Sweet Stampin' ~ Flowers

Hey crafty friends, it's time for new challenge at Sweet Stampin' and this week, we have a lovely challenge theme, it is simply 'Flowers'. So this gives lots of scope for interpretation! I have a bestie who shares my birthday month and this year, we shared a high tea for our birthdays. This is the card I made my lovely friend and I have to say, it may be my favourite card made this year. I adore the paper, the image and really love the way the layout worked for this image. 

I used a couple of gorgeous paper pads to make this card, which might surprise you, are actually papers from two Halloween paper packs! They're from Honey Bee and are called Harvest Festival and Halloween Harvest. There are definitely some spooky papers in the pack, but there are also some gorgeous florals and other lovely nature inspired papers like woodgrain and hessian. 

I've torn the hessian page and run that across the middle of the gorgeous floral paper to break up the design and give the image a restful space to feature without fighting with the busy floral background. I added a paper doily for extra interest and tied some May Arts Natural Twine across the central panel and tied a bow to finish.

This beautiful image is called Frida and is by Elisabeth Crafts. My lovely friend adores Frida Kahlo, so my present for her was Frida themed, which happily she loved. I had spotted this image a few months before and bought it specifically to use for her birthday card. Sarah and I have been to a couple of parties in the past where we got dressed up 50's style and the hair design in this image reminded me so much of those parties. So I thought it was a fun choice for her. All the time I've known her, she's always had red hair too, so I coloured the image to match. Lots of little details that are very 'her'.

My pal is also known to rock some pretty fabulous 50's style glasses, so I thought it was kinda perfect that this image has glasses and I added a bit of sheen and sparkle to suggest glass. I also coloured the image with green eyes, because my lovely pal has beautiful hazel green eyes. 

The pretty frame I've diecut the papers with is a very old Tattered Lace die set called Pearl Squares. I think they make a lovely decorative edge for this design. I wanted the pretty edge not to have any white behind it, so trimmed the card base slightly so it wouldn't show behind the picot edges. I think it looks so pretty!

I coloured the image with Copic Markers and I took a pic of the Copic Markers I used for the flowers. The orange coloured Hibiscus flower, I used R08, R05 and R02. It came out such a pretty orange shade. 

For the rust coloured roses, I used E09, E07 and E04. I didn't want too many colours fighting for the limelight, so used close toned colours for the blooms. 

For the Hellebore like flowers on the headband and the small bloom near the Hibiscus I used RV93, R56 and RV69. I actually love the way the flowers came out. I didn't note the other colours I used, we'd be here all day if I snapped all those, so these are just the highlights.

This angled shot shows some of the highlight details on the blooms. I added some yellow gelly roll pen on the Hibiscus and sparkle on the Hellebore looking flower and the roses. Subtle details, but they add such lovely shimmer and shine to these blooms.

I did make a note of the hair colours I used too. I wanted a really striking red, as my pal always had richly red coloured hair. I used a Promarker in this colour set, Firebrick, which is a favourite for deep rich red hair and paired this with R59 and R89. The way this image is inked, a lot of the lowlights are in the design, so there isn't a lot of real estate to add the colour into her hair, but I managed to use all three pens and love the play of colour on that cool hair design.

Thanks for popping in to visit friends, I hope you've enjoyed this creative journey. Do check out the amazing creations made by my teamies over on the Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog. You can click through on the banner above to take a peek. Wishing you a fabulous weekend. Hugs, Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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