Verve Challenges X2

As you can guess from the title of this post, today's card was created for 2 Verve challenges. The first was the July Product Parade challenge, which was to make an ATC.

I just recently got the Thankful Blossoms set and really wanted to play with layering the flowers. I tried the larger size first, but the resulting flower was too big for the ATC, so I made another flower out of the smaller size and it fit perfectly.

The patterned paper for the background, flower, and leaves are all from an old Studio K paper pad. The flower has 4 layers popped up with a combination of foam and 1/4" hole punches, and the little leaves are partially popped up using 1/8" hole punches.

First I ran my scissors blade over the base cardstock's edges, then I sewed the background paper to the base cardstock and used Antique Linen Distress Ink all over the threads and edges to tone down the white color of the cardstock.

The second challenge was the Meet the Verve Divas Challenge #3 which was to use at least 3 buttons.

I took the ATC above and turned it into a full-sized card for this challenge. You may have noticed that I added a bit of Tulip dimensional pearl paint to the flower just on a whim. I was going to add a half pearl, but the flower was already so tall, I didn't want that much extra height (although I may already have to pay extra postage because of the flower!).

One last note - I taped the wide organdy ribbon around the base layer and then took an extra length of ribbon to make the knot. Instead of just trying the extra bit around the other ribbon (which would have really scrunched it up because it's so wide), I punched 2 holes on either side of the base ribbon to tie my knot through. I don't like knotting ribbon and then glueing it to my cards because they usually fall off. I much prefer to actually tie them to something on the card to keep them secure. TFL!

Other materials used: white cardstock - Georgia Pacific; buttons - SEI; Mellow Moss ink and pink organdy ribbon - Stampin' Up!; Dark Chocolate ink - Papertrey Ink; Graphite Black Brilliance ink - Tsukineko; Waxy Flax - Close to My Heart.