Challenged....by Painted Poppy

I am still keeping my promise to myself to use each and every stamp set that I have...

It's been lots of fun keeping this promise....

and..

it's a great feeling to be using things..

as opposed to just collecting them.

Altenew's Painted Poppy was one of the stamp (and die) sets that were in my little "to-do" pile 

at the end of the studio worktable.

I've found that keeping that little pile works well for me...

It's an unavoidable reminder as to which stamp sets I'd like to create a few cards with....

So here's what happened.

I decided to create a card with Painted Poppy.

I had a card sketch in my crazy crafty little head...

I got out all of the supplies that that I knew that I'd need..

Things were rolling right along.

UNTIL...

I was faced with the challenge of positioning the stamp ...

the flower stem..in particular.

The natural out-of-the -package "shape" of the flower stems

didn't match up with the coordinating dies.

UGH.

I spent so much time trying to get everything aligned.
I wasn't having much luck.
The stem was so thin..had a mind of it's own...
...it just wouldn't stay put...I would position it...and it would want to move to a different curved shape.

Eventually, I took a sharp pencil...

and drew a line ....using the stem part of the die as a stencil-like guideline

onto the card stock that I wanted to stamp the image on.
THEN...with the line...and my MISTI...I was able to get the stem of each image to stay in position.

It worked!

After tossing quite a few die cut Poppies into the trash...

Finally!

I got it right!

Whew.!

Truthfully...I wasn't really sure that I'd wind up with a card.

But...after much trial and error....

I wound up with the card that I had envisioned in my mind.

The flower...the bud..and the leaf were all stamped and then die cut.

I stamped a sentiment , also from the Painted Poppy stamp set, onto a strip of vellum.

I die cut a mini scalloped rectangle 

then aembossed a black mat layer with a We R Memory keeps Next Level 3-D embossing folder.

(About the embossing folder...I have one thing to say....WOW!..That's some GREAT 3-D embossing)

I positioned everything...

I used foam dimensionals and rolled bulge dots when placing the flower, bug and leaf

I used  a few small rhinestones as embellishments 

I love the images..and am happy with the card...

and even though I kinda figured out the stem issue...

I'm not sure that the it wont be a challenge again...

the next time that I want to create a card with this stamp and die set.

Here's a close-up....

Red, black and white is always a nice look for a card, I think...

and..

I like the font used for the sentiment...and am glad that I chose to stamp it onto vellum.

So..

even with the stem "issue" and the challenge of aligning it accurately...

I can say that I'm glad that I stuck with it ...and saw this card through to the end.

This being said...

I still have some ideas for different colors to use 

with the Hero Arts Bird Layering stamp that I posted here yesterday...

maybe that will be next on my card making  "to-do list!

Thanks for visiting my crafty and creative friends...

Have a wonderful Monday!

Michelle.