Have you ever gone to use a product, and see something totally different in the shapes? That happens to me sometimes. My brain is always looking for how else I can use it, to see what’s less obvious. It happened to me a few days ago when I was doing a Crop & Create Cardmaking event with Scrapbook and Cards Today. The Spellbinders class included a great floral die set, but as I was die cutting it to create my card, I had an idea…

This gorgeous detailed floral card was created with dies from the class. Not exactly the design from the class, but a variation. (I often do that with classes, I admit.)

Techniques:

• The background was ink blended, and then placed in an embossing folder. After Embossing, I lightly rubbed a gold ink pad across the top of the raised embossed areas for a hint of shimmer and warm gold color.

• The flower blooms were cut out of white, light blue, and lavender cardstock. To add some interest and variation (that would allow me to give it some depth as I layered the blooms), I did some ink blending on them. (To do this, I placed the die cut pieces on a sticky mat, which held them in place so they didn’t get caught or bent on the brush during lblending.

• I die cut the stem pieces out of three different green cardstocks, and added some ink blending on those for more depth and color variation.

• The greeting is embossed with gold, which ties in well to the gold accents I gave the background.

For this card, I used some of the dies from the same flower die set, but created something with a totally different feel. The next two images show you the dies numbered to correspond with what they are on the card, in case that helps.

Techniques:

• I did some irregular ink blending on an A2 card panel with Grape Soda, Dragonfruit, and Eggplant inks. (All ink colors mentioned are Concord & 9th.) I then spritzed and blotted the background a few times

• 1. The thistle stem has leaves that seemed to lend themselves to a spooky scene, but you can do this with any leaf and stem. I cut them out of black and Mushroom cardstock.

• 2. I die cut the small flower cluster out of black a few times. I cut some apart into smaller sections. I added Wink of Stella to them for some sparkle.

• 3. The bud or base of the thistle flowers I cut out of Lemongrass cardstock, and turned them upside down to look like something between a ghost and jellyfish, or a character from Monsters, Inc. (Use your imagination.) Adding a google eye and attaching them at angles as if they were floating really enhanced that idea and made them come alive.

• 4. I thought some of the thistle blooms looked spider-like when turned upside down. One of the dies even cut one with 8 petals, so I used that as my spider. (The others with fewer petals also work. In a scene like this I don’t think the technicalities of leg quantity are important here.) I was out of town when I made this, and didn’t have google eyes small enough to fit on these, so I drew a circle with a white gel pen and that worked out well. Probably better than if I’d added google eyes, since the other creatures have that.

At the moment, this set was exclusive to the recent Crop & Create Cardmaking event, but sometimes those, or something similar, will be released later on. I’ll be sure to update my post with links if they do. In the meantime, check your stash or check other flower dies at Spellbinders. There are lots of possibilities out there!

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Supply list*:

(Listed by company, with links to Simon Says Stamp and others. Simon Says Stamp links are affiliate links*.)

To come later when I find products to link, but in the meantime you can browse Simon Says Stamp here for possibilities from MANY wonderful companies.

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