"Blessings" Challenge Card

I've decided to try and participate in challenges a little more frequently, to keep my mojo going and to pull out & use things I haven't used in a while (or at all).  Today, I'm using a stamp set that I love and just "had to have", but never actually used it - how sad!  Considering how well this card turned out, I think it's safe to say I will be using it more from here on out.  I'm also playing along with the challenges at Tuesday Morning Sketches (#152) and Heart 2 Heart (Wedding).

I stamped the vines & some leaves directly on the background in Olive ink (2nd generation for the solid portion).  Then I stamped some more leaves on a scrap paper and cut them out.  I stamped various sizes of the flowers on a scrap and cut those out as well.  Using the outline of the smallest flower, I stamped some in Olive randomly along the vines.

After cutting out the flowers, I used an embossing stylus (on the two larger sizes only) from the back side to curl back the flower petals, then I rolled it from the front side in the center only to give it some lift.  I adhered the larger flowers using 3-D foam tape, and glued the fat end only of the leaves I cut under the flowers.  I then curled forward the ends of the leaves.  I glued the smallest flowers directly to the paper, adhering smaller leaves under some of them.

I adhered Opaques Pearls to the centers of all of the flowers.  My bow at the top is some baker's twine from the Paradise Assortment - I poked holes right through the kraft card base and threaded it through on a needle and tied a bow.

Here's a closeup of some flowers - you can also see a bit of the background, which I filled in using the stipple brush from the Texture Tools set and some more Olive ink:

Supplies used to make this card are all from Close To My Heart:

• Kraft cardstock
• Florentine paper pack (pattern paper behind my stamped images & the Colonial White CS)
• Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads in Olive, Twilight, Creme Brulee, and Goldrush
• Friendship Blessings stamp set (discontinued)
• Opaques Pearl Adhesive Gems
• 3-D Foam Tape
• Baker's Twine, Paradise Assortment
• Texture Tools
• Embossing Stylus

 That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope to see you again soon.