Lili of the Valley Anniversary Surprise Birthday Card

I adore Lili of the Valley images! They are so beautiful and so much fun to color. For this card, I used their Anniversary Surprise stamp. I colored them with Distress Markers using a palette, water, and brushes to apply the color like watercolor paint. I stamped the image on watercolor paper so it wouldn't pill up when worked. The color was applied in layers, starting with the lightest version (watered down pigment) and allowing it to dry before adding more. Note: the whitest areas have no color on them; this takes a bit of planning and a careful hand. There is a close up of the image further below where you can more easily see the layering effect (you may click on it to bring up a larger version).

The hearts were cut using Lawn Fawn Hearts dies. The dies come connected together but you may cut them apart - so far I've just used them as one die. I cut two sets so I could layer them as shown. I sanded most of the paper to give the card an all over distressed look. The banner is from the Sizzix Thinlits Sweet Day set. I used circle punches to cut out the letters and shadow layers. The letters were stamped from an alphabet set I bought at a local craft store in the dollar bin. Both Michaels and A.C. Moore carry these from time to time - I have a whole collection. They are the perfect size for small banners. Stamp first then line up each letter from the underside of the punch to get almost perfectly centered letters every time.

The small bingo card is from a 6x6 Recollections Valentine pad I bought at Michaels; the background paper is from a larger Recollections pad. I don't support the company which created the ticket stamp/die set (they do not guarantee their products so I no longer buy from them) but you can get a really cute set from Stephanie Barnard.

You will note that there is stitching around the main image and the background paper. I adhere the two layers to be sewn together before sewing them on my machine. I also pull the tail threads through the back and glue them down so they don't stick out anywhere.