Happy Birthday Mom!

This was a special birthday for my mom, so it called for a special card.  It is a circle-shaped hinged card with lots of layers and pretty things.  I made it using a lot of cutting dies as well as other materials.  Here is what I used:

Card Base:

• Using largest die from Grand Decorative Circles One (Spellbinders) and the "hinge technique" detailed here I made the card base. Using the best fit Grand Circles die (Spellbinders) I cut three patterned paper pieces (HOTP - Pink Salt) to help finish off the outside & inside.  I didn't attach them all right away as I knew I wanted to add a couple pieces of silver edged hot pink ribbon across the top and bottom (to hide the rest of the hinge). 

Outside:

• Framed lattice: Using the 2nd largest die from Grand Stately Circles (Spellbinders) for the outside of the frame and a smaller die from Grand Circles (Spellbinders), I cut and embossed the frame.  Using the Crisscross die (Spellbinders), I cut two of the expandable patterns side by side to make it large enough to fit inside the frame, then found the largest circle Grand Circle die that would fit to cut it into a circle that was bigger than the inside of the frame, but smaller than the outside of the frame - then attached it to the frame. I added dots of Liquid Pearls to the centers of lattice cross points where they would show outside my focal and set it aside to dry.  When ready, I attached it to the card front using small squares of foam tape.
• Focal base: I cut the largest Splendid Circles (Spellbinders) die out of pink glitter foam.  Because the foam seemed a little stretched out, I decided to attach it to a piece of plain card stock for stability.  I did this using a piece of double-sided tape - and then used another piece of double-sided tape to adhere it to the card.  I then attempted to cut through all layers.  HOWEVER, the die wouldn't cut through all the thicknesses, so I attached it all to a plain piece of card stock and filled in the "holes" in the lacy pink edge with Crystal Stickles.
• Tags/Labels: These were made using stamps from Greetings and Labels (HOTP), dies from 6 Layered Labels & 2 Swirls (HOTP), some pink ink, and clear embossing powder.  I inked the edge using this technique which would have worked better if it weren't on glossy cardstock! The smaller Happy Birthday one went at the top of the card, and the larger one went on the focal. I finished off the focal greeting with dots of Liquid Pearls around it and a couple of hot pink heart scraps from the glitter foam used for the focal base (see above).
• Flower:  Made using this technique and sheer pink ribbon.  I didn't have score tape so used my ATG.  That didn't work very well, but I did my best.  In this particular case, score tape would have been better because it's sturdier.  (In place of the piece from the Cutterpede cutter, I just cut a piece of chipboard about 3/4" wide.
• Leaves: Made using Rose Creations dies (Spellbinders) green glimmer paper and a corrugator. like I did here.  Also added a couple of vine-like pieces cut using dies from Spellbinders Ironwork Accents.
• MOM: I had these silver brads in my stash (along with an 8 and a 0).  I colored all of these with Wild Plum alcohol ink and removed the brad legs.  I attached them with thin strips of foam tape.
• 80: I cut the smallest Flower Multi-Frame (Nellie Snellen) out of metallic silver card stock for the mat.  Then, out of white card stock I cut a small Nesting Circles die (Lifestyle Crafts) - and embossed it using Gold Rounds One (Spellbinders) smallest die to create the circle that the "80" was glued to (brads fixed as I did for "MOM" above).

Inside Top - In addition to the pink salt circle described in "card base" above, I did the following:

• Mat: I cut a mat out of metallic silver card stock using a die from the Grand Stately Circles. 
• Focal: I cut a circle from hot pink vellum using a die from Grand Scalloped Circles (Spellbinders). I embossed this using an Anna Griffin embossing folder called Rosa (cuttlebug).  Leaving the vellum in the embossing folder, I colored the flowers and leaves using a sponge dauber with ink from a couple of ink pads so I could color just the raised parts.  After the ink dried, I turned the piece over and attached it with a vellum adhesive to the silver mat.

Inside Bottom - In addition to the pink salt circle described in "card base" above, I printed my message on hot pink vellum using a laser printer.  Then, using the 2nd largest die from the Grand Stately Circles set (Spellbinders), I cut it out and attached it to the pink salt circle using vellum adhesive.

Box: Finally, I made a box to fit the card - plain card stock for the bottom, metallic silver card stock for the box top (it got a little bent before my brother could take a picture of it for me :(.

I decorated the box using glossy white card stock colored with alcohol ink and cut with a die from Botanical Swirls and Accents (Spellbinders).  The greeting and frame were stamped with JustRite stamps (Friends Antique Labels One, Botanical Swirls Labels) and heat embossed with fine black powder.