Below I have linked to all the lovely designers participating in the hop, I hope you enjoy and gain some inspiration, again please make sure to leave a comment on each of the ladies blogs to be entered into the giveaway

Tara
Sandi
Nancy
Laurie
Deb
Chala
Susan
Kia

For my cards I am playing around with Lawn Fawns Pretty Poppies die set as well as Spellbinders embossing folder, Alcohol Inks, and some gilding polish.

When I received my design team package and noticed this beautiful die set I knew that wanted to do the poppies out of Alcohol ink, so this is what I did for our hop.

I created a couple of backgrounds using both regular alcohol inks as well as the pearls. I used Crimson, red pepper, Deception, splendid, mineral and blending solution to create this beautiful background. I did a few versions of this, one on glossy specialty paper from Ranger and the other on Yupo.  I started by adding the blending solution straight on to the paper then went in with the different colors of ink, taking a straw and blowing it around a bit to move and mix the ink.  I repeated the process until I was really happy with the look. 

​

I set the backgrounds aside to dry and moved on to figure out what I would do for the rest of the cards.  I decided to emboss some heavyweight cardstock using a couple of different Spellbinders embossing folders, (linked below to the only one that was in the shop).  I decided to cover the black with enchanted gold gilding polish, I liked how it picked up the detail and gave it a little of a vintage feel. I did the same over the weight but the camera just doesn't catch it as it is a very subtle look. 

From there it was time to die cut and make the bases of the card.  I die cut numerous poppies both from plain red cardstock and the alcohol inked backgrounds, this took a bit of time but it was nice that you get both a large and small poppies die in this set. For the leaves, I took some inked background paper I had created for a previous card and die cut numerous leaves from this and other scraps of cardstock in different shades just to add a little extra interest.

I created card bases from heavyweight black cardstock, the white version measured 4 ¾ x 6, the gold layering piece measures 4 4/8 x 5 5/8 and the focal panel measured 4 ¼ x 5 ½. For the black and gold version the card measures 4½ x 6, the white layer measures 5 ¾ x 4¼ and the main panel measures 4 x 5½.  For both cards, I glued down the layering pieces flat to the base and then popped up the focal panel with foam tape. Then it was time to glue the flowers together and add them to the card.

 These poppies were very easy to put together two large petal dies would create one poppy and the same with the smaller set. I popped up the larger flower with foam tape and glued the smaller together flat, not before edging each of the petals with ground espresso distress oxide ink. I Then added them to the card focusing on the center allowing the embossing to still be visible. I tucked in some of the leaves on either end of the small flowers really bringing your eye in and adding a tiny little sentiment to finish it all off/