StampARTic Challenge --- Flowers

This is the first time I've entered the StampARTic challenge.  I've often browsed this wonderful online magazine for cardmakers, which features tutorials, challenges, helpful articles and an amazing design team.  This challenge featuring flowers fell right in line with some photos I recently took.

This time of year is so beautiful with all the flowers in bloom.  Some of my favorite flowers are those that grow wild along our country road.  Early Sunday morning I grabbed my camera and went for a nice walk, coming home with dozens of photos of several varieties of wildflowers.  My favorite method for photographing flowers is with a macro lens to get a look at the marvelous world on the surface of a single bloom. 

I actually did two cards last night using photographs rather than inked images. The first one is an easel card using two photos of Queen Anne's Lace. This amazing flower is actually made up of hundreds of nearly microscopic flowers, with just one deep purple bloom in the center of the whole cluster.  Such an exquisite creation.

This photo captures the "mountains" of tiny flowers and the single purple flower in the center.

The border on the front of the card is actually three Martha Stewart border punches:  Picket fence, tulips, and pansies.  I also pierced the paper below the pansies.

A swirl of pearls and embellishment of small white flowers from the Michael's bridal department added a nice touch.  The textures of Cuttlebug folders helped me to keep with the white and one color theme. The sentiment on the inside was also from a Cuttlebug die.

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For the second card I used a photo of a blue daisy-like flower.  I don't know what it is, but I love the simple details.  The stamens are so interesting; they look like they are made of beads.  To complement the colors of the flower I added clusters of paper flowers from Oriental Trading with center brads from the Basic Grey Wisteria collection and Spare Parts from the Paper Studio.  The background dp is also from the Basic Grey Wisteria collection.  A swirl of rhinestones and a copper dragonfly top it all off.

These cards a a bit of a diversion from the Copic-colored images I so often use.  I think I like these!  Well, I have plenty more photos to use up, to you might see more cards like this!

Thanks for stopping by!  I would love to read your comments about these new cards.