I fell in love with the Hibiscus Die<\/a><\/span> and\u00a0Paisleys Die Set from Paper Smooches<\/a><\/span> the minute I saw them. \u00a0I knew they would be great for unisex cards (and could be great for scrapbooking my recent vacation to Hawaii–that’s still on my to-do list), and I got to run them through their paces with this last minute birthday card that I made for my brother-in-law’s birthday today.<\/p>\n

<\/a>First I wanted to just use the outline portion of the Hibiscus Die to create a faux embossed look for the card background. I die cut it out 10 times from white card stock and glued\u00a0them down onto a white card base using Art Glitter Glue with a fine tip nozzle in a random pattern, making sure to have some of these flower outlines run off the edges of the card base and wrapping them even to the back of the card. I love this all-white, subtle yet interesting textured background.<\/p>\n

Then for the focal flower cluster, I used 140 lb Strathmore watercolor paper, a paint brush, a water-filled spray bottle, and Ken Oliver Color Bursts in Merlot, Burnt Orange, Yellow Ochre and Terre Verte<\/a><\/span> to create watercolored scraps with lots of variations in color tones. \u00a0I then used the Hibiscus Die to cut three flowers from the merlot red paper, three flowers from the yellow ochre\/burnt orange paper, a couple of the Hibiscus Die leaves and two of the Paisley Die Set flourishes from the terre verte paper. I used just the outlines of the flowers (cutting off the leaf portions) from the yellow ochre\/burnt orange paper and inset the merlot red flower petals. \u00a0For the leaves and paisley flourishes, I popped some of the inner sections out and used them as additional foliage. To add to the dimensional look, I used 1\/16″ and 1\/8″ foam dots behind the hibiscus flowers and glued down only the base of each leaf behind the flowers so the leaf ends were free to hang off the card front.<\/p>\n

Lastly, for the sentiment, I used a\u00a0retired\u00a0Hero Arts Clear Princess stamp set<\/a><\/span> (sorry there is no official name on the packaging). I heat embossed some Recollections Snow embossing powder onto a black card stock scrap with the sentiment that\u00a0says, “Wishing you a birthday filled with sparkles, smiles and laughter.”<\/p>\n

The following is a process video sharing how I made this card:<\/p>\n