Hi readers! Happy Sunday to you! I hope you all are having very relaxing and fun weekends! I’m very excited to WELCOME first time Simon blog guest designer Kelly Latevola! She is as sweet as she is talented! And boy, does she have both qualities going on! Check out these floral beauties featuring some of our exclusive products! *Drool*

Read on and enjoy!

I started by stamping my Artful flowers on a white card panel. I created a few masks of the flowers so I could tuck a few behind the others. After they were all stamped I removed any masks and began coloring with my Copic markers. I usually start with my lightest to darkest for my base layer. To get some more blending I then go in reverse darkest to lightest. Basically I color the flower twice :) After all the flowers were colored I set to work on my background color. I used gray markers to add in a shadow behind the flowers. This really helps them appear 3D. After the shadows were done I outlined all the flowers in some blue greens. You can color right over the gray it’s okay, you won’t hurt it, I promise!

Once the coloring is done I outlined the flowers with a copic multiliner to really help them pop. I also added a few white dots with my gel pen to the centers.Now the scary part. I die cut a tag right out of the middle. Ahh. It is kind of scary after you spent all that time coloring but it’s usually worth it ;)

I die cut a second tag out of some Robin’s Egg Bazzill card stock. I also stamped and colored three flowers and fussy cut them out. Don’t forget to color your edges black for a finished look! I used my Black Soot Distress Marker for this. I arranged the flowers onto my tag by matching them up with the outline on my stamped panel. The sentiment is a combination of stamps and dies from Sending and Wishing. After stamping the sentiment I threaded some yellow bakers twine through my tag and added it to my card with foam tape. A few sequins and some glossy accents in the flower centers finished it off.

For the second card I didn’t have to do much since my focal point was already created. Yeah for less work! I added more yellow baker’s twine, glossy accents, and sequins. The sentiment is another combination of stamps and dies from Sending and Wishing set. Seriously, you can create so many different sayings with these. It’s wonderful! I decided I wanted this sentiment to really stand out against my busy background so I heat embossed it on black with white embossing powder.

For the background I took a white panel and trimmed it to 4 x 5.5. I stamped the circles from the Falling Backgrounds set horizontally and heat embossed them using Wow Neutral Ultra Shimmer. I love how this adds interest but doesn’t take anything away from the tag. I tried to vary the length of the circles reach by stamping more or less of it. This makes sure it reaches the edges behind my tag and trails off above and below it. I added this panel plus another piece of Robin’s Egg Bazzill card stock to my card base. The tag was added on top with foam adhesive and that completed the card.

SUPPLIES: