Textures of Nature Challenge

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I have been able to post here. The past nine months have been a long haul with both my father and mother-in-law being ill and passing away. Even though I usually find comfort in my craft room, I needed to take a break from it and regroup. I am very happy to be back.

Next week is release week at Flourishes, and to kick it off they have offered a challenge 'Textures of Nature'. I looked through my stash for things with texture that brought nature to mind. I love the look of ruched satin ribbon - it makes me think of soft, satiny flower petals - so I pulled some 1" cream satin ribbon and ruched it (for instructions on ruching ribbon click here). I also pulled some textured leaf ribbon, a vine and leaf embossing folder and hemp.

Since June is a big wedding month, I decided to create a wedding card. I took a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of Classic Ivory cardstock and embossed the top 2" with my embossing folder. Next I stamped the rest of the piece with a stamp from the Magnolia stamp set in second generation Desert Sand ink and then ran the piece through my cuttlebug with the largest die from the A2 Matting Basics A set. I stamped three extra images of the magnolia flower. I cut one out completely and used this to layer the individual leaves from the leaf ribbon. The second image I cut just the flower and the third image I cut just the center of the flower and then layered all three together, popping the center piece with 3D foam just under the top part and gluing the lower part down. I added my hemp, flower and sentiment and then popped the whole thing onto an A2 card base.

Supplies:
Paper-Classic Ivory CS (Flourishes)
Stamps - Magnolias, Tag Lines (Flourishes)
Ink - Desert Sand (CTMH), Copics E40, E41
Accessories - Leaf Ribbon (May Arts), 1" Satin ribbon (fabric store), Hemp, pearls (CTMH)
Other - Classic Hourglass die (Flourishes), A2 Matting Basics A (Spellbinders), Embossing Folder (Provocraft), 3D foam, needle & thread