Spring Bouquet

Hi everyone.  Today's card is for the Inkspirational Photo Challenge #7 and SCS Free For All (F4A156 - Go To Your Happy Color Place - use colors you love).  I went fairly literal with my interpretation of the photo, creating a vase of flowers using the same colors as the photo (I love these colors!).  I added Crystal effects to my vase to make it shiny and "glass-like" (not sure it shows in the photo too well).  I made a whimsical bouquet of flowers, so I added a white-stitched, red ribbon to the top with a simple knot to mimic that look.  Hope you like.

Here's the inspirational photo:

Stamps:  Precious Butterflies (sentiment stamp from SU!)
Paper:  White, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, Real Red (SU!)
Ink:  Early Espresso (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Big Shot, Tall Vase die (Poppy Stamps), Hydrangea punch (Martha Stewart), Leaf and stem punch (part of the 2-part bird punch from SU!), Stitched Real Red ribbon, white gel pen, glue, Stamp-a-ma-jig, and dimensionals

I die-cut the vase with Real Red cardstock and then cut a bit of the top and bottom to get the size of vase I needed.  I covered the vase in Crystal Effects and let it dry.  After it was dry, I used a stylus to give the sides a bit of a curved shape.

I layered the stem with leaves (six) until I was happy with the placement on my card front and then glued down the stems (the leaves are loose and have movement).  I glued on the hydrangea blooms that I had shaped and added centers with the white gel pen.  A few of the flowers I pinched up tight (to look like new blooms that weren't open yet), and added them as well.  A simple sentiment and a red knotted ribbon finished the card.  Sorry for the poor quality of photos ... it's very cloudy outside right now, so it was hard to get a good photo.  Need to figure out a good way to light my photos ... another new project to add to the list :)


Here's a close-up of the bouquet:

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Also wanted to share that my "Hydrangea for Susan" card was picked as one of the top 3 at CAS - Colours & Sketches Challenge blog.  Thank you to Jacqueline and her team for picking my card!!

And I received a request for recipes for my Valentine's Dinner that Gord and I made ... thanks for your interest Dolly!!  I'll work on putting together a quick list of how and what I did and post it soon.