a quick card and technique

Today I just want to quickly share a card that I created for the Graphic 45 thankful challenge- to make a thank you or thanksgiving card using Graphic 45. Since Graphic 45 doesnt really have a thanksgiving line, and I only had certain papers, I used a lot of techniques on this card to make it more autumn-y. I like playing with different techniques on cards, so I thought I would share a couple here.

First, notice that the top and bottom are the same striped paper, but I used a Clearsnap Design Adhesive. Design adhesives are like rub-ons of adhesive that you can use for glitter or flock or embossing powder. Here I used clear embossing powder on it. Then I misted it with some caramel Smooch spritz, to make the design stand out, but keep the warm orangey brown color scheme going.

For the flower, I used one of the new EK success dimensional punches -it's like a border punch, but it punches flower petals, then you roll it up to form a flower. I find that the base - the strip of paper that holds the flower petals together is a little too thick. My flowers seem to stand up WAY too high, so I trimmed it down a little with my paper trimmer. That makes the whole thing a little more delicate, but the flower has a lower profile, which I like. Also, the instructions (can you believe I actually read them?) said to punch two strips and glue them together with the petals offset to make the flower fuller. But when I tried that I thought the flower was TOO full, so this is just one punched 12inch strip. I contemplated adding a petal here or there to make it more full and uniform, but ended up deciding against it.

After rolling the flower there is of course, a hole in the middle. I decided to add just a small roll of paper to the center, to keep from adding too much more bulk, or any extra colors. When I went to roll the paper strips, I dropped one and it ended up looking a bit like the two curls there. I thought that was pretty cool, so I made two of them and added them as sort of leaves. I glued the ends around the base of the flower, and used a tiny bit of glossy accents applied with my finger to the base of the curls, to hold them to the card. I guess those might be called quilling, which I have been meaning to try, but I didnt use any tutorials or anything, just rolled a tight spiral and then let it out a little, playing with it until I got the look I wanted.