Did you know that every month of the year has its own birth flower and birth stone? When making birthday cards it can be a nice gesture to decorate the card with paper flowers and “gems” which resembles the actual birth flowers and birth stones. In January carnation and snowdrops are the birth flowers while garnet is the birth stone.
Type of project: Card
Occasion: Birthday
Techniques used: Stamping, Coloring, Die Cutting
Decoration: Rubons, Button, Paper Flowers, Stickers
Main color: Brown/white
Making a birthday card where the decorations were supposed to look like the birth flowers and birth stone of January was a fun challenge. It forced me to be creative in a new way and combine decorations and colors that I usually do not.
READ ALSO: DESIGN TIPS FOR YOUR FEBRUARY BIRTHDAY CARDS
I did have a few paper flowers which could look a bit like carnations, but the colors were quite diverse. Usually I would not have placed two flowers in different shades of pink together like this, but when searching for flowers which could resemble carnation the shape was more important than the colors. Carnations have a ruffled look (see photo).
I let the white buds resemble snowdrops. As you can see in the photo the petals of snowdrops have an oval, oblong shape. The stem and the leaves have a light green color and I chose to die cut leaves in a similar color.
Here is a closer photo showing the details.
Garnet is a brown colored gem. I have have some bling and pearls which looked a bit like garnet. But in the end I thought the big pearl with the golden details which I placed right beside the flowers looked most like garnet. I also did add three small bling randomly around the flowers.
Using January’s birthstone as decoration made me use brown “gems” on my card – something I usually would not have chosen for a card like this. But I like it!
Next month I am back with a Birthday Card inspired by February’s birth flowers and birth stone. If you got inspired to make a Birthday Card using these design tips I would love to see it – send photos to editor@thepapercrafting.com
Photo: MichaelMaggs, Wikimedia (Snowdrop), License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Aftabbanoori, Wikimedia (Carnation), License: CC BY-SA 3.0
anetode, Wikimedia (Garnet), License: CC0, Public Domain
Marit Pedersen is from Norway. She has been writing for TPC since 2014. Marit started paper crafting in 2007 and she mostly makes cards, boxes and layouts. Her paper projects are often made in Shabby Chic or Clean and Simple style.