Collage paper flowers

After I finished making the stained glass window card back in February, I still had some alcohol ink coloured tissue paper left over. I’d had the idea of using it to create some new collage paper, similar to how I used it to make the stained glass effect, but on white card instead of clear acetate. Like so many things, I hadn’t done anything about it yet. So I sat down, tore it into little pieces, remembered to put on my nitrile gloves, and glued all the little pieces down again to make a new whole (two new wholes in fact, one red and one green).

While I was waiting for all that glue to dry, I did a quick sketch of some flowers, took a photo, and used that to create a vector version in Affinity Designer.

My plan was to cut the petals and leaves out of the newly created collaged paper and then reassemble them on the card base. I could have done it all by hand, but creating a digital version meant that I could get the flowers the right size for the card (my initial sketch was too small) and easily separate the individual pieces.

Using the pattern as a guide, I cut out the elements and glued them onto a strip of handmade watercolour paper, leaving a few bits hanging over the sides. With coloured fineliners, I added a few lines to the leaves and petals for extra texture.

It was feeling a little unfinished so I added a stem-stitched border around the bottom half — it’s not a vase, but it serves the same purpose of grounding the flowers on the paper.

The sentiment was heat-embossed onto vellum, which was then trimmed to fit exactly between the stitching and held in place by two dots of glue hidden behind the sequins. Once it was all fixed onto the card base with double-sided tape, the final touch was the addition of two narrow strips of glitter tape alongside the handmade paper panel for a bit of sparkle.