Thanks for Poppies

Sometimes (ok, lots of times) I struggle when trying to make a card.  I have an idea in my head of what I want to use on a card, but not always a clear direction on where to go with those elements.  This card was one of those.  I was making a card for this weeks challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog, and I thought that I would like to include the Tulip die from Susan's Garden by Sizzix.  Of course, I wanted it to look more like a poppy, so I had to fiddle around with it a bit.  In the end, the card ended up taking me 3 hours or so, with most of that time being me stading around scratching my head!!

I started with a white scalloped card base that I got as a freebie from one of those UK crafting magazines.  I repeated stamped Thank You in a diagonal using Close to My Heart's Champagne ink to for the background.  The papers that I used were from my stash, some old K & Company, I believe.  I think it's important that we continue to use our old papers even if they might no be super trendy anymore.  Let's find a way to make those papers work!

I knew one thing that was important for me was that the card have a focal point.  That's why I chose to have the large pierced circle on the card.  It draws your eye right to the poppy. To make the poppy stand out even more, I inked the edges of the petals in Cranberry ink from CtMH, and did the same on the leaves with Topiary.  I finished the card off with a large bold Thanks stamp from CtMH in Cranberry ink, with a brad beside it.

Despite how long the card took to make, I'm really happy with the result!

I'd like to enter this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.