Silky Crush Flowers

 Hi bloggers!  You know that I love using flowers on cards, but sometimes they can take so much time and quite a bit of card or felt to make.  The flowers on today's card are the perfect alternative since you use your left over little bits of ribbon.  When I say little bits, I mean it too.  Less than an inch will do it!  I probably over did them a bit, but I got carried away making them and just wanted to use them all!  So the card is a true cascade of flowers.  First thing I did though was to cover my background with a sticky sheet of adhesive and micro bead it for texture.  You can see them better in the close up pics below.  Next I cut the largest size of Labels 20 out of milk coloured card.  I embossed it with the Mystic embossibility to give it a nice pattern. I used some Antique Linen ink to distress it a bit and then added the matching pearl Nestabling to the edge.  I stamped the Justrite Fleur de Lis Labels 20 stamp using Tea Dye Distress ink.  I didn't want it to be a real solid image so I used a distress ink rather than a permanent Archival type ink for this.  I stamped the sentiment in the centre afterwards and cut it out with the matching Labels 20 die.  I added it to the centre of my focal element using mounting foam.  Next came the flowers (all the flowers!)  Using of champagne silky crush ribbon, I handcut small circles out of it.  You can use either two circles or three circles of varying sizes to make your flowers.  Hold them in the centre with a pokey tool on a heatproof craft mat.  using your heat tool in short bursts (move it in and then away quickly), melt the edges of the ribbon.  You will very quickly and others may take a few bursts to do all the edges.  I used Cosmic Shimmer glue in the centre of each of the pieces, then put a stick pin through them until they dried.  Once dry, I added a flatback pearl to the middle of each of them and then used glue dots to put them onto my card.  When I was happy with the arrangement, I added a bit of CS glue under each of them to make sure they stayed securely to the micro beaded background.  I pierced the edges and added some pearl swirls as accents.  I had a nice time making a card I really liked and using up some of those leftover bits of ribbon I always have!  All for now, Sue x