A Bouquet Full of Color | Beautiful Blossoms Challenge | Altenew

I usually try not to fill my cards too much anymore. I have learned to leave breathing room and to be much more selective about what I put on a card. But this mood board was all about a colorful bouquet, so I decided to embrace that idea and create a card that was much fuller than my usual style.

And yes… I really went for it!

The background

For the background, I chose a warm brown color. I wanted it to feel a little like the brown paper you might use to wrap a bouquet of flowers. It also gave all the bright colors a neutral place to stand and helped keep the whole card from becoming too colorful.

I added some white crackle paste through the Luminous Diamond Rings Stencil to give the background a little texture. You don't see all of it once the flowers are in place, but those little glimpses of texture add just enough interest.

I also added four open circles underneath the flowers. I made them in shades of orange and red so they would blend into the bouquet rather than introduce yet another color. They give the flowers a little more structure and, in a way, create places for the flowers to “land.”

The flowers 

Then came the flowers. Lots of them! 

I used the colors from the mood board and mixed different shades of red, pink, orange, yellow and purple. The greenery is made with several different shades of green cardstock and ink to give the bouquet some variation and depth.

At one point I tried leaving some flowers out because I thought perhaps the card was getting too full. But then it didn't really look like the bouquet I had in my head anymore. I also tried reducing the greenery, and that didn't work either.

So I listened to the card.

Sometimes less really is more.

And sometimes… less is simply not enough. 😂

For the final touch, I added the Thinking of You sentiment and some white splatters across the flowers and background. I love how the splatters bring all the different elements together.

Final Thoughts

This card is definitely different from what I normally make. It is fuller, more colorful and a little more playful. But that was exactly what I wanted to explore with this challenge.

And perhaps that is one of the nicest things about challenges: they sometimes make you step outside the rules you have made for yourself.

I am learning to make my cards more restrained, but I am also learning that restraint doesn't mean that every card needs to be quiet.

Sometimes creativity needs a little room to misbehave.