Vellum Cornflowers

     This card was made using the new John Next Door Cornflower and Avonmore dies, along with a few of his other dies.

      The cornflower is quite delicate but still strong enough to shape whether you cut it in foam, card or vellum.
     I used an A5 piece of plain vellum and coloured it with Izink dye ink 'Nuit', it's a gorgeous blue that looks just perfect for a cornflower. The ink was dabbed all over the vellum and left to dry.
     I folded the vellum in half and die cut it as a double thickness, it seems to work better this way if the product you're cutting is thin.
     The die will cut out two petals of three different sizes, I have used two petals per flower. The die also cuts three stamens, one for each size, the stamens are coloured with a black alcohol marker.
     Each petal set was worked gently with a ball tool to give it some shape. I stuck the stamens in each flower, then added a small pearl that has been coloured with the new black Glitter Touch.

     Once all the flowers were made I die cut some black foliage using the  Elderflower die and some dark blue Rose Leaves, the rose leaves are coloured around the edge with black ink and then shaped with a ball tool.
     To make the card I cut a piece of Mouse Grey card large enough to give me a mat layer and then die cut the Avonmore lattice in the middle. I then used the lattice edge to cut a hole in a piece of white card that would be large enough to form another mat layer, this was white card which I then coloured with the same ink pad as the flowers so it would match perfectly.

     The final layer was just a wide white frame to go on top. The white showing through the lattice was alright but I wanted something a little more outstanding so I used the lattice part of the die to 'quilt' some silver mirri card. Quilting is when you use a die to emboss card rather than cut it, for this you will need some kind of embossing mat to go through your machine, it takes the place of the plate that you would normally cut onto.
     With a much better centre I began to assemble the card, it looks like it has many more layers than it does but by doing it this way it will weigh less and be a bit thinner, perfect for posting.
     Base card assembled meant all that was left were the flowers. I placed several on the card and kept moving them around until happy with their position. Then I started to play with the foliage, tucking it under the flowers until happy with it all. I have found in the past that it's best to take a photo of the layout before taking it all off to stick it down with glue, just in case you get distracted and forget where they were.
     Once finished I decided it didn't need a greeting on the outside, that could be added later when required. Using vellum for the flowers gave them a more realistic look and being able to colour plain vellum with dye inks means a wide range of colours is readily available.

Materials List    Available from your local craft shop
JND108 - Avonmore Die
JND115 - Cornflower Die     (Cornflower Stamp JND116 - not used on this project)
JNDAD016 - Elderflower Dies
JNDAD015 - Rose Leaves Die set
CAT005 -Glitter Touch Basics  (Black, Clear, Green)
I-zink Dye Ink - Nuit

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Colour Throwdown - colours #562

Everybody Art - Use Dies

Craft Rocket - Monochrome