Lilypad Inspiration - You're So Special

Hello all!
I'm starting off this post with a little excitement :) The lovely ladies at Hero Arts tweeted about my card set !! I'm sure you all know how rewarding that is! Sometimes when we share these things with the non-crafty people in our lives they don't see what the big deal is so I'm super grateful to have you guys :)

Tonight's card is for Lily Pad Cards Inspiration Challenge. This is a monthly challenge they do where you create a project based on something you saw on the blog that inspired you. I love this challenge! It's a little bit like having your card tweeted about, except you get to do it for someone. What a warm fuzzy feeling :)

My inspiration was the card created by Michelle Liimatainen. She won the embossing challenge with it and it is such a gorgeous creation. Here is the card.

and here is my card ;)

I really loved the colors Michelle chose and her use of a big, bold sentiment.

I started with a white card base and masked off a rectangle in the center. I used the medium and small polka dot flower (Hero Arts, Dots and Flowers) to stamp the background border with mustard seed ink.  After I removed the mask I outlined the rectangle with a T-square ruler and a black marker.

I stamped the large flower twice on a separate piece of white and heat embossed it. I stamped the leaves 3 times and heat embossed them too :)  I colored the whole flower using spiced marmalade. I added some barn door just around the edges. On the second flower I colored the stamen using mustard seed. I cut them out and adhered them to my first flower with foam. For the leaves I colored them entirely with crushed olive then added peeled paint to just the edges.

The sentiment (Hero Arts, Truly Appreciated) was stamped with jet black archival ink (Ranger). To complete the card I added some red rhinestones and a little glossy accents.

Thanks for coming by and taking a peek. :) and for understanding my joy about a simple tweet!