Thistle?

When sorting out a few bits and pieces I came across some stamped and coloured images which hadn't made their way onto cards and this is one of them.  I managed to match it up with some background paper from a pad I've had for a long time and a few scraps of coloured card die cut to make a border and a fancy corner. The sentiment was produced on the computer and punches were used to layer it.  I'm not sure if this is meant to be a thistle or maybe an artichoke type of flower but I do quite like it.

Image - stamp from chocolate Baroque (not sure if it is still available)
Corner die - Marianne
Border - Sue Wilson die (green layer)
Sentiment - punches from Stampin' Up

One for the Box

This is another card to go into the box for some future occasion.  I thought I'd get in a bit more practise by working a pierced and cutwork edge onto a piece of parchment before adding a design in the centre.  I decided to work in that order so that if the edge went totally wrong I wouldn't waste any work done on a design as it seems to be really easy to pierce holes in the wrong place (for me anyway!!).  However it appears to have worked reasonably well so I built up a design using a selection of Groovi plates and  simply layered it onto some coloured background with a darker layer underneath to frame the whole thing.  I'm finding that parchment work is, for me, the new 'colouring in' as a mindful and relaxing exercise and of course involves a bit of thought when it comes to building up a 'picture' or design.

Butterfly Challenge #85

The mix this time on the Butterfly Challenge is S for Silhouette and/or the colour Indigo and I've covered both with this CAS card.  I started by adding some colour to a piece of watercolour card using Distress Oxide inks using a technique shown in this video by Loll who has quite a few on YouTube which are well worth checking out.  Once this was dry I added a little texture by sponging ink through a stencil on half of the piece. I then die cut a flower in indigo card and punched three butterflies from the scraps.  A simple stamped greeting and here we have a CAS card which meets the challenge and is nice and flat for posting which is what some folks seem to want rather than the more elaborate cards.  Unfortunately my watermark rather spoils the effect here but I'm sure you can imagine the layout without the extra words under the sentiment.

Butterflies - a years old punch from X-Cut
Flower - Wildflowers from Sizzix
Sentiment - from a set of free sentiment stamps given with a magazine
DOX - faded jeans and wild violet