A Faux Living Card

Hello Everyone!!  Today I have something a little different for you.  How many of you have seen a Living Card?  They are the cards you can buy at a florist complete with a living plant/flowers inside.  They look something like this....

Now I don't know about you, but in my house, plants have a very short life span!  So, I thought, how could we make a FAUX Living Card?  That was it would last for and be enjoyed for a lot longer!  :)

I decided to use the Flourishes' Hollyhocks stamp set and picked out the Copic colours that I thought would work well.  (Hollyhocks is a new stamp set available through X-press Graph-x, contact them for details!!)

I had a look at the image I was planning to colour and stamped it three times in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card.

The first image I've coloured the top of the image in full detail.  The bottom I've I've only applied the base colour because this will be covered by other layers.  This way if there are any parts peeking out from underneath the layers it won't be noticeable, but you aren't spending a lot of time or ink colouring it either.

For the second image, I've coloured only the bottom part of the image.

For the third image, I've only coloured small parts that look like they would be in the foreground - for example the flowers that are in front of others.

Next I cut out my three images.  You don't have to cut out your base image, but I had a plan for mine and did so - which is a LOT of fussy cutting!  The second image is all one piece and the third image is in six pieces.  It's really important that you cut the layer pieces close - you don't want those white lines around them!

Add some X-press It High Tac Foam Mounting Tape to the backs of each piece (except your base image).  I like the High Tac because it really holds the pieces where you want them to be.

Take your second image with the foam tape attached and place it over your base piece.  Make sure you line it up well so that you can't see the image underneath!

Then attach all your individual pieces, also on foam tape and carefully attach them, once again covering the image underneath.

So now that your image is full of dimension, how can we make this into a Faux Living Card?

Take a piece of card, scoring it twice in the middle to create a wide spine.  I've made this one to fit the die cuts from Spellbinders Elegant Labels Four dies.  I've cut white with these dies to create a beautiful frame and background for the Hollyhocks.

The sentiment is also from Hollyhocks stamp set and I've cut it out using the die from Spellbinders 5x7 Detailed Scallops, airbrushing the middle using R81 Copic.

And there you are!!  Your very own Faux Living Card, one that will not die and your recipient will treasure forever!

The Copic Colours used in today's Faux Living Card Tutorial are.....

Leaves - G40, G43, G46, G94, C5
Dark Pink Hollyhocks - R81, R83, R85, R89
Purple Hollyhocks - B60, B63, B69, B37
Light Pink Hollyhocks - RV00, RV52, RV55

Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial! 
Happy Colouring!
Kathy