Everyday Arches and Oval Punch for As You See It Challenge #373 - Full Tilt Tulips

Do you think you could make a card like this in less than 10 minutes, given that you could plan your card ahead of time, get out your supplies, mount your stamps, open your ink, etc.? I recently tried this for Challenge #373 - Full Tilt Tulips, a speed challenge for As You See It. After one disaster, that was no fault of mine (read on for the tea), I started again and completed with 1 min. and 26 sec. to spare. That means it took me 8 min. and 34 sec. to  make.

Here's the Challenge Banner:

I didn't have any spring bulb flower stamps to use that would be big enough to be the focal point, but it's easy to make a tulip using an oval punch and I had some pretty Ombre Pastel Glimmer Paper, so punch art was the solution for me. Here's how it turned out:

1. I started with a card base of Fresh Freesia, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4" along the long side and folded, burnished with a bone folder.

2. On that I mounted the largest Everyday Arches die cut, and used the sentiment from the Everyday Arches Stamp set - You are a Ray of Sunshine to stamp along the top curve.

3. Now this is where disaster struck the first time. I chose Granny Apple Green ink for the sentiment, but something had happened to the ink (which was perfectly fine the last time I used it). I had forgotten to rub off the factory coating on the photopolymer stamp and, at first, I thought that was the problem. I cleaned the ink off the stamp and then rubbed off the factory coating by rubbing the stamp surface on my wrist. I tried stamping again, but it still didn't work. Only one or two of the letters stamped clearly, and the ink beaded up on the other letters and rubbed off. Realizing there was no fixing it, I decided to start again, and picked the new In Colour, Golden Glow, to stamp the sentiment in. So I stopped the timer and began again from the beginning. (NB: This kind of thing only happens to me, and only when I'm doing a speed challenge, right?)

4. I chose the purple and the yellow and the green colours of the Ombre Pastel Glimmer Paper and an old medium oval punch I have, and punched out 3 ovals from 3 different spots on the ombre paper in purple and gold, then another 3 in purple, but lighter colours. I have a Tulip Builder Punch as well that has a good tulip leaf so I used that to punch out 4 tulips leaves of various shades of green from the Green Ombre Pastel Glimmer Paper, then started to assemble them.

5. Using Glue Dots, I overlapped three ovals to form a tulip flower, then used glue dots to fasten them to the card front, as shown. I added the leaves as shown to fill in the background a bit.

6. Finally some purple Frosted Iridescent Dots added the final touch.

Product List

Everyday Arches Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [164623]	Everyday Arches Bundle (English) [164630]	Fresh Freesia 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [155613]	Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock [166780]	Pastel Ombre Glimmer 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper [164851]
Golden Glow Classic Stampin' Pad [167676]	Frosted Iridescent Dots [165766]	Double Oval Punch [154242]	Tulip Builder Punch [151295]	Everyday Arches Dies [164629]
Stampin' Seal [152813]	Mini Glue Dots [103683]