This isn't packing... (BIC18)

Last night, when I was supposed to be packing for a girly scrappy weekend (One bin? I can't fit it all in one bin!), I decided to try a challenge for the first time. I really liked the cake Beate posted as the inspiration for the "be inspired challenge" (aka: BIC18). Since my dear daughter is graduating today from Kindergarten, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make this her graduation card.
I used the following paper colours:

• Ruby Red
• Cameo Coral
• Bashful Blue
• Certainly Celery
• Very Vanilla

I punched bunches of little flowers out with a small EK Success flower punch (not SU!), and a bunch more smaller punches with a Michael's $1-bin punch. All of the flowers had Ruby Red ink added to their centres, with a few white dots.

The green leaves and blue buds were also punched using the EK Success flower punch, I just trimmed off each petal to make the leaves/buds. Did I mention there was a lot of cutting involved? A lot of cutting.

To map out where I was going to place my flowers, etc. I first stamped the very vanilla cardstock with one of the flower stems from Garden Silhouettes in Blush Blossom ink, just so I had something to follow. I traced over the stems with my Old Olive marker.

Then, with a lot of 2-way glue, I stuck everything down.

For the rick-rack across the middle, I had to wing it because I didn't have any ribbon. So, I grabbed a pair of my fancy scissors (which, I might add, I haven't used since I bought the darned things) and cut my own rick-rack out of Ruby Red paper. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I stamped some cherries from Tart and Tangy and punched them out with a 1-3/8" punch before layering them onto a bit of Ruby Red that I had punched with my scallop punch. For touch of shine, I filled the cherries in with crystal effects.

It all got layered onto a few layers of bashful blue and vanilla to frame it all in.

Thanks for looking!