smARTword challenge: Flowers

I'm participating with smARTworks monthly challenge, and this months floral challenge went a completely unexpected direction. I wanted to make a really gorgeous card for it as I own a number of wonderful, realistic flower stamps from smARTworks. But somehow, the simple outline stamps from the Fun Stuff set grabbed my imagination. It was NOT one of the reasons I purchased that set, but wow, as Anne of Green Gables would have said, it "offered so much scope for the imagination"! I was having so much fun I had to force myself to move on. After all, with two stores to stock cards for, I can't really just concentrate on a single image! These are the cards that Susan chose from my crazy collection of cards. Tomorrow I'll come back and give stamp names and a few details on how I made them. :-) Meanwhile, if you haven't already made a card for this month's challenge, you still have plenty of time. Remember, you get a chance to win free stamps with your entries, even if you are not using smARTworks' stamps!

All use the outline flower from Mixed Bag: Fun Stuff
The remaining stamp info is under each card.

Well, I actually could not find where in the new catalog the text is from, sorry! :-/ It definitely is a smARTworks stamp, though! I glued the paper onto cardstock before trimming so the flower would have dimension.

Sending Cheer faces:
Backgrounds: BG 2 (square dot background stamp)
Friendship: Call it friendship (the boys - faces)
Frames: Message Mouse (Sending cheer)

I stamped the flowers onto cardstock, and trimmed, then sent through the cuttlebug for a texture that coordinated with the background stamp. I had considered stamping and embossing the background stamp with clear ink & powder, but decided it would be too much bother! The faces, (used here and with the "What you see" card), were tricky. The image is a group of four adorable boys wearing hats, and not wanting the hats to show on the faces called for inking the stamp with marker to avoid those lines. It doesn't show in the picture, but I added a little color to the cheeks. The background was stamped in black, then colors sponged over it. A piece of vellum was placed over it. The stems were cut freehand so that I could have flowers at varying heights (I also rotated at least one flower portion to add variety).

What we see:
Trio stamping: Trio& Collage (What you see text & background petals)
Vintage: Eye Spy (eyes from spectacles)
Friendship: Call it friendship (the boys - face)
Backgrounds/Borders: Backgrounds 2 (smudge from top right)
Butterflies: ladybugs (faux ribbon)

I may have gone off the deep end on this one, but it sure was a fun idea to work with! The petals were made by creating several images from the collage picture of the child reading a newspaper. I used a stamp-a-ma-jig to get the precise placement I wanted (the words being at readable angles). For the leaves, I stamped the spectacles, then using the stamp-a-ma-jig, overstamped with the leaf part of the flower image. I stamped the background, then stamped the flower on, and attached the stamped petals and leaves. The text was sponged around the edges.



TOY dot uses:
Flora/Fauna/Garden: Bloom On (square w/dots)
Frames: Message Mouse (with thoughts of you)

The flower petals & leaves were overstamped onto stamped dot squares, and the stems cut from them aas well.