Cottage Wall Birthday Wishes

Today's card is all about texture: textured cardstock, crimping, embossing, piercing and scrunching! You can get a better close-up of all that texture by clicking on the picture of the card.

• The beautiful background was featured in yesterday's card: I just can't get enough of the very affordable and adorable finial press embossing folder. One quick zip through the Big Shot, and Voila! instant gorgeous-ness!
• Textured cardstock, like the Textured Rich Razzleberry I used for the flower petals, adds a subtle depth to projects
• I have a very technical term for the texture added to the center of the flower: scrunch and runch! ~smile~ That just means muss it up! When I was doing it, it reminded me of when you get a stain in your clothes and hurry to scrub it out under running water by rubbing the sides together (minus the running water for cardstock!)
• The lovely white organza ribbon has a smooth, delicate texture, and adds elegance to any card
• I used my crimper to add some extra texture to the leaves, and ran my bone folder down their centers to create a leaf "vein"
• Piercing around the edge of the flower center also adds an interesting dimension to the floral image

Putting the flower and greeting together today was all about punches:

• The petals are 3/4" punched circles
• The flower center is a 1-3/8" circle punch and a 1-1/4" circle punch
• Use the small oval punch to create leaves
• I love how the Modern Label punch and the Word Window punch work so well together, but today I made another discovery! The Oval punch also fits perfectly behind the modern label for an added "umph!" to the greeting.
• The rounded edges give this card a soft finish. The corner rounder is the perfect tool for this job!

People often ask me about where I get inspiration for my cards, this particular card had two sources of inspiration. First, the inspiration for the layout started with Splitcoast Sketch challenge #239 (even though I didn't quite stick to it!).

I love online challenges (like today's sketch challenge), because they push me to try something new, plus I get to see what everyone else thinks of, too! Check out the online gallery for more inspiration!

Second, my color inspiration came from the Cottage Wall DSP (115671). It is absolutely gorgeous!

Want to give this project a try? All of the supplies and item numbers I used are listed below. Just CLICK HERE to go to my Stampin' Up! website to order any of the supplies you need. Once you get there, click on "Shop Now" in the upper right hand corner, and use the item numbers listed below.

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Only two more days to take advantage of the Deal of the Week!

Happy Stampin!
~Heather

Stampin' Supplies (and item numbers):

Stamps: Garden Greetings (113716)
Ink: Rich Razzleberry (115658)
Paper: Whisper White (100730), Old Olive (100702), Textured Rich Razzleberry (115719, assorted package 6 ea of 6 In Colors), Pale Plum (101658), Certainly Celery (105125)
Tools: 3/4" circle punch (107217), 1-1/4" circle punch (104403), 1-3/8" circle punch (104401), small oval punch (107304), large oval punch (107305), modern label punch (116630), word window punch (105090), corner rounder punch (109047), finial press embossing folder (115963), Big Shot (113439), Paper-piercing tool (116631), mat pack (105826), dimensionals (104430), crimper (101618)
Embellishments: Organza Ribbon (114319), Linen Thread (104199), Button latte (114333)