Beautiful Poppies

I'm a very keen gardener and I have many favourite flowers.  I love poppies - from the simple California and Welsh poppies to the fancier Oriental poppies.  Penny Black has made some gorgeous poppy flowers so I chose one of them for this month's Penny Black and More Challenge "In the Garden" and The Flower Challenge "Use a Previous Challenge" (I chose "A Favorite Flower").

Here's my card:

I put the poppy stamp in my MISTI and stamped it with Distress Antique Linen on hot press watercolour paper.  I then inked the stamp with a combination of mini Distress inks and Distress markers, spritzing occasionally and only very lightly, and inking / stamping numerous times till I was happy with the results.

When thoroughly dry, I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment - I thought it was quite appropriate for the Penny Black "In the Garden" challenge.  I added a few sequins and popped it up on fun foam on a dark red card base.

Here's a close-up to show the great sentiment and the blending of colours on the poppies:

It will go to one of my sisters as a birthday card.

Penny Black "In the Garden"

The Flower Challenge

Supplies:

Stamps - Penny Black Spontaneous Joy, Technique Junkies sentiment

Ink - various Distress mini inks and markers, Versafine Onyx Black

Paper - hot press watercolour paper, dark red cs

Size - 5.25" square

Accessories - clear embossing powder, red sequins, fun foam

Twofer Hearts

Finally getting cards finished for Darnell's second Twofer Challenge:

A friend had asked me to make five Valentine cards for her, one of which is one of my "twofer".  I then had the idea for the second card but only just got it finished - darn those Winter Olympics as they are so addictive they've eaten up a lot of my free time!  But since it's not a Valentine, it didn't matter.

The heart die I used creates a beautiful background of lots of heart shapes linked together.  When you cut it, all the little interior hearts come out of it, giving you many tiny hearts for other projects.

The background for the Valentine was made by sprinkling red and pink Brushos on coated cs and spritzing with water.  I then die cut the hearts background out of cream shimmer cs and glued it down.  I die cut one large cream shimmer stitched heart and popped it up on top with fun foam.

I made the second card for one of my sisters.  She is the most incredibly supportive and encouraging person, and I often forget to tell her how much I appreciate her.

The background is purple and blue Brushos sprinkled on Yupo and spritzed with water.   I stamped the branch and sentiments with Staz-On and added three of the tiny cream shimmer hearts that came out of the background die cut on the first card.  The cardbase is the same cream shimmer cs as the hearts.

Darnell's Twofer Challenge is a great way to get more out of our products and to see ways to use the same thing to make cards for very different occasions.  

Supplies:

Stamps - PTI sentiment (1st card); SU World of Dreams, River City Rubber Works (2nd card)

Ink - Archival Red (1st card); StazOn black (2nd card)

Paper - cream shimmer cs, white and coated cs (1st card); cream shimmer cs, Yupo

Size - A2 (1st card); 4.5" square (2nd card)

Accessories - red and pink Brushos, stitched heart die cut, SSS stacking hearts die (1st card); blue and purple Brushos, SSS stacking hearts die (both cards)