Flower Cards and a Birthday Card

A month or so ago I saw a card at Doodlebugs, my local scrapbooking and paper crafting store, that inspired me to create the following cards.  I didn't have the same set of stamps they had used on their sample card but I had fun nonetheless with a set of Altenew stamps.

I stamped the flowers with black archival ink and then colored them in with Inktense pencils.  Then I took a water brush and painted with water over the colored areas turning it into more of a painted/inky look.

Another card I made last week was a birthday card for my Dad.  I always struggle when I need a card for a man because all of my flowery and pretty stamps, stencils and dies are out of the question.  I decided to use some gelli printed papers and other papers that I have made to create kind of a collaged background.  I stuck with mostly blue, green, yellow and orange papers. I die cut the words "happy birthday" and "DAD" out of some sticky backed foil, adhered them to the card and it was done.   I was pleased with how this turned out!  Can you guess how old my Dad is??