Flowery Embroidery Hoop

Hello, Crafters.

Whatever your plans are, I hope you have a great weekend.

I had a lovely day yesterday, getting my March happy mail ready for posting to my customers. 

I really don't know what happened with my order this month because it took eleven days to arrive - I think this is the first time I've ever had to wait so long for a delivery, in all my six years as a demonstrator. 

Talking with other demos, nobody else seems to have had this problem, so I'm just putting it down to gremlins in the works!
 
Between now and 1st June, 2018, I'm going to be using cardstock in the retiring colours. 

Boy, didn't I get caught out with Flirty Flamingo? 

In case you weren't following the story about my swaps, for the Onstage Convention last weekend, I concentrated on using Peekaboo Peach and Flirty Flamingo for my card front swaps.

I chose these two as they are two of the  retiring 2016 - 2018 InColours, so I thought it was a great opportunity to use my cardstock in these two colours! 
 
Except that Flirty Flamingo is coming back as one of our core colours on 1st June 2018! 

Never mind.......onwards and upwards! LOL!

Today's very simple card is in Pink Pirouette, which is retitring, and Whisper White, which is staying! 
 
You may remember I was playing with the Embroidery Hoops recently, and made a card.

At the same time, I also made this kind of half-wreath! 

I can't think of a better name for it - any suggestions?

I started with some Embroidery Hoops and a packet of the Touches of Nature Elements (neither product is being carried forward but there are some similar wood elements on the way). 

I painted on the white side of the wooden elements using my Stampin' Blends: Light Old Olive for the leaves, and Dark Pink Piouette for the centre flower, and Light Pink Pirouette for the two outer flowers.

I gave them a short while to dry off properly, and then painted over them with a thick layer of the Fine Tip Glue Pen.

I wanted enough glue for it to dry with a curve, but not so much that the glue rolled off! 

I allowed the glue to dry overnight, and the next day, I adhered the shapes in position using Tombow.

To create my card I decided the "wreath" would look best on it's own............a clean and simple card, but I have to confess, I found it a struggle to come up with a design I was happy with. 

Eventually my card came together, but it was a very slow process, which is very unusual for me.

I chose to use the Basket Weave Dynamic Embossing Folder on Pink Pirouette Cardstock (CS) as the background, and I stamped one of the images from the A Good Day Stamp Set, using Basic Black Archival Ink on Whisper White CS. 

Then I coloured it, punched it out with the 1 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, and mounted it on two layers of Dimensionals.

I laid the Embroidery Hoop onto the Basket Weave Pink Pirouette CS layer, and placed the image inside! 

This was definitely not a good idea!

I moved it away and decided to dress the Embroidery Hoop up with small pearls on the exposed part of the rim, and I added two small pearls on the outer flowers and one large Pearl on the centre flower. 

Now, my card was developing into a design I found pleasing!

I added the sentiment from the Balloon Celebration Stamp Set, stamped on a strip of Whisper White Cardstock using Pink Piroutte Pink Ink.

(I'm really pleased that this stamp set will be carried forward into the new catalogue! YAY!)

I rounded the ends of the sentiment using a 3/4" circle punch. 
 
My final touch for the front of the card was to add a small bow tied with our Whisper White 1/4" Organza Ribbon, and adhered it in place using Tombow. 

The final touches inside the card were adhering a layer of Whisper White CS, and then I stamped my favourite corner stamp from the Hold on to Hope Stamp Set, using Pink Piroutte Pink Ink.

I'm very pleased to say that this stamp set is also being carried forward!

I enjoyed playing with these wooden elements, and I must look at other ways of using them!

That's it from me today, so until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.