Paper Punch Hydrangea Card

While leaving a comment on another card makers blog,

I saw a link to a challenge site I've not visited before.

It was an inspiration photo challenge and I immediately had an idea !

 So, I decided I had just enough time to make this card

(it was a bit time consuming) 

and enter it before the deadline.

Now to make time to visit all of the stops

on the blog hop portion of the challenge !

Supplies and instructions:

Wild Wasabi, Pink Passion, Basic Black and Whisper White card stocks

Scrap of dark green hand made gift wrap for the leaves

Vellum scrap for tag

Basic Black marker to ink a portion of a Hero Arts stamp

Flower Trio paper punch, Stampin' Up!

Bleach for centers of flower petals

Leaf die, Spellbinders

I cut strips of Wild Wasabi card stock then ran them through

a paper crimper numerous times to break down the fibers,

causing the paper to separate. 

Once I could see the edges separating, I pulled the

strips apart creating two strips from one with one side

having a sort of hand made paper look to it.

I then crinkle them up to get rid of the ridges made by the crimper.

Occasionally I may need to flatten them out more with a bone folder.

I kept the "sueded/ faux mulberry" side facing out while weaving 

the strips together to replicate the look of the baskets

in the inspiration photo.

It is layered onto black card stock to make it pop a bit more

and to mimic the frame around the art work in the inspiration photo.

The hydrangea flower (pink hydrangeas in vases in the photo)

was made by gluing down

numerous paper punched mini flowers

onto a piece of scrap paper.

 Some of them

I lightly dabbed a bit of bleach in the centers 

and then slightly bent them upwards

for a bit of dimension.

TIP : If you want to use bleach on colored paper,

be sure to try it on a scrap piece first because many times

the color changes to an unexpected shade, not white.

I carefully inked only the Hello portion

of a sentiment stamp by Hero Arts, then stamped it on

a scrap of vellum I hand cut into a banner.

I chose Hello as my sentiment since there is

an H in the inspiration photo 

and

I am donating this card to Operation Write Home.

It would be a nice , cheery card to write home on. 

I used a scoring board and stylus to score a single line border

around the outer edge of the card front. 

Although this card looks thick and bulky,

 it is actually fairly flat, approximately 5 layers of card stock thick

at the thickest portion of the flower.

There are no dimensionals used, just the paper layers

and bending of some of the card stock pieces 

that are glued directly to each other.

I'm entering this card in the 

House of Cards End Of Term Blog Hop

and

Cards In Envy - Girls, Girls, Girls

Thanks for looking =)