Watercolor Floral Birthday Card

I had a challenge last week.  Our family was invited to help some friends celebrate their 40th birthdays.  Of course I had to make them a card but what to do for a couple for a birthday card?  I thought about this for awhile.  I didn't want the card to be too feminine or masculine.  Since he likes gardening I decided I could get away with a floral themed card.  Let me show you what I did.

I looked through my stamps and found this stamp.  Not one I would normally use but it reminds me of a garden and also a great fabric pattern.  I stamped it on watercolor paper using StazOn ink and then colored it using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush.

After I trimmed around the edges of the colored image I inked the edges with Black Soot ink.  I love to ink the edges of things to give them a more finished look.  

I really wanted the emphasis on the floral panel so the rest of the card is fairly simple.  I got out some black cardstock and a wood grain embossing folder to use as a background.  I lightly sanded it just to let a little of the white core show. 

I cut out Happy Birthday using my Cricut and after covering with embossing ink I covered it with white embossing powder to give the sentiment just a little bit of shine.  Because I used dimensional adhesive to attach the floral panel I used some Glossy Accents to attach just the edge of Happy to the panel.  This is a great adhesive for small areas such as this.  

Here is the completed card.  Aside from the watercoloring this card is fairly simple, but I think it has a very dramatic effect.  I love the pop of color against the black and the black woodgrain also helps keep this card from being too feminine.  I hope you enjoyed this card too.  Thanks for stopping!

Supplies:

• cardstock- The Paper Studio (Textured Cardstock Darks), watercolor paper, scraps
• Cricut cartridge- Gypsy Wanderings
• stamp- Tapestry Panel N6018
• ink- Tsukineko (StazOn Jet Black), Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Black Soot, Embossing)
• embossing folder- Darice (Wood Grain)
• embossing powder- American Crafts (Zing White)
• misc- Faber-Castell watercolor pencils, Ranger (Glossy Accents), dimensional adhesive, sanding block, waterbrush