitter to finish.

Supplies
Stamps: Growing Green, Afterthoughts (hostess set)
Ink:  Riding Hood Red, Marina Mist
Card stock: Confetti Cream
Other: Beautiful Wings embosslits die, Dazzling diamonds glitter

I really enjoyed my birthday which kicked off with my youngest son coming into my bedroom wearing a pair of underpants, a clean tea towel folded neatly over his arm and a beaming smile. "May I take your breakfast order?" he asked cheerfully. He went on to suggest some specials and then sped off to ask his big sister to get on with it!

After I'd done full justice to pancakes, juice (with ice) and coffee, my lovely family showered me with gifts and then whisked me off to see the roses where I spent a lot of time doing this:

And I'm afraid the boys thought it was hilarious to make vulgar snorting noises!

We had a lovely lunch in the café, where everything was served in or on beautiful china decorated with roses.

Afterwards, my husband asked me to choose my favourite rose - and bought it for me! It was the Generous Gardener rose, a gloriously scented climber - just gorgeous!

Thank you so much for joining me today and for allowing me to go on about my little life! Do come back tomorrow when I'll have a lot more crafting and a lot less wittering! (I promise!)

Hope to see you then,