Elegant Frame

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines day. I came home from work to roses and "Skinny Cow" chocolates. Those little morsels are pieces from heaven. Oh, the roses were beautiful also.

As I was sitting in my studio savoring my chocolates, I looked around I came to the conclusion that if I was fortunate enough to have such a beautiful space, I should be creating better projects. So here it is. I spent a bit more time on this card than I normally do and it shows. I was getting tired of my cards looking the same. An image, a bow and some bling weren't cutting it anymore. Not to say I won't go back to that style, but I knew I needed to punch it up a bit to keep my creativity alive. You can click on the picture to enlarge it and there is a close up picture of the flowers below.

This card creates a frame around the image. I used the SU stamp set Organic Grace and stamped it in SU Certainly Celery and Vintage Violet (disc. color). This was mounted to the smallest die in the Spellbinders Grand Label Four. I then used a MS Deco Fan corner and edge punch on a 3.25" x 5" piece of white card stock. Using the Spellbinders Label Four, I created a window in the white card stock and also on a piece of SU Wisteria Wonder. These two pieces were mounted over the image with pop dots to create the frame.

The flowers were created with EK Success Daisy punch and a SU three flower punch from a kit that was called Punch Artwork. They no longer carry it but there are several other small flower punches like it. I punched two larger and one smaller Daisy and one use just one of the flowers from the SU punch. In the picture below you can see the single leftover flowers I used as fillers. I alternated SU Almost Amethyst and Wisteria Wonder for more depth to the flower and then added a pearl. **Here is a tip for you- When you are trying to get a pearl in the center of your flower without having the hole end up on top, I put my pearl bead on a needle or something pointed and then just lay it down. This way the holes will always be on the sides where you wont see them.

The leaves were created out of SU Certainly Celery and River Rock using MS Branches Fir and Spellbinders On the Vine Border die. I used an embossing tool to crease in the lines on the leaves. You don't need the exact same punches as I used, and the layers don't need to be the same style. Just make sure the sizes gradually decrease.

I brought this card and few more that you will be seeing over the next few posts into work the other day. The Cardiologist that works in my department asked me how long it took me to make this card. I told him it probably took me an hour but most of that was thinking what I wanted to use. He said he was going to ask me to make him 200 cards. I hope he didn't think they would all be like this. I know his daughter is getting married in August and if he wants me to make 200 of anything he better ask fast.

~Have fun and enjoy!