Watercolor Orchids Cut OutsCompleted by Pamela Horton The whispering Platypus

I have made a quick card using this set of orchids, by Ainsi Smith, which is beautifully shaded in water colours and also this first card with which I have made maximum use of 3 of the orchids to feature as step- by -step decoupage.

I printed the sheet provided and isolated the three orchids featured. These three, I have copied a further twice. I removed some of the petals from each one to make a stronger definition of the throat section of each orchid and give the images more depth.

I built up each flower using padded D.S. tape, cut to size, covered each completed orchid front with mod podge dimensional magic.

I used the leaves from the sheet to cut down in width and used 5 of these and the now dried mod podge orchids to form a spray which I have backed using the print #8 light grey, from the sheet by Karen P Designs, cup1144247_76091.

I used the darker grey #5 from this same set of papers to make a 1cm wide, 13x13cm frame around the image.

I tied a simple bow in the centre of the 4mm wide satin ribbon and attached the tails at the back of the completed topper.

The 29.5x15cm main card is printed with same #5 print and folded before attaching the 13.75cm peach backing sheet using D.S tape.

I used padded D.S. tape to attach the completed topper to the card front. I attached the sentiment onto the same peach coloured card used for the backing sheet. The insert is the same light grey #8, printed at A4 size, onto which I have attached a smaller image of the card front and printed the verse I have chosen.

The quick and easy card featured, measures 28x17cm. The three orchids on the white green edged 25x12.5cm topper with some trimmed down leaves have been placed in a peel off silver vase.

I attached the vase to a snowflake printed vellum, trimmed this and removed the top back rim of the vase.

I lightly traced the shape of the vase into the correct position before attaching the stems using white glue. I cut out the flowers and decoupaged one layer on the centre orchid and the right orchid. I attached the first layer of orchids using white glue and the smaller central images using padded D.S. tape. The vellum vase is then attached in place with red D.S. power tape.

The green ribbon is attached across horizontally 3.5cm up from the lower edge of the16x14cm apricot backing sheet. The backing sheet, topper and green bow are attached using red Power tape. I have used a sheet designed by Caroane Designs , cup1144252_21555, which features a very cute cat in a floral edged shabby chic striped frame as the insert.

Pamela Horton. The Whispering Platypus.