Limelight Week 1 with Michelle - Autumn Poppies

I'm so excited to be the Limelight Designer for September! I've been a fan of Flourishes stamps from almost the very beginning because of the beautiful florals in the line.... I'm kinda addicted to flowers on my cards! One of favorite sets (and most frequently used) sets is Poppy Patch. I love to use it for bright red poppies as well as peachy looking vintage poppies and one of my favorite, blue poppies. Today I'm going to use the Poppy Patch set for an Autumn themed card with a 4.25" flat scalloped circle as the base.

For the card base you can use a precut scalloped circle like I did or you can cut your own with dies or a circle cutter. The base doesn't need to have scallops, the card looks nice with a smooth edge as well. Since my base measures 4.25" I cut the Classic Ivory layer 4" in diameter and the dotted layer 3.5" in diameter.

I stamped the poppies on the patterned paper in a random layout. The stems I colored with an olive green Copic marker and colored outside of the lines a little with a lighter color because I didn't want them to get lost against the background. I also stamped and cut out enough flowers from the Ivory Cardstock to paper piece over the patterned background.

I used some rusty tones of orange (E08, R02, YR02, YR00) for the flowers because I wanted to keep with the Autumn theme. Once I was done coloring and shading I inked the edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.

Once I stamped, colored and added the leaves to the main image I went ahead and distressed the outer edge of the patterned paper by sponging with brown ink. I matted the image on the Ivory circle, then ink the edge of that as well. The lines were drawn with a black gel pen to mimic a blanket stitch.

To attach the card front to the scalloped base I score the front 1/2" from the top edge and adhere it to the cardbase. For added decoration I punched a strip of coordinating paper and added 2 vintage brass brads. The gold ribbon was tied in little knots and randomly glued to the image. I love little bits of ribbon and embellishements popping out from behind the raised layers.

To add to the distressed look I only use glue in the center of my layers so the edges can be pulled away for more dimension. My favorite tool for distressing is my fingernail because sometimes it's easier than digging for another tool :)

I like my cards busy with lots of embellishment and distressing. I've always joked that when I think a card is done I have to add one more embellishment to it before its REALLY done. For this card I added the little knots of ribbon to mimic butterflies. It may not have been necessary but it's that added little zip that makes it special.

Thanks for joining me today! I hope I provided a little insight into how I design and passed on a little trick or two for you to try as well! See you next week.