Here’s an idea for making a DIY birthday card featuring a hand-stamped floral bouquet and a blended ink background.

I was inspired to make this card because the creative people over at Hero Arts are having a challenge with the theme of “Blend It Up” – meaning ink blending in any form. There are mind-boggling numbers of things you can do with ink blending, but one of the most straightforward things you can do is use ink blending techniques on white cardstock to make colorful papers to use in handmade cards. So that’s exactly what I did here.

How to Make a Similar Birthday Card

There are different ways you could approach making a card like this. I tend to make cards in batches, and this approach is different than the approach you’d take if you just want to make a single card.

If you make a lot of paper crafts project, the batch approach is typically going to be the most efficient use of your time and also the most cost-effective use of your supplies — because you waste less ink if you stamp, assembly-line style, without cleaning your stamps in between each impression. I try to stamp the same image using the same ink color at least 10 times before I clean the stamp and move on to stamping a different image or a different color. Later, when I’m ready to put together a card, a scrapbook layout or a planner layout, I have plenty of stamped images to use for making my projects. It speeds up the crafting process tremendously.

If I’m ink blending, I also tend to do that in big batches — making big batches of ink blended papers that I can later use in paper crafts projects. It is easiest to make a bunch of papers at once and let them dry before organizing them in your paper organizers and having them on hand to use.

The background paper I used in this card was made using ink blending techniques. For ink blending, I typically use several different tools and supplies including ink blending tools, misters and sponge brushes. If you’re new to paper crafts, or you don’t know how to do ink blending, I invite you to check out my article on ink blending techniques. That article includes tips and advice for how to get started.

Craft Supplies You’ll Need for Making a Birthday Card Like This One

Stamps: You’ll need a floral stamp to use as the focal image for your card and a sentiment stamp to use for the birthday greeting. The floral stamp I used here is from the Togetherness stamp set by Hero Arts. The sentiment is from the “Happy Birthday” Stamping Village collaboration where the stamps included are all birthday themed.

Ink Pads: You’ll need at least two ink pads for creating this design; you’ll need one for stamping the floral bouquet and one for stamping the sentiment. I also used a third ink pad for inking around the edges of my papers. I used Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide for stamping the floral bouquet and Dusty Concord Distress Oxide ink for stamping the birthday sentiment. I used Altenew’s Forest Glades Crisp Dye Ink for inking around the edges of the papers.

Reinkers: I used all the reinkers you see pictured above to make my batch of ink blended papers. This batch of papers includes Milled Lavender Distress Oxide, Robin’s Egg Distress Oxide, Scattered Straw Distress Oxide, Bundled Sage Distress Oxide, Pearlescent Sky Brilliance Ink, and Jelly Bean Green dye ink by Gina K Designs. I made these papers by diluting the inks with water, putting a couple of colors together in the mister, squirting the papers at random, and then adding a couple more ink colors to the mister and squirting the papers at random again. I did a bunch of blending and squirting like that until the papers were covered with ink. It resulted in some splattery, splotchy papers that are fairly light in color, which is what I was hoping for. This type of background makes an ideal surface for stamping on directly — which is what I did here.

Watercolor paints

Paintbrushes

White cardstock

You’ll need two different washi tape designs; I used an aqua print washi tape by Recollections and a sparkly, glittery washi tape by Graphic 45. You can use whatever washi tape you think will look good with your chosen supplies.

A metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pen, or the pen of your choice.

Fiskars paper edgers or similar decorative scissors – or a small oval die cut if you prefer to use a die cutter for cutting out your shape. I used the Mini Scallop design, but you can use any design that appeals to you.

Scoring Tool for Paper such as a scoring board or bone folder

Paper cutter and scissors

Adhesive: You can use the adhesive of your choice to put this project together. I used Cherry Tape for mine.

How to Make This Birthday Card

Make a card base by cutting, scoring and folding a piece of ink blended paper to the size you want it.

Ink around the edges of the card base using Forest Glades Crisp Dye Ink, or the ink color of your choice.

Set the card base aside and work on the floral image. First, stamp your floral image using Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide or the ink color of your choice.

Paint selected parts of the floral image using watercolor paints. I mostly liked how the colors in the background fell within the flowers in the floral bouquet, so I didn’t do much to paint the flowers. I did paint the flower centers on the small daisies yellow, and I painted the greenery and leaves green. Other than that, I just let the ink-blended background shine through. If you make your own version of this card, you can paint as much or as little of your stamped image as you like.

Let everything dry before proceeding.

Cut the floral image down to size and ink around the edges using Forest Glades Crisp Dye Ink or the ink color of your choice.

Attach the floral image to the card base using the adhesive of your choice.

Stick two strips of washi tape underneath the floral image.

Stamp the birthday sentiment using Dusty Concord Distress Oxide ink or your preferred ink color. I stamped the sentiment onto a small leftover scrap of my ink blended paper; then I traced around it using a geometric stencil shape and a metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pen. Then I cut around the shape using Fiskars Mini Scallop Paper Edgers. Then I colored in the scalloped edge using the same metallic Sakura Gelly Roll pen.

Attach the stamped sentiment to the card front.

The card is now ready to personalize and send to the recipient of your choice.

Over to You

Did you participate in the Hero Arts “Blend It Up” challenge? If so, how did your project(s) turn out?

Did you make a card similar to this one? If so, how did it turn out?

We welcome any feedback and insights you have to contribute on the topic of this card, ink blending, or crafts in general. You’re invited to leave a comment in the comments area below.

Thanks for visiting! If you’d like to stay awhile, we have many other paper craft tutorials, instructions and project ideas you might enjoy. Check ’em out:

More Ink Blending Project Ideas:

• “It’s Your Birthday” Card With Dachshund Dog Motif — Stamp by Hero Arts / The Stamping Village
• Birthday Card Making Idea With Ink Blending and Da
• How to Make a Birthday Card With Bear Motif and Ink Blending
• You Are the Best Card Making Idea Featuring Gina K Designs Stamp and Inks

More Fun Paper Craft Project Ideas

• Birthday Cards to Make
• Valentine Cards to Make
• Mother’s Day Cards to Make
• How to Make Thank You Cards
• Planner Layouts: Find Layout Ideas for Your Planners
• Journaling Prompts for Scrapbooking
• Scrapbook Mini Albums

Posted By: Amy Solovay

This page was last updated on May 1, 2022.