Botanicals For A Friend

These Stampin Up Botanicals keep calling my name!

We weren't too busy at Walmart yesterday so I got the chance to sketch out a few designs and color combos to try. One of the sketches was for today's card!

I started by cutting a 5 x 7" card base from Kraft card stock and then cut a 5 x 7" matte from the corrugated Kraft paper and adhered it to the card front with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I used the Botanical Builders Framelits to die cut flowers and greenery although it was actually black and white! I inked up the edges of the red flowers using Basic Black Archival ink and a sponge dauber and then used my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit on these as well as the other die cuts.

I played around with my arrangement a bit, taking pictures as I went, until I was satisfied that I had a balanced design. I then added the centre parts to my flowers, including pearls.

Next, I removed all the flowers, leaving the greenery in place and one by one I adhered them using Multi Medium Matte.

Just last week, I had finally received my 3.8 oz jar of the stuff and I had completely filled my Darice Ultrafine Applicator Bottle with the medium in hopes that I would actually be able to squeeze some out! I have had great difficulty with this medium but I am persevering since no one else seems to be having trouble with it and because it dries matte so if you make a bit of a mess, no one will know!

Everything was going fine until I attempted to add glue to my last leaf. As I was squeezing glue out onto the leaf, the cap exploded from the bottle and I got a very large blob on my card, the leaf, and on stuff lying next to my workspace! Needless to say, I uttered a few choice words about the situation but remembered to snap some photos quickly before cleaning up!

Luckily, I was able to salvage my project (again due to the matte factor of the medium) with the help of a stiff piece of card stock and a damp paper towel. I die cut another black leaf and glued it in and then adhered the flowers with Dimensionals.

Note to self: In the future, don't apply glue directly over your project if you can help it!

I cut a strip of Real Red card stock and glued it to the card front and then cut a strip of the 1 1/4" Burlap Ribbon. I trimmed off the sides and then pulled threads out of the ribbon, saving them for later, and frayed the edges a bit. I used Fast Fuse to adhere it to the card stock strip.

I stamped the sentiment from the Awesomely Artistic Stamp Set using Versamark on Basic Black. I heat embossed it with White Stampin' Emboss Powder and then topped it with the little frame stamp from the Rose Wonder Stamp Set, embossing it as well. I die cut the sentiment using the die from the Rose Garden Thinlits. It was adhered with Dimensionals over the burlap.

From the threads that I had set aside, I made three bunches of two burlap threads, slightly offsetting one, and tied a knot. After trimming the ends, I used glue dots to adhere the knots under the flowers to add a little texture to my flower arrangement.

For the inside of the card, I cut a matte from the now retired Naturals White card stock. Using Real Red, I stamped tiny flowers from the Botanicals For You Stamp Set. You can get this free with a $60 order during Sale-a-Bration! I inked the edges with Basic Black and then adhered the matte with Fast Fuse Adhesive to complete my card.

I love the way the red, black and white look together with the Kraft card stock!

What have you created with the Botanicals? Drop me a comment below to let me know!