BEAUTIFUL BOTANICALS

Of course, first on my wish list of goodies from the new Occasions Catalog was the bundle, Bloomin' Heart/Love, that could create the unprecedented detailed beauty to be found in this card:

Next on my wish list from the new Occasions Catalog was another incredible bundle: the Botanical trio found on page 26. Well, I ordered it with my last Stamp-In Workshop order. I could hardly wait for this to arrive!

The Botanical Builder Framelits Dies are phenomenal. An almost infinite number of combinations can be achieved by mixing and matching the dies as well as paper color choices. 

I had seen a suggested color palette consisting of Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight and Tangelo Twist, so decided to go ahead for my first foray into playing with these dies with this color combo:

I certainly haven't popped up these components as much as they could be, but don't you just love the dimension, even the way I did it??

Let me tell you a little <horror> story about the sentiment on my card. Now, don't be TOO scared, 'cause you see, the story does have a happy ending.

After planting my flowers along a two-edged border made from Washi Tape, I had intended for that to be the sole dimension on the card. To achieve that goal, I stamped the sentiment (from the Rose Wonder stamp set on page 18 of the Occasions Catalog) in Pear Pizzazz right on the card base. It looked . . . OK. Just OK. That vast expanse of WHITE WHITE WHITE below and to the right of the sentiment bothered me considerably. So I thought a few splotches from the Timeless Textures set (page 29 of the Occasions Catalog) here and there, also in Pear Pizzazz, might give it just the right finishing touch.

Now -- ARE YOU READY?? -- here comes the scary part. Not realizing that I had sloppily inked up my splotches stamp and gotten a little "u" of ink on the edge of the stamp, I transferred this completely UGLY "u" to my card base along with the desired splotches. This was after all the flowers were in place and the hard work was done!! I mean, really, Linda. How long have you been stamping??? You know better to be more careful.

O.M.G. How am I going to fix this?!? I needed to fill up quite a bit of space to cover my mess-up. I couldn't come up with any single element that would do the trick. That stupid little "u" of Pear Pizzazz ink kept sticking out and LAUGHING at me.

Finally, finally, I came up with a solution that turned out to be perfect.

I stamped the sentiment  on Whisper White and cut it out with one of the Framelits from Chalk Talk. All well and good, but the "u" was still there.

So, I added a bit of the matching Washi Tape to a scrap of Whisper White and punched it out with the Banner Punch. After adhering the little coordinating banner to the back side of my label, I popped the whole thing up with a few Stampin' Dimensionals, and VOILA!! It covered up the whole mess.

For balance, I added a Candy Dot to the bottom of the tag. I liked that because it was an echo of the Candy Dot I had added to the center of one of the flowers.

I simply adore the look especially of the many-branched center of the flower below. I am going to use that A LOT! I guarantee that.

Now, I am excited to play with the Botanical Gardens Designer Series Paper that comes with this bundle. There are some awesome things you can do with this DSP. Stay tuned . . .

Botanical

Smiles.