Flowers & Flutterbys (CES challenge)

Here is my first ever entry into the CES Friday challenge. The theme for this week is 'Flowers & Flutterbys' and I felt like doing something a little different from my usual. No papers, no colouring in, no ribbon, no pre-made flowers, no glitter....doesn't leave alot you'd think? Well actually I was surprised that by missing all the things that I generally live by out, I ended up creating a pretty, simple but very effective card and I love it!

Ok so how I made it...The stamps are from the Kanban Autumn Silhouettes set, and I just randomly stamped 2 of them in the bottom left corner to create a 'climbing ivy' kind of effect, with Versacolour Khaki. A little tip-practice on a piece of square paper before stamping straight onto the card. I stamped the greeting (from the free mini stamps picked up at The Range with the voucher in Docrafts mag last month) directly onto the card in Versacolour Peony, but to be honest, it didn't match and it looked too flat. So I re-stamped it in Khaki, cut it out and attached it with silicone glue...you can still just see the Peony underneath, which is just the right effect!

The flowers are also stamped from the same set, with the same colours, and then cut out, shaped and layered. The butterflies are cut out of Shrink Plastic with the very popular Tonic punch. I use it (and see it used) all the time and I wanted to try a different way of using it. I dabbed the Peony inkpad over each butterfly before using my heat gun to shrink them to size. I shaped the wings up before they cooled to give the effect of flight.

I finished with Anita's gems in the middle of each flower and on the sentiment.

I know this was long winded, so if you read it, thank you! If not, I don't blame you but thanks for looking anyway! :D

Lizy x