Pansies made with punches

I mentioned earlier this week that I'd been making pansies with a paper punch; these are the later versions which are rather better than my first efforts. It must be one of the easiest flowers to make - since the real flowers are very flat the card versions don't need much moulding to look quite realistic. I went to Google Images for help with the markings and found every colour version imaginable, but I kept to shades of yellow and purple because I know the recipient loves purple. The stamp is a very old favourite by PSX and the punch is Pansy Border by Martha Stewart.

Sweet peas

Here is the first card I have made completely from scratch since sorting out my disaster area craft room. It was such a joy to be able to select a box of green scraps, and a box of white scraps, and my Nesties, and a drawer full of Promarkers...each neatly labelled and each returned to its designated home when I had finished the card, instead of scrabbling through half a dozen drawers that looked like the aftermath of a tornado in a paper factory! How long this idyllic state of affairs will last is another matter.

Several years ago I made a few paper flowers from punches using books by Leonie Em of Australia. Recently a new book on the subject from America appeared in the UK courtesy of Joanna Sheen, and when I saw the sweet peas I just had to buy the appropriate punch and have a go at making them (they take me back to my childhood and a beloved uncle who grew them wherever he went, from Egypt to the Cotswolds). I was pleased with the results for a first attempt though I'm sure I could improve with practice, and the greenfly that landed as soon as I had finished seemed to give them the seal of approval :)

Image and sentiment by JustRite Stampers, coloured with Promarkers and the background chalked in pale pink to tone down the bright white card. Green background is a Spellbinder's Lacey Square . The book Paper Bouquet is by Susan Tierney Cockburn, published by Lark Books in 2008. And although you can't really see it, the dark grey background is a special photographic sheet bought with birthday money from my husband along with a pale dove grey one - I try hard to get a decent close up photo of any card I can't scan and hope that these will make life easier.

And tomorrow I intend to make a Christmas card or three to catch up on some of the April challenges from the Bah! Humbug! site.

ETA: I have just discovered this card qualifies for entry in the current JustRite Stampers challenge which is using handmade paper flowers with a JRS image.....how serendipitous is that!