Kindred spirits always bloomin with beauty

It felt soo good to have time to stamp today!

So I challenged myself to use a main card base that I wouldn't normally use so much of-

Always Artichoke.

And I wasn't going to buy another floral set, I have so many already. But after seeing soo many beautiful cards with Bloomin with beauty I had to have it. Kindred spirits was one I liked but not enough to get it, until the little light bulb went off! I think it's something to do with the fact they're both being retired. So if there's something your umming about that is retiring have a look to see whats been done with it, you might be pleasantly suprised.

So the background is also stamped in Always Artichoke with En Francais and Kindred spirits.

The flower is stamped on Kraft in Basic black , and coloured with markers (with the petals only having a hint of colour around the edges), and mounted on Soft suede. Although it looks like I've softened the edges with white, I've actually used crystal effects over the entire flower panel which gives it more of an aged look. I was going to do the cracked glass technique, but am quite pleased with the outcome.