The Last Flowers of Summer

Hi there everyone.  Well I suppose we have to accept that Summer is now gone though no frost yet to kill the blooms entirely, and one of the last flowers to go is the sunflower and you often see them standing tall in a garden with flowers and leaves gone brown and the seeds ripening in the centre of what is left of the flower.  I have a mixture of nuts in a jar on the table and I always include sunflower and pumpkin seeds too.  Anyway I digress.  Here is the card I made for our next door neighbour for her recent birthday using a pretty sunflower wreath called Flowers All Around which I won as a prize on the Penny Black and More Challenge quite a while ago, and recently realised that it was a NBUS one, i.e. never before used schtuff, so I have now remedied that, but unfortunately I don't think it is available anywhere at the moment.  I also used paper from a pad by Craft Consortium which I bought on my way home from holiday in Cornwall at a stall in the pannier market in Tavistock, together with a few stamps which will get used soon I'm sure. 

I started by selecting a paper which I thought would go nicely with the colours that I was going to use with the wreath stamp and stamped it on to the paper using Versamark ink and WOW Metallic Gold Embossing Powder.  I then coloured the stamp using my water brush and several colours of Distress Ink, namely Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Candied Apple, Forest Moss, Peeled Paint and Cracked Pistachio.  I think this is the first time I have used a piece of paper on a card for absolutely ages, but these papers have the look of washy ink which appealed to me and nice and thick at 180 gsm so took the water beautifully.  I also used a bit of the Cracked Pistachio over the background under and around the wreath and added a sentiment using Olympia Green Versafine ink which actually looks like black in the photo, and then heat embossed with some WOW Clear Gloss EP.

Thank you for your visit which I always appreciate and I hope you'll come back soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge September - Anything Goes (Optional 'Use Something Old  or Neglected').  This stamp has certainly been neglected and is one of the older stamp images.
Uniko Challenge - No. 55 Anything Goes (optional twist Autumn).
Addicted to Stamps - No. 177 For a Lady/Girl.
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes with Flowers.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.