Heartfelt Thanks

Die Cut Divas' challenge theme this month is "April." Anything associated with April will work as inspiration. Since April is springtime here in the northern hemisphere, I decided to go with flora & fauna for my card.

I used mostly stamps from Waffle Flower's "Lotus" set, adding in the butterfly from "Daisy Thanks" by Stampendous. I laid out most of my stamps on a 4.5x6" panel of 140 lb. Strathmore watercolor paper in my MISTI, except for the stems & the image that would be overlapped by the lotus flower. I picked them up with the door of the MISTI, and stamped everything in Versafine Onyx Black ink. I sprinkled on Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder, and heat set that. Then I masked off the lotus flower, stamped the leaf(?) that goes behind it, and heat embossed that. I finally stamped & heat embossed the stems.

I taped my panel to my bamboo cutting board, and watercolored it with Distress inks. I used Peacock Feathers & Mermaid Lagoon for the background; Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, & Pine Needles for the green parts; Scattered Straw & Tattered Rose for the lotus; and Scattered Straw, Festive Berries, and Wilted Violet for the butterfly. Once that was done, I left it taped to the board for several hours until it had dried. Finally, I die cut it with the stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things' "Blueprints 13" set.

I adhered my panel to a piece of black paper, and trimmed around it to leave a 1/16" mat. Finally, I adhered that to a white A2 card base.

I'm also entering this in the April "Butterflies" challenge at Live Love Cards.