Diemond Dies DT Project Using the Sunflower and Fern Leaf Dies

I created this card using the tiny flower center die from the Sunflower set.  I love how there are several different ways to use this die set and several different flowers you can make!

To start the card I chose to use a thick white card stock for the base.  I cut it down to 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" and rounded the outer corners with my 1/2" Corner Chomper.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in the colors Dusty Concord and Milled Lavender to distress around the edges of the entire card.  I chose a neutral paper for the background from the Recollections Habitat 12"x12" paper pad. 

I used the Fern Leaf die to cut leaves from two different shades of shimmery green paper.  I glued three fern leaves under where the flowers would be and used the centers of three fern leaves as the base stem for my flowers.  I added a forth fern leaf after the flowers were complete to break up the first and second flowers.  

Creating the flowers was definitely the most time consuming part of this card!  Before cutting any flowers I colored my paper so I would have a variety of different shades of purple in my flowers.  I achieved my desired colors by smearing the Time Holtz Distress inks again in Dusty Concord and Milled Lavender onto my craft sheet, spraying it with water, laying my white card stock onto the ink and moving it around to cover the entire paper.  I used my heat tool to speed up the drying process but its not necessary.   

After my paper was dry I cut it into 1" strips and then used the Sunflower centers die to cut out my flowers on my Big Kick machine.  I have no idea how many times I had to run it through to get enough flowers, cutting the strips definitely speeds up the process.  

After everything was cut I used the McGill's foam mat and a ball tool to soften each flower and form them into a "cup" shape.  

I squirted some Scotch Quick Dry liquid glue onto my craft sheet and used craft tweezers to pick up each flower and dipped them into the glue and started building my flowers.  

Once my flowers were finished and I added the last fern leaf in front of them I tied a small bow with some OHHH So Trendy Jute Ribbon in Ivory and hot glued it on top of the stems.  

I'm so happy with the finished product!  It was definitely worth all the work!

Check out Diemond Dies at www.diemondies.com to purchase the Sunflower and Fern Leaf dies or any of the other amazing dies and use discount code reneesfriend to receive 10% off and free shipping.