Fabulous Flora

Hello, Crafters.

This is the first time I've played with this Fabulous Flora Stamp Set, which is one of the hostess sets available in the annual catalogue. 

I do try not to buy Hostess Sets but there were at least three in the current annual catalogue I just couldn't resist!

The design of today's card has been CASE'd from a card posted by a demo in Natalies's team called Gillian Whitcombe, and she had cased it from another demo, but had made changes to make it her own! Please see last two photographs.

I believe Gillian's colour scheme was Dapper Denim, Real Red, Smokey Slate, and Whisper White, and the stamp set was High Tide. 

Gillian's card base was Dapper Denim Cardstock (CS), with a layer of Smokey Slate that had been dry embossed with the Seaside Embossing Folder. 

The image in the oval was Dapper Denim sea, Sahara Sand seagulls and sand, and a Real Red lighthouse. 

Gillian had wrappped some red Baker's Twine around her Dapper Denim and Whisper White striped pennant. 

She stamped HAPPY BIRTHDAY in Real Red Ink on a white stripe.

While I'm sitting here writing I can see I've missed off a smaller pennant that should be coming from underneath the image!

To create my card I started with a base of Old Olive CS, with a layer of Whisper White CS and a top layer of Old Olive CS. 

After I had dry embossed the top layer using the Petal Burst Embossing Folder, I adhered all three layers using TomBow.

I chose a Sweet Sugarplum gingham design from the Succulents Designer Series Paper (DSP) for my pennant, which I cut to a tad under two inches wide and punched the fishtail using my Triple Banner Punch.

I didn't have any current Baker's Twine or ribbon in Old Olive, but I could see a small strand in my box of ribbon off cuts which I keep on top of my DVD units. 

It is a Stampin' Up! ribbon albeit retired about four or five years!

At the beginning of the year I said I would make as many of my cards as Thank You cards as possible because I use so many of them!

I chose the sentiment from the All Things Thanks Stamp Set, but I had to cut the rest of the sentiment off...................it said FOR MAKING MY BIRTHDAY HAPPY. 

I know that I'll never use that part, so I took the plunge and cut it off but I have to admit this one was difficult. 

The reason is that the bottom half of this sentiment is so, so close to the Thank You Part, the top half was almost touching the bottom half! 

PLEASE NOTE: if you do this to your stamps, you'll make your guarantee with Stampin' Up! null and void!

I stamped the image using Archival Basic Black Ink and coloured it in using Sweet Sugarplum and Old Olive Marker Pens. 

With the flowers and the buds I coloured them once and the second time I used my Marker Pen to paint in lines across the top of the petals and down some "seams". 

If you have a close look at some of the flowers, you'll understand what I'm saying. 

I used my Gold Wink of Stella Glitter Pen to paint inside the flower. To paint around the edge of the flower and leaves, I squeezed some ink into the lid of my Smokey Slate Ink, and then sprayed a small amount of water onto it. Then I used a Blender Pen to "watercolour" all around the edge of the flowers and the leaves. 

I stamped two thirds of this image onto another layer of Whisper White CS so I could colour it as before and adhere inside the card. 

Despite missing out the small pennant from under the image, i'm really pleased how this card came out! My only doubt is, should I have layered the gingham DSP on a piece of Sweet Sugarplum CS? Any thoughts? 

Many thanks to Gillian for agreeing to me CASEing her card.that she had cased form another demo! I wonder what that one looked like? LOL!

Today I shall be concentrating on my Thank You gifts and Thank You cards for my January online customers. Hopefully the hostess gifts will arrive on Monday so I can get my happy mail sent out!

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.