Mulberry Flower Birthday Card

This versatile card can be used for all kinds of occasions, from quick "thank you" cards to cheerful birthday cards. It's easy to make as well...

Materials and Tools

• A white A6 card blank
• Pink Flower brads
• White mulberry paper
• A sheet of white happy birthday vellum
• Brilliance Dew Drop, Pearlescent Purple

You may also need...
A ruler, a wet paintbrush or cotton bud and a glue stick.

Instructions

1. First we need to tear a rectangle of vellum. To do this lay the sheet of vellum on a flat surface the right way up. Place a ruler along one edge about 1/2 cm form the edge. Lift the corner of the vellum and tear the vellum using the ruler as a guide. Repeat this to make a torn rectangle which measure approximately 5cm x 12cm.

2. We now need to ink the torn edge. Holding the ink pad in one hand and the torn vellum in the other hand, dab the edge of the vellum onto the ink pad to colour the edges. Use a light touch and repeat the process until you get the depth of colour you want.

3. The next stage is to make the three mulberry flowers. Lay the piece of white mulberry paper flat on the table. Place the rubber stamp onto the table, with the rubber surface facing up and take the ink pad to the stamp, dabbing it with ink until it has an even covering. Stamp a flower onto the mulberry paper, making sure there is at least 1cm all around it. Next, take a wet paintbrush or cotton bud and mark out a circle around the mulberry flower (about 0.5cm or 1/4 " away). Once the water has soaked into the paper tease the paper apart along the wet line to create the feathered edge.

Repeat this so that you have three flowers.

4. Holding the ink pad in one hand and the mulberry flower in the other, dab the torn edge of each mulberry flower onto the ink pad, to give them a purple feathered edge, in a similar way to step 2.

5. The final step is to attach the flowers onto the vellum and the vellum onto the card using brads. Place the unfolded card blank onto a flat surface and position the vellum centrally and the mulberry flowers equally spaced on top of the vellum. Make a small hole at the centre of each mulberry flower that goes through the mulberry paper, the vellum and the card. Next we can push a pink flower brad through each of the holes, flattening out the prongs on the other side of the card blank, to hold everything in place.

And finally...
Fold an insert in half and stick this into the card. Place a line of glue to the right of the fold line and position the folded insert onto this, and then put a dab of glue on top of the insert and folding the card, to attach it to the front of the card.

Your card is finished!

Note: When this card was originally made, we made the card blank from a sheet of A4 Hammer White card, which has a slightly different finish to the linen white cards we suggest you use. If you want to create your own Hammer White card, then you will need to cut the A4 sheet down to size and score a fold line (you can use a tool like our bone folder to do this).