Flowers and sequins and gems... oh my!

Hi there :)  I've got a new card set to show you today.  After making Krystal's birthday card, I decided that I'd like to make some similar cards for a card set.  I remembered that I have some fantastic sentiment stamps from Kaisercraft that I'd never used before so this totally fits into Darnell's NBUS  (Never Before Used Schtuff) criteria!

I decided to enter my cards into the Addicted to CAS (Clean and Simple) Challenge #89 because the code word for the challenge is PETALS and my cards have really pretty petals!

So... back to the beginning... here's the stamp set: Kaisercraft You - there are 4 separate stamps in the set and I love the bold writing... it kind of reminds me of Subway Art.

I started off with a piece of Distress watercolour cardstock which I ran through with the Lawn Fawn stitched border die.  Then I cut 1/2 inch off the right hand side - this was totally pre-planned after watching Amy's video:

I loved what Amy did with the patterned paper and embossed strip so I used her idea for my card.

Once my watercolour paper was ready I chose one of the sentiment stamps along with the stalk of my chosen flower from Simon Says Stamp - Spring Flowers.  I stamped the images with Versamark ink and then heat embossed them with Zing Pewter with metallic finish.

Since I was using my MISTI I went ahead and did all four sentiments and stalks at the same time:

The pewter embossing is actually a lovely colour... darker than silver but with lots of depth!  Next up, I stamped and heat embossed all the flowers and 'bubbles':

I decided to add colour using Distress Inks so I chose Mowed Lawn for all the leaves/stalks.  The flowers were coloured using Salty Ocean, Shaded Lilac, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Picked Raspberry.  I used two colours for each flower and blended them using my water brush.

When I was happy with my flowers and stalks/leaves I added some Evergreen Bough Distress Ink with LOTS of water to create some subtle shading in the backgrounds.

Then I added some striped pattern paper from Kaisercrafts After Five collection along with the pewter embossed strip... LOVE how smart it looks!

By the time I'd done all that the rain and dark, thundery clouds had come for a visit so I called it a day.  This morning I came back down to my art studio and decided that the cards looked pretty good... but that they needed a finishing touch!  So... out came the sequins and rhinestones... oh my!

Here are the cards:

Here are my cards all lined up on the shelf above my desk (if you click on the photo you'll get a much better look!)

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today xx