Two Flower & Fern Birthday Cards

A few days ago I made a CAS butterfly card and I had the negative pieces from the border punching left over.  Rather than discard the pieces I decided to make a card with them, keeping to the same layout.  I started off with a side opening Crumb Cake A6 card and I stamped the fern image a few times in espresso ink. I stamped an espresso fern on a Baja Breeze panel and glued this to my fancy borders.  I stamped a couple of flowers from the Growing Green set on Crumb Cake CS and cut the petals apart to use as leaves to tuck behind my large flower that I stamped on Rose Red patterned paper.  The flower is popped up.  I stamped my sentiment and used a Labels Trio die to cut it out.

I stamped the fabulous fern on the envelope front. As I will use this as a birthday RAK card I added the birthday sentiments over the top of the fern stamped inside the card.

The second card uses the same Growing Green set but this time I watercoloured the fern and flower.  I love how I got different looks using the same stamp set.   I haven't made a Z fold card in a while and they are one of my fave styles of card so I turned a side opening Pretty in Pink A6 card into a Z fold.  I'd just received an old, but new to me, SU! Fern Lace background stamp - gorgeous! - and I was itching to ink it up.  I stamped it in Crumb Cake ink on Whisper White CS after stamping off once and then stamped the fern.  I used petite oval Nestability dies to cut my image layer and mats. 

To colour the fern and flower, I patted ink pads on a ceramic tile and picked up the colour and painted with a waterbrush.  I popped up the flower and added the sentiment.  I stamped the Fern Lace background in Old Olive ink for the back panel and added a strip of Old Olive ribbon.  I've added pink gems to the ribbon - even though I'll use this as a birthday RAK card and I should keep things flat, I couldn't resist the lure of the bling!  Punched photo corners finished off the front.

For the message panel inside, I again used the Fern Lace stamp, inking in Old Olive but stamping off a couple of times.  You can see I also stamped the Fern Lace on the envelope front and I added a Rose Red strip.  I got a new sentiment stamp on my trip to the Glitter Pot last week, 'hope you have  great day' which I thought would be fab for birthday cards but could be used on other occasions too.  I used petite oval Nesties again for the sentiment.

Supplies for Sending Smiles card:
Stamps: SU! Growing Green set, Hero Arts Sending Smiles Messages clear set
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Rose Red & Early Espresso
Patterned paper: SU! Rose Red Prints Designer Series Paper pack
Ink: SU! Early Espresso & Crumb Cake
Tools: Sizzix Tim Holtz 'Brackets' On the Edge die, Spellbinder's Labels Trio die, SU! Photo Corners punch
Embellishments & accessories:  3d foam pads

Supplies for Best Wishes Z fold card:
Stamps: SU! Growing Green & Sincere Salutations sets,  SU! Fern Lace bg stamp, Penny Black Great Day
CS: SU! Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Rose Red & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Early Espresso, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink & Rose Red
Tools: Petite oval Nestabilities dies, SU! Photo Corners punch, waterbrush & ceramic tile
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, Prima pink gems, 3d foam pads