Cherry Blossom Card

My dear daughter is turning twenty four this week.  As she absolutely loves Sakura blossoms I decided to make here a birthday card in that theme.

After playing with my punches for a bit I opted for creating the North American non-fruit bearing cherry blossom style instead of the Japanese Sakura blossoms.

This was my inspiration:

And this is my creation:

and here is a peak at the inside of the card:

I usually make 5.5 x 4.25 ins cards but for this one I decided on the larger 5.5 x 8.5 ins size.

Supplies used:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Dies: Branch Tree - Tim Holtz - Sizzix
Punches: Pansy - SU, Petite Petals - SU, Blossom Builder - SU
Stamps: Feeling Sentimental (greeting) - SU, In my Thoughts (card inside) - SU, Petite Petals - SU, Flower Shop - SU, Build-A-Blossom - SU
Ink: Pretty in Pink - SU for stamping the blossoms, Rose Red - SU to sponge the edges of the punched blossoms, Chocolate Chip - SU  for the sentiments and sponging the edges of the branches, Old Olive - SU, for the leaves
Misc.: 1" wide dark brown satin ribbon, 3/8" pearl accents, flower making tools.

Each of the large blossoms was made using 2 pansy shapes and 2 petite petal shapes. The outer/bottom pansy was shaped very lightly so the petals only curl a little. The remaining pansy and both petite petal shapes were shaped liberally so that the petals curl for added dimension. I off set the petals when I assembled the blossom.
You can see in my image that the large blossom on the upper right is lighter in colour then the others. I only sponged the outer edges of the pansy shapes on this one. Whereas on the others blossoms I sponged all edged quite liberally.

Note the branch tree die was trimmed in the same way as for my cherry tree punch art.
The leaves were made using the 2nd largest petal shape and matching stamp from the Build-A-Blossom stamp set.

For the inside of the card I made a "flatter" version by only using the pansy punch.