A mom by any other name

What is in a name? Mother, Mommy, Mom, Mamma and even Ma are names given to women who have had one of the most coveted titles in history. They are special people; they deserve this title, and once they earn it, they will keep it forever.

Since flowers say it best I thought for Mother’s Day this year I would share a project with you that can be personalized and given to all of the moms in your life. You can become the florist of Cut Flowers turned bouquets. You can choose the flower shapes, colors and sizes. You can choose the vignette, and the best part is, you can choose your favorite mothers to share them with.

This is the first project I want to share with you from my Cut Flowers collection on Lettering Delights. To make the Mother’s Day card (shown on the easel) and the flowers wrapped in the paper hanky (shown below); as well as all of the flowers in the blue vase, I chose petal shapes from all of the cut flowers sets. I also used the vines set for the leaves (on the card) and the hanky is from the accessories set. I will provide the larger card that reads “Happy Mother’s Day and the mini gift card as freebies, so you can complete these projects.

In addition to the LD files, to complete this card and paper hanky bouquet, you will need mini brads to hold the flowers together and you might want ribbon, twine or lace for the wrapper tie.

To create the card ~ once I had the large card printed and trimmed (download freebie from my U-Pick button at right), I played around with different layers, colors and sizes of the cut flowers sets (on LD), then put a brad through them to hold them together. 

I then cut the leaf vine pieces, trimmed as needed for positioning and glued them onto the card before any of the flowers were added. Once I knew where I wanted the flowers to lay on the card, I pin puncturing the card (using a thick needle) in the locations for the bradded flowers to be positioned and held. They did not have to be glued. 

To get the flowers to lift and curl I used a bamboo skewer (or a thin paintbrush handle works) with petal between it and my thumb to slightly bend the petals of some of the flowers. This provides a great 3-D look to the card. You may want to bend the flowers before attaching to the card. Think of this technique as curled ribbons on a gift, but be very slow and careful when bending if your paper is light weight so as not to tear. I used mostly 24lb. paper for this project (except for the card and hanky wrap).

To create the bouquet wrapped in the paper hanky ~ I stacked and curled the petals and connected them with brads until I had four complete flowers. I then glued each flower to a small/short bamboo skewer to allow the cut flower to slide down into the folded hanky. The hanky had been cut and folded. I then positioned each flower, and glued the mini gift card (which had already been printed and trimmed) to the hanky. The mini gift card is also a freebie on my U-Pick button.

In the photo above, you will see the samples and parts needed for these two projects. Tomorrow I will share helpful hints and tips for making the cut flowers in the vase.

Here are the free cards to download from my U-Pick button, just click on it at right and choose the cards you want to print on 8.5 x 11 cardstock and trim as needed. I also made cards for other occasions (thinking of you, happy birthday and congratulations) so that these can be used throughout the year. I made the mini card design with the additional option of “thinking of you” to print and use as well.

Flowers say it better, LD says it best! Now get to LD and see what kind of bouquet you want to personalize for your mom this Mother’s Day. You can also click through to LD by using my Sheri’s Creations button at the top right.

Happy Mother’s, Mommy’s, Mom’s, Mamma’s, and Ma’s Day to all you special women who share these names!