Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #118 - Penny's "Mom" Theme Challenge

Mother's Day was a whole lot easier when my Mum was alive.  But we've lost my mother and my husband, Ken's, mother.  Of course the silver lining is that there is still a mother in our family and that is our own daughter.  And so that's what Mother's Day has come to mean to me, at least--celebrating the mother of my two grandsons.  What an amazing job she does of that, too!

With Penny's theme challenge this week being all about "Mom", it was fun rummaging through my stamps to see what I could put together that would make my daughter's card as personal as possible.  My picks were the Beautiful You set combined with the Sitting Here set.  The dog and the cat in the latter set are perfect since my daughter is forever helping out with animal shelters and/or adopting "just one more".  The swing is something she would love to have on her own front porch and the image from Beautiful You is nearly as lovely and elegant as she is.

I decided to make this card a special fold called the side-stage.  It's a fun fold and offers a few levels and more dimension to the card.  I began with a base of Heavy Whisper White and then layered that with Early Espresso and, for the smaller panel, some of the Serene Scenery Designer Paper.  For the larger panel I used a similar design from the Falling in Love Designer Series Paper.

I did a lot of fussy cutting for this card.  Let's just say that the group of flowers behind the cat was not cut out.  Everything else, yes.  The effect is great.  I love the added dimension.  But partway through the fussy cutting I questioned my sanity.

But this was a labour of love.  Who is counting blisters on fingers?

I hope you've enjoyed my Mother's Day card and that you'll check out those created by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  I hope to see your card linked up this week.

I've also added my card to the Just Us Girls Challenge with there theme of "Mother".

And I've added my card to the What Will You Stamp Challenge #WWYS115 since it is all about the Beautiful You stamp set.

NOTE:  For those who have asked about the fold.  This is a simple side-step fold.

With a piece of 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" cardstock, cut  lengthwise 1 inch from the bottom of what will be the front of the card until the 5 1/4" point.  Then use your scoring plate (or cutter if it can score) to score horizontally from the cut to the right margin at the 4 1/2" mark and then score from the top of the cut line to the left margin.  Then score from the bottom of the cut line to the left margin and finally score 1 inch above that score line to the left margin.