A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME......

I have found a new challenge on my travels which is called The Flower Challenge and I'm guessing, due to their name, that they focus on travels.  I'm not daft!! Their challenge this week is to use your favourite flower and, what is more, they are sponsored by one of my favourite companies Clearly Besotted.



The rose is one of my favourite flowers, I say one as I really can't choose between the rose and the peony.  Both very similar but a sweetly scented red rose will get me every time.  I have a gorgeous old rose growing by my front door with such a gorgeous scent that greets us as we come up the drive.  Roses were also my dear mum's favourite flowers and she was much better at growing them than I am.

So my card features some red roses from an old Clearly Besotted set called A Delightful Day which also comes with matching die cuts.

I started off by stamping the vase first then masking it off whilst I stamped the roses.  Then without re-inking the roses I removed the stamp from the vase and, protecting the roses with a mask, just stamped the stems so they looked lighter in the water.  I used a couple of SU water colour pencils to create the water.  The roses were coloured with Spectrum Noir tri colour blends.  I also added a touch of glossy accents as dew drops but they haven't quite shown up on the picture.  There is a very light layer of Spectrum Noir sparkle pen just to give them a bit of as shine.  I then used the matching dies to cut both the flowers and the vase out.  They easily go back together.

The background was made with some Tim Holtz distress inks and a new stencil mask I have got from The Crafters Workshop called Mini Quatrefoil.  I sponged it first in Tattered Rose then moved it over slightly and sponged again in Bundled Sage.  I used the same mask on the cardstock using a Versamark pad to create the border.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.