Fun with Flowers

I'm home from work waiting for the windows in my living room to be repaired, so I had some early (for me) weekday stamping time today. I spent a little of my time cleaning off my stamping table so I could actually see it and putting away some of the stuff that accumulated before and after convention. There's still a long way to go before my crafting area is what you might describe as clean, but I can see a definite improvement.

I made these two very different looking flower cards for Kristina's color inspiration challenge. You can add me to the long list of demos who met her at last week's SU! convention. My roommate and I had a quick chat with her about our American Idol experience in Salt Lake City (you can read about that here) as we were walking down the street late one afternoon. Anyway, at first this was a challenging combo for me--Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and Summer Sun or Green Galore. I opted to use Summer Sun rather than the green, keeping the color palette to all warm color tones.

For the first card I used the Pick a Petal stamp set to stamp a funky flower on a piece of Summer Sun cardstock. this is pretty much how I always stamp the images from this set. It's the only way I can get them to look like a flower. If I try to do a full circle of petals, it always looks "off" or too big for the cardfront. I used Pumpkin Pie craft ink to stamp the petals. I love how craft ink looks stamped on colored cardstocks--I've been slowly accumulating SU!'s craft ink pads for just this reason. I stamped one of the circle images on a scrap of Rose Red for the flower's center, then punched it out and matted it on a slightly larger Pumpkin Pie circle. After much trying of different things (ribbon, buttons, and assorted sparkly stuff) I decided to stick a flat-backed pearl to the center.

I picked up the orange and yellow ribbon the other day at AC Moore. It's a great match for both Pumpkin Pie and Summer Sun.

Materials Used:
Pick a Petal and Short & Sweet stamp sets, Pumpkin Pie Craft ink, Rose Red and Basic Black Classic inks, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, and Basic Black cardstock, 1 1/4" circle punch, dimensionals (Stampin' Up!); ribbon (Morex); 1 1/8" circle punch (EK Success); flat-backed pearl (Target)

After I finished that card, I saw the Inspired by Nature set sitting nearby (it's one of the things that still hasn't gotten cleaned up yet). I thought I'd try another card for the challenge, this time using Pumpkin Pie and Rose Red markers to color the large silhouette flower images. I stamped the images on Summer Sun cardstock and added some Dazzling Diamonds to the flowers. If you look closely, you can see that I also stamped the grass image tone on tone on the Summer Sun panel. I matted the panel with a piece of black cardstock to make it pop.

Since I didn't leave quite enough room for a sentiment, I added a pair of Pumpkin Pie ribbon tabs and brads to the open space. I layered some varying widths of cardstock scraps along the bottom of the Rose Red cardstock, then attached the stamped image panel with dimensionals.

Materials Used (all from Stampin' Up!):

Inspired by Nature stamp set, Summer Sun Classic ink, Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie markers, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, and Basic Black cardstock, mat pack and paper piercing tool, Dazzling Diamonds, Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, black brads, dimensionals