French Lilacs

I always love when the lilacs start blooming in my yard.  The dark purple French Lilac is very fragrant and is so beautiful in bouquets.

This is a slimline card.  I used the Spellbinders Christmas Foliage Strip & Borders (Die of the Month Nov '21) die set to create the bottom border.  It was die cut twice and a small piece of the second die cut border was cut to fit behind the middle of the border along the bottom edge of the card.  A piece of purple cardstock was glued to the inside of the white card.

For the long branch for this lilac, I used Susan's Winter Bough & Evergreen Shrubs die set.  The branch was die cut 4 times using watercolor paper.  Two branches were glued together for thickness.  They were brushed first with green ink then a second time with brown ink.  The two branches were glued down across the top of the card.

Susan's Garden Favorites Lilac die set from  Spellbinders was used to create the lilacs.  I used Susan's Specialty Cardstock.  Before die cutting, I placed the cardstock on the Waffleflower Media Mat and brushed on different shades of purple inks, on both the front and back before die cutting the florets.  This gives a lot of shading on each lilac.  Some of the darker purple florets were shaped so they looked as if they are just opening up.  After shaping the petals on the molding mat using the tools in the Flower Tool Kit, they were glued to the lilac base.  A Prill was added to the center of each floret.  The glue used is Bearly Art Glue.  The leaves were die cut using watercolor paper, colored with two shades of green ink, spritzed with water and shaped using the tools in the Flower Tool Kit.  

To finish the card, the Foliage & Ladybug die set was used to die cut two ladybugs.  They were colored, glued on the leaves, then clear glaze added.

The sentiment is from  Susan's Garden Favorites Quotes Stamp Set.  It was stamped with black VersaFine Ink.  I used a very old Spellbinders Scallop Oval die set to die cut the oval for the sentiment.  It did not have the punched holes in each scallop, so I used a piercer, laid the die cut on the molding mat, and punched holes in each scallop.  It was attached using dimensional tape.