Bloom - Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

 Happy last Monday of January! Wow, it seems like January went in the blink of an eye. 

I thought I might change things up a bit and enter myself in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

I started out by cutting all of the flowers on watercolor paper. I knew that I wanted to let my inner shabby chic come out for this project so I chose soft, light colors of Distress Oxide.  The white roses were colored with just the bottom layer a light hand with Antique Linen. I don't know about you, but I am secretly hoping that one of Tim Holtz's neutrals this year is an eggshell color! I know many of you would say how boring, but please understand the value of light pigment! I should be getting my Lost Shadow today and I am hoping to experiment with more white roses! I digress.  I used Tattered Rose and Spun Sugar for the pink flowers and used Bundled Sage and Old Paper for all of the greenery. I glued each set together then laid them out the way I wanted them and then grabbed my trusty Press n Seal and plastered it down on top of the bouquet to sort of hold it all together and set that aside.

For the background I again used watercolor paper.  I took it to my Splat box and gave it a few light sprays with Speckled Egg Distress Spray Stain and then doused it with water, again, trying to keep it light.  I dried the paper and then trimmed it down to 3 3/4 x 5.  I stamped the gears from Observations CMS434 in Antique Linen Distress Oxide and stamped the dragonfly from a Stamper's Anonymous stamp set called Classics 1 SCF001 in Speckled Egg Distress Oxide. Finally I stamped some words from Gothic Tapestry CMS454 in Spun Sugar across the top and set that aside to do the frame.

For the frame I once again used watercolor paper. I guess you can tell that watercolor is my favorite substrate. I ran it through the embossing folder Engraved 664249 and then trimmed that down to a little under 5 1/2 by a little under 4 1/4. I attached my flowers with a lot of glue and then I stitched the background panel down to the embossed panel and then used a little Sizzix Gold Luster Wax. I absolutely love that stuff and it smells so good! Last, I spattered with a little gold paint to pull it all together.

I popped the unit up on some fun foam and then onto a white 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 card base.  I die cut the word Love from heavy white cardstock 3 times and stacked them then attached them to the card and it was done!

As I write this it is Monday Morning and I can see from close inspection of the rules that it should have been linked over an hour ago so I am too late for this week. No worries, it will still be here next Monday!