Susan - "With a Twist"

"Think outside the box!" It is fun to get outside what we are usually comfortable with and try some new things, so this was a great class with stimulating ideas. One thing I have been meaning to do, and just haven't gotten around to (until now) is using patterned paper to make floral patterns - so here goes!

I recently acquired the Mini Flower Cluster layering die set (I LOVE all these layering dies), and chose it to be my focal point for my card. The color combination of hues of pink/coral and aqua/teal are so appealing to me, so I used those in this project.

I used a dark pink layer as the foundation for these flowers, with the little inset piece in the center of the flower being a raspberry color. The next three layers are some shade of teal - with one layer being from a Kleenex box!! I think the color scheme for both flowers and leaves are a bit "unexpected" as is the pattern on the flowers. I rifled through my stash of stuff that I have made and filed away (I'm guessing you also have a bunch of stuff that you think looked like a hot mess but you didn't have the heart to throw away!) and found this reverse stencil image (from a "My Favorite Things" stencil) that I thought was a great background for the floral cluster. It is cut from the Soda Top nesting dies (using the largest die) and mounted on a piece of foam that was cut from the same die. The sentiment is from the Leaf Canopy stamp set and is stamped on a teal piece of vellum and embossed with gold embossing powder. I have found that, if you apply your adhesive evenly across the back of vellum, it doesn't show through, so this little piece was put through my Xyron sticker maker.

The background piece here is from a darker shade of teal cardstock that was stamped with teal ink from the Pinstripe stamp set. All of this is mounted on a square 5x5 inch top-folding card base.

The embellishments use coral (Perfect Pearl) and greenish (Nuvo Dream) drops. Here are some close-ups to show those a bit better (along with a closer look at the patterned papers used):

And a close up of the sentiment area:

I hope that a friend would be happy to receive this card "with a twist"! It was fun to create, and I will definitely be doing more with patterned paper!