Birthday Card for GinaK

All of us who love GinaK if only through her stamp company and blog were saddened to learn of the passing of her beloved father on Sunday. Joanne has put out a challenge to Make and Mail a Birthday card to Gina who will celebrate a birthday this coming week-end. Here is my card for the challenge and one that I will actually mail:

I knew that I wanted to use one of my GinaK flower sets and no surprise to you or me I chose the roses from A Year of Flowers created by Melanie Muenchinger. I didn't have a vase stamp so I used my Quikutz label die and turned it on its end for the vase, I think it works. I sponged the edges with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo and Weathered Wood. I stamped the leafy branches from the Botanical Dream set on the vase.

I cut out the roses and the leafy branches and 3 sets of leaves. I laid my pieces on about a hundred times before I decided on the proper placement or at least what suited me :).

I sponged around the edge of the designer paper from the Sea Glass paper stack I got at Michaels a couple of months ago. I really am on kind of a blue green kick right now and this paper goes with that perfectly.

The background cardstock on the left side is kraft sponged with weathered wood and vintage photo distress ink and on the right is river rock sponged with weathered wood.

I tied a small brown and white checked ribbon around the vase and then started glueing everything in place. I glued the leafy branches at the top directly to the background cardstock overlapping the edges. I popped the light brown rose on top up with a foam mounting square. I added the leaves at this point, glued directly to the background. I popped the teal rose up on one foam square and the dark brown is popped up on two squares.

My final addition was the Happy Birthday tag cut out of the same blue green dp and sponged with Vintage Photo distress ink.

I added some white gel pen dots in a 3 dot pattern on the top to lighten the tone just a bit.

What do you think? Too dark for a Birthday card that is supposed to also cheer someone up?

If you have an opinion be sure to leave a comment otherwise it will go in the mail on Wednesday.

Have a good night and say a prayer or at least think about GinaK and her family in this trying time.

Goodnight,

Cathy