Project 375: Fun cactus thank you

My colleague did the randomest thing the other day: he wanted a cactus (or 2) for his desk and went to a flower shop to get one (or 2). He started bartering and said, what if I get one more? And if I get one more? to lower the cost per cactus. In the end he bought a tray of 17 of them (lowering the cost substantially!) and took the two he wanted, leaving the remaining 15 for all of us on a first come, first served basis. As one of the lucky 15 (wahoo!) I wanted to give him a cacti thank you card for Monday morning.

I went looking at a few of my favourite challenge blogs and found a perfect combo:

Sketch by CAS(E)this Sketch 

Color combo by Color Throwdown 

Paper Players theme of Thankful 

I <3 ProMarkers theme of Distress Edges 

This little stamp is from Claire, I think it may be from Michael's but I'm not positive. I was inspired by the DT at CAS(E) This Sketch and the repeated images a few of them featured. I decided to make my own pattern of cacti, coloring them in with Mandarin, Gold, Oasis, Pear Green and Forest Green ProMarkers.

The bottom half features Broken China and my trusty blending tool, going a bit darker on the edges to meet the I <3 ProMarker challenge, plus some water bleach spots for texture. The Many Thanks sentiment and arrow were also a gift from Claire last year, I honestly can't remember the source.

I had a lot of fun with this one, it's a nice finished piece and still feels masculine for my colleague soi think he'll like it too!