Pinkfresh Studios October Challenge: Die Cut Paisley

Hello crafty friends!  Did you know that Pinkfresh Studios hosts a monthly challenge on their blog?  I am getting this card in just under the wire for Pinkfresh's October Challenge, which is all about fussy cutting and die cutting.  I LOVE die cutting.  When my crafty mojo decides to take a break (which happens all too often!), I always find myself falling back to die cutting.  In fact, I probably consider myself more of a die cutter than a stamper.  I just love arranging shapes into pretty arrangements.  

I'd had it in my mind to combine two of my favorite Pinkfresh sets - Pretty Paisley and Fleur 1 - into one card, and this was perfect for the die cutting challenge.  Pinkfresh's Pretty Paisley is one of my favorite sets - I just LOVE pretty floral paisleys.  I started by die cutting a paisley into the center of my card.  I used my Misti stamping tool to align the gorgeous garden image into the center of the paisley and stamped it onto watercolor paper.  I then watercolored the garden using my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and added some tiny gold french knots and gold sequins for a little subtle sparkle.  

After that, the die cutting fun began.  I wanted to create interest by adding different individual floral die cuts to my paisley, so I stamped, watercolored and die cut different images from the Fleur 1 set.  I also wanted to create a little dimension inside the paisley, so I stamped the garden image again, watercolored the 4 little tulips, and fussy cut them out.  I layered them into the paisley using foam tape.  

I stamped my sentiment from the Pretty Paisley set, and decided to add some texture and interest to the card by adding watercolor splatters and hand stitching around the card base and paisley.  I then applied foam tape to the back of the paisley piece and layered it on top of the watercolored garden base.  I added my die cut pieces around the perimeter of the paisley, and the card was finished!  

You can check out Pinkfresh's monthly challenges on their blog here.  Links to the products I used are below.  I participate in the Scrapbook.com affiliate program, which means that I receive a small commission at no cost to you when products are purchased through the links I share.  Thank you so much for your support!  

I had so much fun creating this card and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next month!  I hope you enjoyed this project - I'd love to see your die cut projects!  Have a wonderful day!