Make a Beautiful Ink-Stenciled Birthday Card

Welcome back to the craft room and today’s Make a Beautiful Ink-Stenciled Birthday Card post!

After cleaning up from last week’s project, I still had my Lost Shadow Distress Ink pad sitting on my desk. Rather than putting it back in my stash, I decided to put it to good use and turn it into a birthday card!

I love when a project comes together from something as simple as an ink pad that was left sitting on the desk. So today, we’re combining ink, a stencil, and a Copic-colored flower to create a simple but beautiful card.

Creating the Stenciled Background

Let’s start with the background for our stenciled birthday card. After looking through my small collection of stencils, I chose the Altenew Sunburst. This creates such a beautiful pattern, and I’m not really sure why I don’t use it—or stencils in general—more often.

I’m stenciling onto a quarter sheet of 110lb Recollections cardstock in white. I like to work with heavier-weight cardstock when ink blending because of the stability it gives me. Every time I use a lighter-weight cardstock, I tend to bend a corner or two, and that’s just not the look I’m going for!

Even though I won’t be taking the pattern all the way to the edge of the card, I’m still bringing in a scrap piece of paper to work on. To hold my card and the stencil in place, I’m adding a small piece of green Frog Tape to the top of each.

Unless I’m working with a very detailed stencil, I find that one piece of tape at the top works great. It gives me a hinge that allows me to lift the stencil and see how things are coming along without having to reposition everything.

With my Waffle Flower blending brush, I’m going to start adding Lost Shadow Distress Ink to my panel. I’m starting with a very light hand in the center of the design and working my way outward.

Probably the hardest thing to remember when adding ink to a project is that a light hand is always best. You can always add more ink, but you can’t remove it if it’s too dark.

With the tape at the top of my stencil acting as a hinge, I can see just how much ink is on the card. After the first application, though, it’s a little too light for the idea I have in my mind.

After adding more ink for a slightly darker look, as well as adding more to the left side of the panel, I’m super happy with the outcome. I wanted the background to be noticeable without overpowering the flower that will eventually go on top.

To protect the background from moisture, I’m going to add a layer of Distress Micro Glaze. After applying a small amount over the entire panel, I buff off the excess with a paper towel and then set the panel aside.

Stamping & Coloring the Floral Images

Next, I’m going to work on the floral elements for the card. I’ll be using one of my favorite stamp sets from Altenew, the Adore You stamp and die set. I love all of the different florals in this set, but as you can probably tell from the image below, I definitely have my favorites that I tend to use.

While I love working with Recollections cardstock, for the flowers and leaves I’m going to stamp onto a piece of Strathmore Bristol Vellum Surface. The panel is cut to 6″ x 4″, giving me plenty of room to stamp and die cut several elements at once.

As always, I’m stamping with Gina K Designs Amalgam Ink in Obsidian because this is a Copic-friendly ink.

I would like to say that after stamping the images, letting them dry on my desk for about 30 minutes, and then heat setting them, I didn’t have a single issue with smearing.

Sadly, I can’t.

Because lighter-colored Copic markers have a higher alcohol-to-pigment ratio, there is a greater chance that even Copic-friendly ink can smear. Sadly, that was the case with my first panel.

As you can see in the circled areas in the image below, the ink migrated into my petal in two places. I can only imagine how bad that would have looked in the center, where there are even more inked areas.

So, it was time for Take 2!

The Flower

Because of this unfortunate incident, I stamped another Strathmore panel. This time, I pulled out my Tim Holtz clear embossing powder and embossed the entire image before coloring.

I then began coloring my large flower with RV10, filling in the first petal all the way down to the base.

Next, I added RV52 in a flicking motion from the base of the petal up to around the center of it.

I then came in with my darkest color, RV55, and added a small amount of color at the base of the petal.

Finally, I came back in with RV52 and then RV10 to even out the harsh lines and smooth the transitions.

The Leaves

After coloring the large and small flowers, it was time to move on to the leaves. For today’s card, I really wanted the flower to be the star of the show.

With that in mind, rather than choosing a shade of green for my leaves, I chose to color them in shades of gray.

Within the Copic family, there are a few different gray “families”: Neutral, Cool, and Warm. Cool Grays have a bluish undertone, while Warm Grays have a reddish undertone. Neutral Grays are, as the name implies, more neutral or a standard gray.

For today’s project, I’m using the Neutral Gray shades, starting with N0 over the entire leaf.

Following up with the slightly darker N2, I added the first shadows at the base of the leaf as well as under the curve at the top.

Finishing with the darker N3 for the stem line, I darkened the color under the curl and at the base of the leaf. I then went back through the colors N2 and N0 to smooth out the transitions and give the leaves their finished look.

When all of the coloring was finished, I used the corresponding dies to cut them out.

Preparing the Card Base & Mats

Now that the floral elements are finished, it’s time to put the rest of the card together.

For the card base, I’m using 110lb Recollections cardstock in white. It measures 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ and is scored down the middle at 4 1/4″.

The first mat is a piece of brushed silver metallic cardstock. It is cut to 4″ x 5 1/4″. Unfortunately, I have no idea where this paper came from, as I no longer have the packaging.

Taking a chance, I did show it to my sister, thinking we may have split a package at some point. She insists she’s never seen it.

Either way, it’s a nice way to bring some shine to the project without the blinding glare from a mirror-finish metallic cardstock.

Next, let’s trim the ink-stenciled background down to 3 3/4″ x 5″. I do want the plain center circle to be somewhat in the middle of the card, so that requires taking snips from all four sides of the panel.

The final panel is still just a bit off-center, but once the floral images are added, it won’t be noticeable at all.

Because I’m working with metallic cardstock, I want to take some extra precautions when gluing my layers together. To make sure they will stay put over time, I’m using a combination of 1/4″ Scor-Tape and Bearly Art Precision Glue.

Stamping the Sentiment

For today’s sentiment, I’m using the Happy Birthday from the Technique Tuesday Cosmo stamp set. This is one of my favorite birthday sentiments, and I think it fits perfectly with the entire vibe of the card.

As always, I’m stamping the sentiment with Gina K Designs Amalgam Ink in Obsidian. Because I do need to re-ink my pad, I’ve placed a scrap piece of 110lb white Recollections cardstock into my Mini MISTI.

I did think about embossing the sentiment like I did the floral elements. However, I think my embossing powder is old because there isn’t much of a shine after heating.

Can embossing powder go bad? I’ve had the same bottle of Ranger clear embossing powder for years. Maybe it’s time for a new one!

After the ink dried, I trimmed the sentiment panel down to 2″ x 1″ and then cut a piece of the brushed silver cardstock to 2 1/4″ x 1 1/4″ for a mat.

Once again, I used both Scor-Tape and Bearly Art Glue to adhere the layers together.

Designing & Decorating the Card

Now comes probably the most difficult part of the card for me—figuring out where to place the leaves around the flower.

I knew the flower would take center stage, as it should. However, with the three larger leaves, where do they go?

I know odd numbers look better when working with floral elements, but from there, it’s always a question. As you can see in the three images below, I did change the location of the three leaves a few times.

They all looked okay, but not perfect.

Once I decided my sentiment would go in the lower-left corner to cover a small spot on the background, I finally figured out the placement of the leaves.

I placed the longer of the three leaves in the upper-right corner with another leaf right by the sentiment. From there, it was a case of tucking and moving the third leaf until I was happy with the final placement.

Once the design was finalized, I glued the three leaves in place with Bearly Art Glue. I wanted a little bit of dimension for the flower, so I grabbed my Thin 3D Foam Squares.

One of these days I need to buy more of the white squares, as I only have black left. But with the 110lb cardstock, I’m not all that worried about them showing through.

After adding some of the foam squares to the back of the flower, well back from the edge, I added a little bit of Bearly Art Glue to each piece. This gives me plenty of time to move the flower around until I’m happy with the placement.

You may be asking yourself, what happened to that small flower bud and leaf?

Well, I decided to add just the flower to the inside of the card. I think it’s a nice little surprise for the recipient.

Final Thoughts

And just like that, our birthday card is finished!

I have to say, I really love how this one turned out. The softness of the brushed silver, the Lost Shadow stenciled background, and the gray leaves all work together without competing with that beautiful single bloom.

I think all of those softer elements really allow the flower to take center stage.

I also love the addition of the small flower on the inside of the card. It’s a simple little detail, but I think it ties the whole design together and gives the inside of the card a little something extra.

Thank you so much for joining me for today’s Make a Beautiful Ink-Stenciled Birthday Card post.

Before we wrap up, I want to come back to something I mentioned earlier in the post. When you’re designing around a single flower like this, how do you decide where the leaves should go?

I know that using an odd number—like the three leaves I used here—generally creates a more pleasing design than using an even number. But when it comes to actually arranging those leaves around the flower, how do you decide where they look best?

Do you have a particular way you approach it? Are you thinking about balance, direction, or maybe where you need to fill in some empty space?

Or are you like me and just start moving things around until something finally looks right?

I’d really love to know how you approach that part of the design process, so please let me know down in the comments.

If you would like even more birthday card inspiration, be sure to check out my Birthday Card posts.

Until then, have a fantastic week and I will see you back in the craft room soon!

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