Alexandra Renke Artist Flower 03 for Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #744

Happy Friday.

I really needed to do something creative today. For some reason I have started and thrown away so many cards this week that I was beginning to think my mojo had gone walkabout in the bush and was never coming back. So, I sat down, went looking for a little inspiration and saw a great sketch across at Freshly Made. It took me quite a while to decide what I was going to do with this sketch. It was made especially hard because my first instinct when I saw it had already been taken by the very talented Michelle. As soon as I saw the sketch I had the image of that silly elf in my head. So, I had to go off and find something else. I tried a few things and nothing worked and then I remembered that I had a very old floral die from Alexandra Renke called Artist Flower 03 and decided that would do!

Next problem was finding the photo frame die from My Favorite Things. Gah! Anyone ever misfiled a die? Anyway, I finally found it and went to work creating a clean and simple card.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Oh, I had forgotten how much I love this poppy-style flower! For the background element in the sketch I brought out a scripty sentiment background stamp from The Greetery that has the quote, “how do I love thee, let me count the ways“.

Here’s the sketch from FMS

I began my card by die-cutting the elements. I die-cut the floral petals twice. Once with a dark red and once with a brighter red. I softened the outer edges of the brighter red and adhered the bases of the petals to the dark petals below.

I die-cut the inside and stem from the set in black and added a yellow enamel dot to the center and some bling on the stamens.

I stamped the E B Browing quote onto a linen cardstock base in medium grey ink and die-cut the photo frame and added a sentiment from Spellbinders Typewriter Adventure sentiment set. I popped the frame up on 4 other die cut pieces as I wanted it to pop off the card base. All that was left to do was to put everything together.

Here’s my card:

I don’t often use rhinestones, but felt that the stamen needed a little something because the inside of a poppy is so detailed. I like the linen card base as it adds subtle texture and interest. I hope the FMS team are OK with my using the EBB quote for the horizontal element. I thought a piece of cardstock would throw off the flower!

Anyway, it felt good to get into my craft room and actually make something that I ended up liking! I know the talented team at FMS would love it if you played along with their challenge! I’ll be back tomorrow with my Addicted to CAS card. In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight,

Card recipe:

• Floral die: Artist Flower 03 – Alexandra Renke
• Photo frame: MFT
• Sentiment: Typewriter Adventures – Spellbinders
• Background sentiment: Pretty Postmarks – The Greetery

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