My Rose Garden

A warm hello to you all! Thank you for taking time to pop in for a visit and to see what I'm up to this week for the Sugar Creek Hollow challenge!

This week our challenge is "My Rose Garden" and we have been so generously sponsored by the lovely Heather A Hudson from My Artistic Adventures.

Here is my card. I tried to create an illusion of looking out of the window, into my rose garden and hope that this has somehow transpired!

A full frontal view of the card,

 The first thing I did was cut out the window aperture and then create a wall using Modeling paste and a Studio 490 - Wendy Vecchi stencil for art, Brick Wall. I was delighted with the outcome. It was the first time I had worked with modelling paste and stencils and I know now, it will be something I will go back to without hesitation.
Once it was totally dry, I then worked some Distress Ink, Tea Dye, into the wall to define the bricks. I used a Poppystamp Die for the window and treated it with some DI's as well and adhered it to the front of the card, creating the window. 

Next I fussy cut several of the ATC's from the set I received from Heather, removing the roses and then adhered them to the back of the window with the intention of creating a rose like creeper around the outside of the window.  I had treated the edges of these cut outs with DI, to remove the white created from the cutting. It softens the look of the flowers entirely.  

A side view showing the corner frame in the bottom corner

On the reverse side of the window, I created a cover sheet, by cutting out the window again and placed this sheet over all the exposed edges, hiding them all from view so that the inside of the card is lovely and neat as well.

Because I wanted to recreate the outdoor view, I felt the background beyond the window needed to have a bit of blue for the sky as well as some garden, so I used one of the ATC's and some 'artistic licence' and 'stretched' the image so as to fill the inside of the card and that way I had my 'sky' and 'garden'. 
It worked out quite well I think.

A view from the opposite side, showing some of the
Rose Garden!

To finish off the front of the card, I 'framed' a sentiment from Magical Mini Letter Seals  by Whimsey Stamps that reads "Serenity is a magical moment of a state of true contentment".I thought it was so fitting for this challenge and my rose garden!

A close up of the 'framed' sentiment.

I die cut Joy! Cutting and Embossing Labels, Tags 6002/0142 from Joan at Country Crafts, turned it side up then stamped the sentiment onto white card, cut and mounted and embellished it with a filigree corner and some paper roses and seam binding. 

I am very happy with the way the card turned out and urge you to pop in and visit Heather at her blog and take a good look at her amazing work and of course, do visit all my teamies for inspiration - links in the side bar - then, please do enter the challenge we are running - you may win some of Heather's beautiful digi's!

In real life, my roses have been pruned some weeks ago and we are anxiously awaiting the rains to come, as they have started shooting in preparation for a stunning summer show!

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you a wonderful weekend and week ahead.
Life is far to short with all the hustle and bustle, so please do take time to stop and
 'Smell the Roses". 

Warm hugz
Moz