A Bridal Card for PPA93

Ok...I went a little over-the-top for with my card for this weeks Pals Paper Arts Challenge!  I just couldn't resist!  Check out this inspiration photo:

Is that not GORGEOUS?!?  I love the soft, muted colours and the lace, so...here is my way-out-of-my-comfort-zone card:

Wedding card for PPA 93 using the Occasional Quotes hostess level 3 set and a whole lotta petals from my build-a-blossom punch (not to mention a pearl or two!)

Close up of the flower...this took a while to make!!

The leaves are ornament punches in sahara sand and then sponged with always artichoke

So...whaddaya think?  Over the top, right?  I just couldn't resist going above and beyond with this beautiful inspiration photo.  I drew my colours from the photo:  sahara sand, blushing bride and always artichoke (and whisper white, of course!)  Here is how I put this together...I'm sure it will be faster to explain than to make!

Starting with a 4 5/8" square piece of Bride specialty paper (retired), I sponged the edges in blushing bride ink and then lightly in sahara sand.  I layered that on a 4 3/4" square piece of blushing bride cardstock and then adhered both pieces to a 5" square card base in textured sahara sand cardstock.  Setting that aside, I turned to making the flower.  Using my build-a-blosom punch, I punched several of the largest petal and the smaller, same-shaped petal from whisper white cardstock.  I then ran them all through my crimper several times and crumpled them until they started to separate.  I carefully pulled them apart, creating felted-paper petals.  I then sponged each petal lightly with sahara sand and blushing bride inks.  Using one of the big designer buttons in river rock (the closest I had to sahara sand), I began gluing the petals to the backside of the button, beginning with the smaller-sized ones and then moving to the larger ones.  Once I had all my petals glued on, I crumpled the flower in my hand to give it more shape and dimenion.  I then punched  several ornaments in sahara sand, distressed and pulled them apart as I did  my petals, and sponged them lightly with always artichoke ink.  I shaped them into petals and glued them to my flower using Tombow liquid glue.  I then cut several short lengths of Victoria lace trim, looped them and glued them to the back of my flower using glue dots.  The final touch was the pearls...lots of 'em...stuck to the button so that it was completely covered.  I also layered some underneath the button to give the centre of the flower a more 3-D effect.  Some of them are adhered with Crystal Effects to ensure they don't fall off!  I adhered the flower to my card using Tombow liquid glue.  I stamped the sentiment from the Occasional Quotes set in Versamark and then heat embossed it using gold glory (retired) embossing powder. I punched it out using my decorative label punch and then layered it on a second decorative label in blushing bride.  I trimmed the top portion off and then adhered it to my card.

I don't know if I will actually ever give this to someone because I don't think it would fit in an envelope...but I sure had fun making it!