SUNSHINE PLAID

Since the pandemic started way back in March, there have been only two retail establishments I have visited. They are a local quick store and, of all things, Dollar Tree. I don't know why I feel "safe" at Dollar Tree, but I guess I do to some extent. It is never overcrowded and easy to keep my distance from others, while wearing a mask myself. 

One of the main reasons I love to shop at Dollar Tree is the availability of so many crafting supplies, even some thing that aren't even meant to be crafting supplies.

Yesterday, when I was there, I picked up a sheet of flat cork, which is sticky on the back after you peel off the protective waxy layer. I actually dreamed about an idea using this cork sheet last night, with a project idea pretty well set in my brain upon waking. I was anxious to finish my upstairs chores today and get downstairs to my Creation Station to see if I could make my dream come true.. 

Not exactly the vision of my dreams, this is what resulted:

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In my dream, I wanted to combine the cork with one of the plaid pieces from the Plaid Tidings 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper pack.. 

Have you set eyes on the sheets in this pack of DSP, found on page 57 of the current Mini Catalog? Luscious luscious luscious. In choosing a sheet for this project, I kept coming across the "perfect" sheet. But, then a few more down in the stack, nope, here is the perfect one. Oh, no. Here it is! Such an assortment of wonderful. 

I finally settled on this plaid. I needed to choose the paper first so I would know which colors I would use to coordinate with it. 

I wish I could say that the dies I used for the flowers and leaves were from a Stampin' Up! set, but it's not. It is a set I purchased a few years ago because it had a cute picket fence with it. Good reason to buy, right?

The cork is a snap to work with in die cutting. It cuts without any issues whatsoever. I used Pretty Peacock and Cajun Craze for the flower components, and Mossy Meadow for the leaves.

Does the mason jar look familiar? It is left over from last month's paper pumpkin kit, meant to be used with firefly die cuts. I didn't use the jars for that, and instead saved them for a different project. This is the project! 

The jars themselves are made from vellum. When I laid the jar atop the plaid DSP, of course, the plaid showed through. I didn't want that. So I carefully traced the jar onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock and fussy cut it just inside the lines. I used tiny drops of glue along the very edge of the back of the vellum jar and fastened the white cardstock jar to it. With a little time and patience, it worked out very well.

The first thing I did then was to adhere the jar in place onto a pared down piece of the plaid paper, all ready to receive its corky bouquet of flowers.

All the flowers except the very center small flower are adhered directly to the piece, using the adhesive backing on the cork. 

To the centers of the two larger flowers, I added little yellow adhesive-backed pearls that were left over from a past Paper Pumpkin kit.

Up close and personal of the corky flowers.

The white empty space of the jar needed a little something to finish it off. I'd considered stamping something across it. But, at this point, I was reluctant to do so because vellum can be so fussy with stamping, and I was so afraid of messing it up.

What then? Yes, a die cut word. 

I dug through all the word dies I had, and finally hit upon this retired Stampin' Up! die from a set called Sunshine Wishes. I cut it out of the Pretty Peacock cardstock, and glued it carefully with miniscule dots of glue to the vellum. I was lucky in that I lined it up fairly well, even to adding the dot above the "i". Whew.

Thinking all along that I was going to make it into a giant sized card, at the last minute, I decided against that option. I matted it onto a 5" x 7" piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock, and called it finished. At that standard size, I could actually frame it. I may do that. Not sure yet. 

For now, I'm enjoying it as it is.

Dreamy

Smiles.