Pop-Up Fun

I just have to show you the gorgeous card my nephew and his new wife bought for me while they were on their honeymoon - it doesn't look that much from the outside but when you open it up - WOW. This card was all cut and put together by hand - I'm not sure if they found it in Thailand or Vietnam - but it was such a lovely way to send flowers to a card maker!!!

I decided to use this card as the inspiration for making a birthday card for my niece in England - she's turning 18! It's sooo scary when your nieces and nephews reach milestones. Anyway - here's what I came up with....
Firstly I must apologise that most of the SU products I used are currently unavailable as they are retired - but you can adapt the ideas to sets you have!
I cut the front of the Real Red card using the Boho Blossoms Punch and then stamped a piece of Very Vanilla with the flowers from Trees Three in Real Red, without re-inking - this gives you the variety of shades. The leaves are stamped in silver - again from the Trees Three set. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet. I added thin silver ribbon to finish the front off.
I won't bore you with my attempts to recreate the paper basket inside the card - I came close and may give it another go when I get the chance - or maybe not, LOL. I ended up doing a simple pop-up vase and adding some flowers from the One of a Kind set. The flowers were put on flat, popped up on dimensionals and wired for a fuller 3D effect. I also popped in some red ribbon to fill it out. A little red sentiment from Fun and Fast Notes and I think I'm done! Now I just have to write in it, wrap the present and post it all off!