Flore’s Birthday Card

Materials

• Plain blue cardstock paper 20.5 x 14.5cm, folded in two

• Watercolour paper, 9.5 x 14.5 cm, plus some extra pieces for cut-outs

• Thick grey cardboard, 9.5 x 14.5 cm, 1mm thickness

• Badge (Scrapbuttons)

• Ink stamps (L’encre et l’image, Lime Citron, Florilèges Design, Kesi’art, Tim Holtz)

• Liquid inks (Studio Calico, Ecoline, Aquar’elles Scrapbuttons)

• Indian ink

• Ink pads (Versafine, Versamark, Prima Chalk)

• Adhesive dots (Zibuline)

• Black embossing powder (Ranger)

• Metalic photo corners, metal charm in the shape of a bow, sticky foam pads, stapler, water mister, paintbrush, water brush, sewing thread, heat gun, sewing machine, glue etc.

Instructions

Start by putting some drops of ink mixed with some drops of water onto a sheet of acetate. Press your acetate onto your piece of watercolour paper. Blot the ink regularly with a piece of absorbent paper towel. Blur the colours together and diffuse them across your page using a water brush. Apply one pigment after another, leaving the sheet to dry in between each one.

Once all of your inks have been applied and are thoroughly dry you can add some ink stamps to the background to create some more texture and depth.

Use a sewing machine with black thread to sew some patterns onto the centre of your card. This stitching should be creative and give interest to the card; it should not be too neat, but should give an appealing textured look. Put the card to one side for the moment.

Print the ink stamps that you want to make into cut-outs onto a piece of watercolour paper, using Versamark ink. I chose an origami butterfly from L’encre et L’image’s Manuela collection and made two copies.

Use a black embossing powder and a heat gun to emboss one of the large ink stamps, which you will cut out with scissors and use as your main card topper.

Also print some smaller little butterflies with an ink stamp and some blue ink.

Add some decorative stitching to your large butterfly as well, then sew on the little metal charm in the shape of a bow using a needle and thread.

Next glue your decorated rectangle of watercolour paper onto the piece of thick card. This will allow you to stick on the metallic photo corners. (If you decide not to use photo corners then you will not need to include the piece of cardboard.)

Now you can assemble your card and put together all of the decorative elements. Glue on the badge and then the butterflies. Attach the mini butterflies with a stapler. Add the adhesive dots and the metal photo corners. Print on an ink stamp saying ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Joyeux Anniversaire’ if you want a French flavour!

Finish off your card by adding some little dots or splashes of Indian ink. To make these little splashes take the handle of a fine-tipped paintbrush, immerse the tip in your ink bottle, then take it right to the place on the page right where you want it. That will stop you from accidentally making splashes in places where you don’t want them. It’s a handy tip for working with the ‘patouille’ style.

Let everything dry thoroughly before attaching it to the piece of blue card folded in two, using double-sided sticky tape.

As a finishing touch, add some blue watercolour paint to the wings of your large butterfly.

Now stand back and admire your work; your card is finished!