Berry Happy Birthday

Today I bring you another birthday card, thanks to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday‘s Happy Birthday challenge. The layout is the latest from Retrosketches, with the theme for the card coming from the photo prompt given by Inspired By All The Little Things. Cute Card Thursday encouraged me to add something shiny to the card, whilst using snippets of paper meant I could tie in Pixie’s Snippets Playground (Edit – this card was a weekly pick!). And last but by no means least, I am including this in A Bit More Time To Craft‘s Anything Goes challenge.

When I initially saw the inspiration image I was slightly concerned. I don’t have any berry stamps, and even if I did I don’t have a (decent) red ink. I figured I would have to just take the colour scheme as my inspiration rather than the berries themselves. So I started looking through my paper stash to see what I could find to use. That’s when I discovered the paper with the cherries.

I’d forgotten that paper existed! It’s a patterned paper from a set I bought a couple of months ago. It has lots of different squares with various images. I have actually used it before, though I’ve never got around to blogging about the card I made with it. (It wasn’t made as a response to any challenges, though no doubt I could find some to link it to at some point!)

Anyway, I decided the cherries would work nicely, but still wanted to work in the red and blue of the picture. I found some metallic cardboard in each colour that seemed like they would work very well as they also tie in the shiny aspect that I needed. I trimmed the red to perfectly fit the cardbase, with the blue panel being slightly smaller. I then also cut a panel of white card to fit within the blue panel.

I found a strip of red polka dot paper that seemed like it would work well behind one of the cherry panels. I decided I wanted a blue strip to go behind the other, and when I found the blue polka dot paper it seemed perfect!

For the sentiment I wanted something that would appropriately fit the theme of the card. I didn’t have anything specific so I made my own with a bit of mix-and-match. I made the “berry happy” using my Lawn Fawn Jessie’s ABCs stamps, and the rest of the sentiment is from Altenew’s Halftone Happy. The fonts actually work nicely together!

At that point I had all my components ready and it was just a case of sticking it all together. I mostly used my roller adhesive, though I also used my foam tape to give a bit of dimension behind the cherry panels. Getting panels lined up is difficult for me so it took a little while to do. And then I realised I’d stuck it onto the cardbase upside down! Whoops. Luckily I was able to carefully pry it back off and restick it the right way up.

I’m quite happy with how this turned out. It meets all the prompts nicely and looks pretty well put together. Initially I wasn’t sure I liked the softer colours of the cherry panels alongside the bolder colours of the metallic card, but it’s grown on me. I’m really pleased with the stamping in particular.

Love,

Lady Joyful