Sweet Violets

Sometimes you just make a card that is one of your favorites of all time! Maybe it's the image and how you colored it, the layout you used, the colors or the technique. Well this is one of those cards for me.

I had been admiring the Sweet Violets set from Flourishes for some time now but hadn't ordered it - don't know why? Because I was to get it as a wonderful birthday gift from my dear friend and fellow stampaholic Heide! The best birthday present ever! Now every time I use this set I will think of her which makes it pretty special! Thanks Heide!

I made this card for an incredible woman at work that is retiring at the end of September. And with the pearls I used as embellishment, it qualifies for this week's Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge-FTTC30! Each Tuesday a new challenge goes up on the Flourishes Newsletter Blog.

For the card, I stamped the image and colored it with my Copic markers (Flourishes stamps are perfect for the Copics). Instead of just cutting out the whole image with one of my Nestabilities dies, I thought it would be more interesting, and make the beautiful image stand out more, if some of the image was outside the die cut. So I traced from the Labels 1 die, keeping the leaves hanging over and cut it out by hand. I love how that looks! I then multi-layered the image using Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fleur de Lis with Sage Shadow cardstock and Nesties Label 1 for the Almost Amethyst and Banana cardstock layers. I like the look of the Banana layer which seems to bring focus to the image.

For the background, I used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder on VELLUM! With this being a 5 1/2" square card, the embossing folder didn't fit the whole piece. So I carefully repositioned the vellum in the folder for a second time through the Cuttlebug. Even then, there was a small patch that wasn't embossed, so I lined that area up in the folder and with a little hand pressure, made the final embossing on the vellum. It doesn't really take much pressure to emboss on vellum - give it a try! I just used regular adhesive to attach the vellum but did so behind the multi-layered focal image so it wouldn't be seen and the ribbon I used also keeps it in place.

So that's the story of my new favorite card. Hope you like it!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Recipe:

Stamps - Flourishes "Sweet Violets", SU Oval All

Cardstock - Almost Amethyst, Sage Shadow, Barely Banana, Vellum

Ink - Palette Noir Black

Accessories - SU organdy ribbon, adhesive half pearls, Nestabilities Labels 1 dies, Shapeabilities Fleur de Lis die, Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder, oval punch