Not winter blues, but purples .....

Good morning from a frosty, but sunny, winters day, and we have just heard a weather forecast that says there is snow falling not that far south of us - brrrrr!!


Yesterday I had the afternoon crafting and worked mainly in purple - a colour I like, but don't normally use as my main colour.

When I first finished this card I found it almost too busy, but since then I have come to like it, especially under electric light later in the evening.  No accounting for some folks :-).


I started by sponging Versacolor Violet ink over my Layers of Color Botanical Swirls art stencil.  I have discovered that I need to use a dense make-up sponge for best results with these stencils.


I then put the stencil through my cuttlebug and embossed the purple sheet of card, it was then sanded it lightly to emphasis the design with  the white core of the card.   (shhh, don't tell, but there was a boo boo on the stenciling side of this that was covered by the centre panel - we stampers believe in waste not want not!!).


I placed various colours against the background, but eventually went back to my first choice for the colour of the main oval - green.  I cut it out with the Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic oval scalloped small #5, and then used the plain #4 for the white. 

The white oval was embossed and then sponged with memento bamboo Shoot ink before I removed it from the die.  I stamped the flower from Hero Arts fashion Flowers set in the violet ink and clear embossed it before painting it with Twinkling H2O's Sweet Thistle.


As I was following the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #61 I then had to think how I would finish the card, and decided that the lace would be the side feature.  This was folded into three pleats, which gave a lovely dimension to the card, but which I wanted to emphasis, so then I stamped, embossed, painted and cut out another flower and then layered that over the original image.  

To finish the centre of the card I used purple rhinestones for the final details.


By now I had all the completed elements on my desk and needed to assemble them, I pondered, and then decided to mount it all on a black base.  This done it looked somehow a little lonely, so out came the cuttlebug again and I made the vintage corners out of the black and presto, it all looked complete.


One note -I was struggling to figure how to attach the corners to the card and was about to smear glue on the backs with a toothpick, when inspiration struck and I realised that the xyron machine was sitting beside me, so a quick crank of that and they were all ready to adhere :-). no fuss, no sticky fingers.


I am linking this to

 Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #61

Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge #91 - To use a Doily and or lace and embossing
Magical Crafts Fortnightly Challenge #18 - Flowers
Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Flowers

Thank you for calling by - I hope you enjoyed this journey, and thank you for your comments - they are treasured and very much appreciated - in fact they make my day :-).