This Artisan Sketched Garden Floral Birthday Card is one I put a birthday greeting on, but could be made for many other occasions. I was inspired to make this card by one I saw on a Stampin’ Up! post SOMEWHERE! It doesn’t look like I “saved” it anywhere. I probably thought I was positive I could easily find it again, but I could not! Have you ever done that?! Liked a card, wanted to copy it, and then couldn’t find it anywhere! What intrigued me about that card was the colored striped piece placed somewhere on the card, I don’t remember where. Rather than keep feeling frustrated, I went ahead and made my own card with the Artisan Sketched Garden Designer Series Paper. This is the pack of all black & white paper, floral images of all kinds, as well as more generic patterns.
I wouldn’t have thought of coloring in between the lines of the black and white striped paper in the package! That’s what I love about stamping and seeing everyone’s ideas. There is always something new and something I never thought of. I cut a piece of the stripes at 5 1/4″ x 1 1/2″ and colored in with all the new 2026-2028 In Color Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. If you click on that link and sort for “Newest” the new In Colors will come up. But you could use any colors you like.
The card base is Hydrangea Hue. The background layer of paper, I thought, was plain enough but cute to go with the flower. I don’t know if those tiny images are foliage or flowers, but it makes a cute design. The flower is printed on one of the designer papers. They are all pretty close together, so it’s not easy to cut one out with the Paper Trimmer, so I just roughly cut around it, near the bottom of the sheet, to get it separated from the paper. I colored the flower with Barely Blush using the Stampin’ Blend Combo. This is a VERY light pink, so I put on a couple layers of light and dark Barely Blush. The little seed pod is colored in Golden Glow, and the leaves are Peaceful Pine green. After coloring the flower, I fussy cut it with my Paper Snips. If you need new scissors, new ones are coming soon!
I adhered the flower to a panel of Barely Blush cardstock cut at 3 3/4″ x 1 3/4″. It looked fine just that way, but I decided to add a layer of Hydrangea Hue cardstock to go with the card base. It is 4″ x 2″. This whole panel is popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
You might think Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators are very skilled and creative at all times, but that is not true! I was trying to get some glue out of this nearly empty small bottle I use for intricate areas I need to glue, but it was clogged. Next, I turned to my close-to-empty bottle of Multipurpose Liquid Glue (what I put in the little white bottle), but it was clogged up too. After trying to unclog the tip, I wisely thought to see if any would come out on a piece of scrap paper. Well, it certainly did come out in a big blob of glue! So I used the green bottle to pick up little bits of glue from that puddle and dab it on to the fussy-cut flower very carefully. There are other ways I could have done it, but this worked ok.
The best idea would be been to stick that roughly cut out flower from the designer paper on to an Adhesive Sheet, then I could have had the flower be like a sticker with no need for glue! But I didn’t and usually don’t think that far ahead with Adhesive Sheets!
To finish off this card, I added as small a bow as I could make with the Barely Blush Ribbon using Mini Glue Dots on the back. I realized I didn’t have a greeting, so I stamped “Happy Birthday” with Hydrangea Hue ink using the Lovely Arrangements Stamp Set. Since the flower was popped up I needed to pop up just the right side of the greeting so the left side could lie flat on the flower panel. I also added three Barely Blush 2026-2028 In Color Dots to the card.
It looks to me like a lovely, simple card, maybe with the In Colors being very soft and calming. Don’t forget to try different things with our designer papers!