Another New Stamp

This time, the stamp is from Hampton Arts and has flowers and background all in one stamp.  It took me awhile to decide how to use it.  Here's how it "evolved" to what you see:

It all started with a piece of heavy red cs already cut to 5 1/2 x 8 1/2".  Although I knew better, I tried folding it in half without scoring it first and ended up with crinkles.  (You've done that at least once, right?)  So, to cover up the crinkles, I found some leftover dsp that would go with the color scheme I had in mind and applied it over the fold and on the bottom of the inside.

Next I used the Fiskars border punch along the bottom; but that left me with very little room to mount the square stamped image.  Tilting it didn't work with horizontal script and vertical flower stems, so I added a piece of dark green cs which I tilted to provide a contrast between the dsp and the image.  (Are you still following this?)  This left a wide blank space in the upper right corner, so I added the twine to fill in.  This worked ok, but what to do with the rest of the blank space beneath it???  Out came the 3/4" punch and a small saying stamped on leftover dsp.

Meanwhile, back at the image, it was time to make that work.  First, I used my gel glitter pens to highlight the flowers; but I needed something that would make it pop.  I found 4 tiny white flowers in my stash and 4 pink flower gems from Hero Arts--perfect!  I still needed something to bring the whole card front together, so it was back to my stash where I found just the right sized butterfly already stamped and cut out.

Whew!  Now that was work; but at least it was worth it in the end.  I hope you enjoyed this story of how my card evolved.  (This card is not going to just anybody...)