MUSICALLY BLENDED BLOOM

I know. I KNOW. You were all wondering if I had abandoned my precious Blended Bloom. Weren't you?

Well, I haven't. This time I was playing a little bit of music with the stamp -- so to speak.

I had so much fun creating this dimensional flower. I stamped it three times on old music, then proceeded to cut out and use one whole bloom as the base, and from the other two, I cut petals to elevate some of the layers. In a few spots, I even have three layers. Time consuming, but, oh, so satisfying.

A little problem arose when I went to make the center of the bloom. I tried a couple of different options, none of which worked in my eyes. I finally settled on embossing the center onto black cardstock, then painstakingly cutting it out, and adhering it as my top layer on the flower.

Embossing with the Fancy Fan folder, as well as a touch of some of Stampin' Up!'s luscious DSP from last year, helped to carry the elegant motif throughout. Sponging with Baked Brown Sugar ink adds to the antiqued patina of the piece.

In this photo, you can see the dimensional layers a little better:

By adding a small strip of the sponged music to a slightly larger strip of black cardstock, the card was almost complete. What finally did complete the composition was popping on a button threaded with the Gold Metallic Baker's Twine (although the gold metallic flecks only show up in one spot from a strange angle. Not very good planning on my part, I guess).

Once again, as I so often do, I elected not to add a sentiment to the front of the card. To me, adding a specific sentiment limits the uses for a card. Except, of course, if it is an obvious occasion, such as a birthday with candles and cake. By adding the desired sentiment to the inside of the card when you decide what you are going to use it for, makes a card such as this have limitless possibilities for occasions. And isn't that nice?

Bloomin'

Smiles.