Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'May Flowers'

Time for another fortnightly challenge over at Cuttlebug Mania - and this time the theme is 'May Flowers' (ie. have one or more flowers on your card).

You do have to use a manual die cutting/embossing machine for Cuttlebug Mania entries (it doesn't need to be a Cuttlebug but it must be manual, not electronic). And, you can't mix the two, it must be all manual please. Then make your entry, link into the challenge, link to the challenge in your own blog post and and make sure that you also say what products you used for any die cutting/embossing.

Details of our sponsor can be found over on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and this is the card I made:

I used:

- 5.5" x 5.5" square pink card blank 

- piece of white card, embossed using a 6" x 6" Embossalicious Die'Sire folder called 'Swirl Corner' and trimmed to just slightly smaller than the card front 

- the next step was to add the sentiment, using the Stampendous 'Happy Messages' set, having worked out the placement of the rose and leaves just by using the metal dies as a guide. As I was using the Misti it meant I could draw a faint pencil line onto the piece of embossed card as a guide for the two part sentiment - when you use the Misti you place the stamps face down onto the card stock where you want them to end up and fold the lid onto the card with stamps on - the lid then picks them up ready to ink and stamp. Then I inked up the stamps using a Delicata 'Silvery Shimmer' ink pad and stamped onto a spare piece of paper to double check that the alignment was right. It was, so I popped the embossed panel back in place, after rubbing out the fine pencil line, and re-inked then stamped the sentiment

- glued the embossed panel to the card front

- a lovely friend had sent me a surprise package the other week and I couldn't wait to use one of the die sets she enclosed - it's by Ultimate Crafts and is from the Magnolia Lane Collection, called 'Rose Cutting. Thank you so much once again :)

- the die set is in three parts, a solid shape for the body of the rose and two 'skeleton' dies for the rose detail and the leaves. I didn't want the rose background to be just one shade of pink so first of all I used Tim Holtz Distress Markers (Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry), a perpex block for picking the colour up from and a waterbrush to wash right over a snippet of Crafters Companion Watercolour Card. Then using the 'Picked Raspberry' I scribbled more colour onto the perspex block and picked it up with the water brush to add swirls of the deeper pink onto the piece of card - ending up with this:

- it only needed to be 'rough and ready' (and perhaps a tad rude?) as a lot would be hidden by the 'skeleton' shape. Once it was dry I die cut the solid piece of the rose and found a snippet of card the same as the pink card front, backed it with Stick-It, die cut the skeleton detail for the rose and popped it in place

- found a snippet of green card stock, backed it with Stick-It then die cut the skeleton leaf spray and added it to the embossed panel

- added the rose itself using thin sticky pads

- final touch, five pearlescent sequins, glued in place using Glossy Accents

We'd love to see you over at Cuttlebug Mania, it's a great theme with plenty of scope! Come and play :)

Di
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