Altenew's Craft-A-Flower: Orchids

Spring! I can't complain because where I live we've had little snow or sub zero temperatures, different from past winters. But still, the first days of spring are so happy. Luckily, orchids can thrive indoors, well maybe not at my house, except for in cards.

This is Altenew's Craft-A-Flower, Orchids. It quickly sold out after the release, so I signed up for notification when it was back in stock on the Altenew site. I was a bit reluctant to buy it when I saw the number of pieces, but I have to tell you it's not difficult. This photo shows why:

All the pieces for this flower are together on one die. There are 6 different flowers included in the set, choose which to use, There is a guide included that shows the layering order but after doing it once they are all similar to construct. The piece with the largest number of petals is the first layer, (here it's 3 petals) then the next piece of petals (here it's 2 petals). Then comes the stamen, then the 2 small pieces (the dot and the piece that looks like a heart). 

I used Distress inks in 3 shades of pink to color the petals, the darkest shades used for the first layer of 3 petals, then going a bit lighter for the 2 petals, then the darkest for the stamen and the accents dots. I used the thin blending brush to quickly ink them up, so simple. The brush I bought on Amazon.

Here's what the layering guide looks like, but really you won't need it after using it once.

I glued the pieces together, used one of the stem diecuts (quickly inked in green, leaving the bud white at the tip). I glued the entire piece onto this Diamond Stars 3D embossed panel. I used a bit of fun foam to give it dimension.

I buy fun foam at Michael's for $1. It's a large piece, not sure of the dimensions but I cut pieces to put under the card panels to give it a little dimension. I also cut tiny pieces to put under diecuts or sentiments. I put a few here under the flowers. I use regular glue and/or tape runner to attach it to the diecuts and panels. It's so much cheaper than foam tape. Sometimes I use layers of scrap cardstock instead. Either way I think popping up a few things makes a great difference in my cards.

Here is a link to the Altenew Store. If you click on it and make a purchase, I get a very small commission at no additional cost to you. It lets me know that people find it useful for me to post tutorials as I get a lot of requests for info. Thank you for looking and following me on Instagram @Susanbcards

 

I'm entering this card in the Time Out Challenge for March called "Elegant".

 

Thank you for looking! You can follow me on Instagram @Susanbcards