Mother's Day is upon us and you want to make something special for Mom, rather than buying  an ordinary pre-made card.  So make your own creation!  You don't have to be crafty or a scrapbook pro to make a cute, simple Mother's Day card.  With a few supplies you can quickly and easily make a wonderful card Mom will love.  Keep reading and I will tell you how to make this card:

Supplies:

• Patterned Pink Cardstock
• Grass Patterned Paper
• Round Letter Cutouts
• Flower Die Cuts
• Spring Animal Die Cuts
• Glue Stick or Mounting Squares
• Cloud Stickers
• Scissors
  
• A Button (optional)
• Wiggly Eyes (optional)
  

Step 1 - Card Base

The first step is to create a base for our card.  Cut the Patterned Pink Cardstock (or color/pattern of your choice) to the size of your choice.  I often find it easier to purchase a plain, blank card and cut the cardstock to size to fit the front of the card.  Use a glue stick or adhesive corners to secure your cardstock to the card.  This will serve as your background and your sky.

Step 2 - The Grass

Take your grass patterned paper and cut a strip the length of the card and approximately one inch tall.  Using straight edged scissors, cut curves in any pattern at the top of the grass strip to simulate rolling hills.  You can also use decorative scissors to create your grass.  In the sample above, the right side is taller than the left to create the illusion of a hillside.

Step 3 - The Sky

Creating clouds in the sky is very simple with the many choices of cloud stickers you can purchase at your local craft store.  Simply peel them off the backing and stick them directly to your background cardstock.

Step 4 - Greeting

Round punch-out letters are great for creating card greetings and titles.  Also found in your local craft store, these letters come in a variety of shapes, colors and fonts.  Simply punch out the letters you need for your greeting, in this case "Happy Mother's Day", and attach them to your background cardstock using a glue stick or adhesive squares.  For an extra added flair, use a product such as Sticky Dots Adhesive to raise your letters up from the background.

Step 5 - Let's Add a Flower

Flower die cuts are made with a special die cut machine.  If you do not have your own die cut machine, you can buy pre-made die cuts in endless shapes, sizes and colors.  (Many craft or scrapbook stores have a die cut machine set up for customer use on a pay-per-use system for making your own die cuts.)  For the flower, I chose two different flower patters of  a similar size - one for the bottom layer and one for the top.  Simply place one flower die cut over the other flower die cut and turn the top flower until you get staggard petals.  Adhere the top die cut to the bottom die cut.  To give a little pop, gently push the top layer of flower petals up, being careful not to crease the paper.  Adhere your flower to your card and adjust the flower petals to your liking.  An optional finishing touch is to add a button as the center of the flower, as in the sample card.  Buttons adhere well to paper and usually one adhesive square will attach it nicely.

Step 6 - Time to Add Some Animals

Following with the spring theme, I've added some animal life to the front of the sample card.  Once again, these are all made from die cuts that can be pre-purchased.  For the bee, I have accented his stripes and wings by outlining some of the cut outs with a thin-tip, black, acid free marker.  Similarly, the butterfly is outlined with blue, acid free marker to accent the butterfly face, wings and body.  For the frog, I added some wiggly eye embellishments to add a little fun and gave him a little smiley face as well.

So in six simple steps, you now have a cute, hand-made Mother's Day card that Mom will treasure forever!  All you have to do is sign the inside.  For an added extra, embellish the inside to match the outside and add a cute poem or quote.

Happy card-making!