Notably Ornate Birthday Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  No Matter How Pretty The Flowers Are Somewhere Else; The Flowers Are Always Prettiest In Your Own Backyard :)

Michael went on a business trip and when he got home I asked him to help me come up with a lesson from the craft room for today.  Today's lesson is what he shared :)  There were flowers outside of the small house where he stayed on his trip and he would sit and watch them in the late afternoons.  He loved watching the small bees and bugs flying around; watching all the colors change in the light.  And yet, the flowers that grow here, in his own back yard, feel special in a different way.  I wonder if these flowers reflect back to him the love he has shared with them.  That somehow they know what care he has provided to them and that shows in the way they bloom and radiate in the back yard.  When you pour your love into something - when you help something grow - it truly does become the prettiest thing around! :)
Today's card began with a desire to bring the kitchen into the craft room!  I hadn't played with salt in my art work in a long time and this card provided the perfect opportunity!  I began with a piece of glossy white card stock and sprayed it with Perfect Plum ink (that I had mixed with water in a little spray bottle) and So Saffron ink and then sprinkled the piece with two different kinds of salt (finely ground and coarse) and then let it dry.  Once it dried, I brushed off the salt and then stamped the piece with black Staz-On and images from the Notably Ornate stamp set.  I then sponged the edges with Perfect Plum and Basic Black ink.  Next I punched a decorative label from Perfect Plum card stock and sponged the edges with Basic Black ink.  I then stamped the greeting from On Your Birthday with Basic Black ink on Very Vanilla card stock, punched it out with the modern label punch and sponged the edges with Basic Black ink.  The greeting was adhered to the decorative label with glue and then the piece was adhered to the salted and stamped panel.  I then poked the antique brad through the layers before adhering the entire panel to the Very Vanilla card with dimensionals.  I hope you like it!