Sweet Stampin' ~ Flowers

Hey there lovelies. It's time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin' and this week, we want to see all your gorgeous creations that contain 'Flowers'. A lovely theme I think and will be enjoyed by so many I'm sure, in the Northern Hemisphere as you enjoy the Spring blooms and in the Southern Hemisphere as we lament their decline! LOL. It's very Autumnal here now, so I've my Winter woolies on, but I love the Autumn and Spring. They're actually my favourite seasons. The changes are so beautiful. I hope yours is going well, whichever Hemisphere you live in.

I used a really pretty stamp set for this creation, from the wonderful Unity Stamps. The kit is called 'Girl Truly' and has a lovely set of sentiments and this gorgeous large Peony cluster. I just love this beautiful Peony image. I used the white embossing technique and then watercoloured the image and surround. 

I made this for one of my bestie's birthdays. I bought her real peonies to finish off her pressies. I added a handmade white clay butterfly to her peony bouquet, which the kids and I made together. We used hessian to add the texture to the clay.

The sentiment I've used is from another Unity Stamps set, which I just love. It's called 'More Like A Sister' and totally applies to this lovely pal of mine. We lived in the UK at the same time and became great friends there. We have now both settled in New Zealand with our families. So it's pretty special to be sharing in each others lives as we do. We have regular big family dinners ~ 9 when we're all together and take turns doing the cooking and hosting. Always a fun night for everyone and we look forward to those nights so much.

These beautiful peony blooms I bought after finishing my watercolouring, but I was pleased to see their yellowy centres which I had softly hinted to in my watercolouring. I don't do a lot of watercolouring, it's not my strength, but I do so love it when I do and I was so pleased with how this turned out. 

It's not easy to spot, but there are some sparkly drops of nuvo glitter drops in the centre of each peony. I've scattered all sorts of interesting little sequins around the image too. Very random but quite a fun finish I think and then I dotted drops of Nuvo glitter drops around the image too.

Here's a look at the blooms with the card and clay butterfly. I thought it was such a good match for the image and I was soooo delighted that I'd been able to get hold of some real peonies to finish off her present.

I hope you're inspired to come and join our 'Flowers' challenge this week. It's such a lovely and easy challenge theme and we are greatly looking forward to visiting all the entries and seeing their lovely interpretations. I will be back soon with another crafty adventure. Right now though, I need to go and have some time with the hubby, he's been gaming while I've been writing my post. We've been watching Collateral and I'm hooked! So want to fit in an episode before bed. Hope there's more soon, we've only got 4 episodes, but what a gripping tale! Hugs to you all and happy crafting, Wends xoxo

Challenge Entries:

Cupcake Inspirations: #445 ~ Floral

Cute Card Thursday: #528 ~ Anything Goes

Daring Cardmakers: May Elemental ~ Pic Below

Crafty Catz: #415 ~ Anything Goes + Add Flowers

Addicted To Stamps & More: Photo Challenge ~ Pic Below