One of the things I loved about being a cake decorating instructor was making realistic flowers out of fondant and gum paste. (I've been making my paper roses with some of my old Wilton tools used to create roses out of fondant for quite some time now.) So when I saw the new Susan's Garden dies from Sizzix, I knew I had to try them out. Well, I'm hooked.
The first flower I made was the Poppy and I paired it with a sentiment from Sparkle N Sprinkle's Just For You stamp set. I used Pan Pastels to ink up the flower as well as the red mat (all the mats are Timeless Rectangles by Spellbinders). The sentiment was stamped in VersaMark onto vellum and heat set with Japanese Lacquer embossing powder. I added a bit of Viva Decor's Pearl Pen (Salmon) to the Poppy center and on either side of the sentiment. I also die cut four extra leaves and adhered them behind the triple loop bow. The ribbon is a very pale cream color and needed just a little something extra behind it.