CCC And SSSS, or A Tale Of Many Initials (and two challenges)

Okay, I hope this isn't perceived as cheating, but I have to find ways to do all I want to do and still have time for other pursuits....like doing the occasional load of laundry or talking to a friend.
So, whenever possible I'm going to see if I can create one piece as my submission for both the Compendium of Curiosities challenge AND the Simon Says Stamp And Show challenge.  Starting now and forever more, to be referred to here (again, saving time) as CCC and SSSS.  Phew....now that that is out of the way, on to the details.
This is week 10 of CCC, and the new challenge theme is:  distress stickles.  Near and dear to my heart.  I love them, have lots of them, and, in fact, spent the weekend on the finishing touches of my cruise swaps....said touches involving the application of much rock candy distress stickles.  But I digress....
The challenge theme at SSSS is to create a piece featuring the stamps and/or style of Wendy Vecchi and her Studio 490 stamps.
Now, if for some reason you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, please click HERE to learn more about CCC, and HERE to find out what SSSS is all about.
So, without further ramblings, apologies or explanations, here is my double-duty piece:

I'm pretty sure I've stuck to the theme for both challenges.  Here's what I did:

I covered a tag with milled lavender distress ink, then embossed it with Tim's damask folder, and highlighted the raised areas and edges with dusty concord distress ink.  I then rubbed the entire tag with some milled lavender distress stickles.  The top and bottom are wrapped with some tissue tape, and the bottom cut with Tim's ornate die.

I made the flower by first cutting 8 of the smaller of the two six petal flowers on Tim's tattered florals die.  (I used paper from Tim's vintage shabby stack).  Each flower was crumbled up, uncrumbled, stacked and stuck together with a brad.  Then you just have to fuss with each layer a bit to get the look you like.  I hit the edges with some dusty concord and glued a half pearl on top of the brad.

The leaves are a stamp from Wendy's dimensional rose art set.  I stamped them with archival olive on sticky back canvas and colored them with bundled sage and forest moss distress ink, attached them to some paper for a little heft, cut them out, and applied some peeled paint distress stickles.

The sentiment is from Wendy's seriously art set.  I stamped it with archival olive on a scrap from a tag which was inked to match the background.   The little flowers (dandelions????) you see behind the words are on a stamp from Wendy's botanical art set.  I cut the whole thing with a Stampin' Up punch.

One last detail.....a row on tiny pearls to go with the flower's pearl center.