Apothecary Art Shabby Flower Happiest Birthday Card For Jan From Alan

It's that exciting time of year when SU! demos get to see the brand new annual catalogue.  I popped a catty into Jan's bag of SU! order goodies and we chatted on the phone about it a few days later.  Jan said that a card on page 56 had caught her eye and when I went to check it out I realised that the card had also stood out for me!   Jan's husband, Alan, always asks me to make a birthday card for him to give to Jan so I knew what I'd use as my inspiration for this year's card!

The card in the catty is rectangular but I knew I wanted to make a square card.  The catty card is made with Calypso Coral CS and I discovered that I didn't have any full sheets of Calypso Coral CS left.  So I made the 5 3/4" square card base from Crisp Cantaloupe CS and incorporated Calypso Coral as a mat layer.    I stamped the Apothecary Art image onto watercolour paper using VersaMark ink, heat embossed with gold powder and coloured using inks and a water brush.  I cut the aperture out from the panel of Brushed Gold CS and dry embossed with the Fancy Fan folder.  I glued the image piece direct to the card front, added the Crisp Cantaloupe thick baker's twine and popped the gold panel up.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in gold onto a vellum CS flag banner and layered it with Island Indigo and Brushed Gold banners.  The catty card has a shabby flower made from Filter Paper but as I don't have any I die cut three flowers from Island Indigo textured CS using the SU! Fun Flowers die.  I snipped between the petals, scrunched them up a good few times and added Golden Light gilding wax, the wax looks fab applied to textured CS!   I punched a Calypso Coral flower with the Petite Petals punch and attached all the flower layers together with a fancy brad - from the Everyday Enchantment SAB offering in 2012.  I punched three more flowers from the textured Island Indigo CS, rubbed on golden wax and added rhinestones to the centres.  I tied a bow from a double length of the thick twine and added another of the fancy brads.  I only had one of that colour left so I decided to put that one on the card also - so I used it to dress up the flag banners along with some rhinestones.

Here's how I decorated the inside of the card.

As the card was quite bulky I made an envelope from Island Indigo textured CS large enough to accommodate the bulk.  I do love that fab envelope punch board!  Here's the front of the envelope with a decorated and popped up name label.

I made an 'office style' closure for the back of the envelope using punched Calypso Coral flowers, gold brads and Crisp Cantaloupe twine.  I even remembered to pierce the holes and add the brads before I taped the envelope closed, I can testify it's a faff trying to do it afterwards!

The card has been delivered to Alan and I hope it meets with his approval - and that it passes muster with Jan too of course!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! 'Apothecary Art' & 'Memorable Moments' sets, inside sentiment from Hero Arts, PaperMania 'Typewriter Alphabet' cling set
CS: SU! Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo & Whisper White CS, Island Indigo textured CS, Brushed Gold CS, vellum CS, watercolour paper
Ink: SU! Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, VersaMark
Tools: SU! Fancy Flowers Bigz XL die, SU! Petite Petals punch, SU! Labels Collection Framelits dies, SU! Fancy Fan embossing folder, SU! Envelope Punch Board, MFT Fishtail Flags Stax dies, EK Success small flower punch, Cheery Lynn 'Tiny Fanciful Flourish (Left & Right)' die, 1/2" circle punch,  paper piercer, heat tool
Embellishments & accessories: SU! gold embossing powder, SU! Crisp Cantaloupe Thick Baker's Twine, SU! Everyday Enchantment brads, SU! rhinestone jewels, Creative Expressions Golden Light gilding wax, gold brads, 3D foam tape