The Return of Flower Friday!

(Reminder - blog candy below, drawing Sunday night!!)
Ok so the clock will have struck midnight in Central Standard Time by the time I get this posted... it was Friday when I started the card, so I am calling this Flower Friday! I'm going to try to bring that weekly feature back to the ol' blog, especially now that winter is close at hand and we need these little reminders of the blooms from seasons gone by... I mean, this week in Austin it got all the way down to a frigid 59 degrees!! Bust out the fleece! Warm some hot cocoa!! *smile* I'm being a little sarcastic for the benefit (or dismay) of my blogging friends in the great frozen north... but I do have to admit, my Michigan blood is gone, and when it gets down that low I do get quite cold! But never fear, we are supposed to have highs in the 80s once again this week.............! ;-) So tonight's card was inspired by this week's Thursday Throwdown over at Colleen's excellent blog, Distinctive Touches. In the end, my card looks absolutely nothing like Colleen's painting, but the idea is to be inspired, not to reproduce exactly, right?? I was obviously inspired by the color blocks, and I was originally inspired by the colors, although I strayed a bit there and added much more green. Maybe the plant in her picture got the green in my head?? My computer is away from my stamp room, so unless I take notes I'm always doing these blog challenges from memory - which is precisely why I always botch up the sketch challenges - because my memory stinks!!! I also decided to play Colleen's challenge from the week before - to make a sympathy card when you don't actually need one. Thankfully I have nobody to send this card to at the moment, and I hope it stays that way. I just doodled the "so sorry" and frame around the main image - if you've been following along, you know this is something I like to do every so often. It makes me feel so BRAVE, when I've invested time coloring an image, to just pick up a pen and go crazy around the border! It's my own little adrenaline rush. Yes, I am a wild woman! :-) By the way, is it helpful at all if I leave the recipe at the bottom of the post? I used to do that, but then I got lazy. I'll try to start doing that again too. So here ya go....! (and thanks for stopping by today!)

• Stamps: Oh, So Lovely (Level 1 Hostess Set)
• Paper: So Saffron, Really Rust, Green DCWV Mulberry paper (I haven't used mulberry paper in ages - found it during my stamp room cleaning...!), Basic Black, Whisper White
• Ink: Black StazOn, Really Rust (sponged on RR blocks for dimension)
• Accessories: Prismacolors, baby oil, stumps, So Saffron brads, black organdy ribbon, black pen