Black Eyed Susan Birthday Card that primarily uses punches

Happy August! Everywhere I turn I see Black-Eyed Susans in bloom (or for you knowledgeable gardeners out there, Rudbeckia hirta). I just heard someone call them Black-Eyed Susies, which I kind of like. These bright & perky flowers are drought tolerant and a sign that Fall is approaching. A perfect August flower. As I was thinking of a project to show you, all I had to do was look out my window for inspiration. Today’s project is a Black Eyed Susan Birthday Card that primarily uses punches.

I started with the yellow color, which I turned into a combination of Crushed Curry and Daffodil Delight. If you look closely at my inspiration photo below, you will see that the yellow of the flower is not one flat yellow color. I decided to alternate the colored layers in the two punched out flowers. I did this also with the brown centers, using Early Espresso and Soft Suede. The Daisy punch made making the flowers really easy. If you want an even more in depth look, you can use the Medium Daisy punch to create more layers.

Another way I tried to create layers and depth was by alternating the Dimensionals. The upper flower is adhered straight to the Garden Green backdrop with a Dimensional under the brown center. The bottom flower uses a Dimensional to pop up the flower and a flat brown center. The banner of Happy Birthday is wrapped around the background paper creating space between the two.

Punch cards are fun to make and you can get really creative with them. This card uses the Daisy punch in a traditional sense, but there are many ways to alter the look by folding the daisy and trimming it. Not to mention stamping and then punching when using the coordination stamp sets. Do a search on Pinterest to see the thousands of ways the Daisy punch is used.

Inspiration photo of Black-Eyed Susans from my Garden.