Bloom As You Are

Today’s beautiful card is one of my creations as part of the design team for Aall Scrapbook Essentials – Home – my local scrapbook store. The star of today’s card is this gorgeous Aall & Create double sided design paper which I used as the panel of this card. I love the mixed media look of this paper.

I cut the panel down slightly to make it 4 x 5 ¼ inches. I wanted to pull out some of the colors on this panel so I chose the Tim Holtz distress inks in both dried marigold and peacock feathers. I inked the top and the right of the card base with the dried marigold and the bottom and the left of the card base with the peacock feathers. Using scor-tape, I adhered the panel to the card.

I thought flowers would look pretty on this card along with the sentiment ‘bloom as you are’ so I pulled out my Paper Rose Eve Flower metal die. With the mixed media look of the panel, I decided to die cut the flowers from old book pages. I tore a couple of pages out of an old book and glued them to white cardstock to give them some strength. Once dried, I inked up one page with dried marigold and the other with peacock feathers. Again, I waited for the ink to dry, then die cut all the flower pieces.

I glued the flower pieces together using Bearly Art glue, then manipulated them with my fingers to give them some texture. Once I was happy with them, I glued them to the card.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment using the Self-Care Sentiments set by Alex Syberia designs. I stamped it with VersaFine Clair nocturne ink and heat set it with clear embossing powder. I used the coordinating die set to cut it out and then glued it to the card.

Don’t be afraid to use old books in your artwork. I know some people cringe at the thought of ripping a page out of a book, but it really can add something to your artwork.