A few days ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx for their annual Orchid show! 
Out on a whim and creative quest, I searched for some thing to inspire my handmade St. Patrick's Day card this year. I was fascinated by a tiny creature called the Masdevallia Copper Angel 'Highland' Orchid. Simple, compared to all of the other-worldly flora I came across that day, this peculiar wispy Orchid's shape immediately reminded me of the Irish "triquetra" or Celtic knot and thus spurring the perfect image for this early celebration of Spring and St. Patrick's Day!
The original watercolor illustration was created in bright orange, reds and the minty greens in Illustrator to complete this unique design. The image was scanned and printed on my ever trusty epson inkjet on high-quality Arches watercolor paper and dusted with festive green glitter.
For the construction of the card and the original handmade envelopes each corner was filed into a hand-crafted rounded edge. High-quality colored art papers for the card come in cool light shades of green. The handmade envelope comes in olive or turquoise with a lucky four-leaf clover and Happy St. Patrick's Day message inside!
This card and other handmade cards like it can be found for sale in my Etsy shop: hmacdo paper craft
