FOCUS FRIDAY: BROWN

On our walk through

Madison's 

OLBRICH BOTANICAL GARDENS

a few weeks ago,

Emily 

was

ANXIOUS

to find

the brown flower

that was in 

BLOOM.

Chocolate Cosmos

aka

COSMOS ASTROSANGUINEUS.

It actually 

smells like

DARK CHOCOLATE.

yum

All you need is love. 

But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

- Charles M. Schulz -

Please check out MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT.

Chocolate

Smiles.

BLENDED BLOOM BIRTHDAY

Do you remember a few weeks ago, while on a torturous long car ride, I kept myself busy and awake by cutting many many Blended Blooms stamped on Designer Series Paper prints? As a reminder, check out that all-important post here: The Most Effective Way to Conquer Car Riding Stress.

And this was the result:

One of the cut flowers sans center:

After cutting out this multitude of pretties, the next step was to stamp on coordinating DSP the centers.. Then, to cut all THEM out. I realize that I did not post any photos of that task in progress. But, just realize that cutting out those centers was much more time-consuming and eye-fatiguing than cutting the blossoms themselves. 

A couple of the flowers I actually cut in layers and stacked them for more dimension. The effect wasn't stunning enough to continue to do that, so I simply plan on using the majority of them as a single layer with a center added.

Anyway, I have not yet fitted all the flowers with their centers, but I did complete a few. 

Now, after all the difficult detail work has been done, comes the fun part: Using all these flowers in various projects.

Today is the birthday of a precious friend, so I put together this card for her:

In this particular card, I love the continued playfulness of polka dots throughout the card. Notice the dots in the center, the flower itself, the embossed background, and even in the layered dots alongside the sentiment:

Does this type of project -- where you do all the tedious detailed work ahead of time -- appeal to you? 

For me, as I've already said, it is a perfect task to do during long, boring periods of otherwise wasted, unproductive time. Then, it is wonderful to have an assortment of finished beauties to make quick work of a card when an occasion arises.

Centered

Smiles.

CHERRY ON TOP

If you look at page 144 of the Stampin' Up! Share the Fun catalog, you're in for a treat, if you haven't already discovered these darling 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper Stacks. Do you ever feel that a 12" x 12" sheet of DSP is just a bit intimidating, and you would be just as happy with a sheet of paper, say, oh, a quarter that size? 

So often, in cardmaking, I find myself using just a bit of a 12" x 12" sheet, and then the remainder goes into my leftover DSP container, only to sit there until I feel guilty and decide to riffle through this pile for use in another project. But, of course, by that time, the DSP is always retired. 

When I discovered these little perfectly-sized gems, I grabbed the Cherry on Top pad. 

For my most recent Stamp-In Workshop, on July 13, my girls had fun creating a card using portions of three of the designs found in this stack. To get the greatest impact, I cut these sheets into strips for triple the fun!

Usually when I use the Decorative Dots embossing folder, I place the dots raised side up. However, I thought it would add extra cuteness to flip it so the dotted dents are on the top. (Actually, being from Wisconsin, now that I look at this closely, it reminds me of a cheesehead. Eh, Wisconsinites?)

The Pool Party ribbon used on the card is some of the 1/4" Cotton Ribbon on page 159. Love this stuff!

To color the cake from the Endless Birthday Wishes set, I used an Aqua Painter and the ink right from the pad. So easy!

Following are the measurements, supplies and instructions to make one of your own Cherry On Top birthday cards.

Supplies:

Endless Birthday Wishes stamp set

Whisper White cardstock

Crushed Curry cardstock

Bermuda Bay cardstock

Cucumber Crush cardstock

Cherry On Top Designer Series Paper Stack

Black StazOn ink

Crushed Curry ink

Watermelon Wonder ink

Bermuda Bay ink

Pool Party ink

Aqua Painter

Big Shot

Ovals Collection Framelits

Decorative Dots Embossing Folder

Pool Party 1/4" Cotton Ribbon

Daffodil Delight 5/8" Satin Ribbon (retired)

Stampin' Dimensionals

Instructions:

Fold a half sheet of Whisper White cardstock in half, creasing well with a bone folder.

Run a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Crushed Curry cardstock through the Big Shot inside the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder. Adhere this to the card base WITH THE RAISED DOTS TO THE BOTTOM.

Center a 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" piece of Cucumber Crush cardstock atop this.

Space 1" x 5 1/2" strips of three of the Cherry on Top DSP onto the green, leaving an even border between the strips and on the sides.

Notch both ends of a 4 1/4" piece of 5/8" piece of yellow ribbon. Notch both ends of a 3 1/2" piece of Pool Party 1/4" Cotton Ribbon. Use a piece of Scotch Tape to adhere these two pieces of ribbon, with the smaller piece on top, to the center strip of DSP, raising the ribbons somewhat above the center point of the card.

On a scrap of Whisper White cardstock, stamp the birthday cake in black. Use an Aqua Painter and the Pool Party, Watermelon Wonder and Crushed Curry ink to paint in the cake. Use the Ovals Collection Framelits to cut out the cake.

Adhere the cake piece to a Bermuda Bay oval cut with the next largest of the Ovals Collection Framelits. 

With a couple of Stampin' Dimensionals, adhere the cake piece over the ribbons.

Stamp "Happy Birthday" from the same set inside the card in Bermuda Bay ink.

There!

Cherry

Smiles.

FOCUS FRIDAY: FOUR PETALS

An idyllic afternoon

spent in the

OLBRICH BOTANICAL GARDENS

with my 

OLDEST DAUGHTER,

Emily.

One of the first flowers

we discovered:

BRIGHT

SPOTS OF

YELLOW

highlighted by

rays of

SUN.

WOOD POPPY

sigh

I believe in God, only I spell it NATURE.

- Frank Lloyd Wright -

MY INSTAGRAM PAGE

Idyllic

Smiles.

HEY YOU THANKS

I have been so busy recently that I haven't had much time for creating. And you all know how desperately I need my creative fix each and every day. So, since I was running woefully low on my life blood, I decided to go downstairs to my Creation Station for a little infusion. And, the result was a lot of fun! And I felt so much better when I was finished!

A couple months back, Paper Pumpkin subscribers received the Love You A Lot kit. This is what the darling little cards would have looked like had you followed the instructions for the kit:

While I love all the separate components -- I mean, aren't those bows delicious? And the stamps that were included were outstanding (although I must admit that I can't quite come up with an occasion for which I would use the word "DUDE".) The cards themselves were awfully cute, as were their little kraft pouches. B U T, I simply wasn't inspired. 

I had used bits and pieces of the kit for other projects, but I was left with a lot of the components just waiting for a little inspiration. Wait no more! Last night it happened! And I came up with the weirdest most out-of-the-box and outside-my-comfort-zone card I've ever created:

I keep trying to catch peeks of the card since last night, not quite believing that it grew from MY imagination. Those little Paper Seedlings brought forth a pretty nifty creation.

The yellow portion of the card was one of the included card bases cut in half and used as a mat.

In the following photo, you can see a close-up of the top of the card. The "glasses" are what remains after you punch out the pieces for the bow. I simply cut off the white portions. The "hey" the "x" in the eyeballs, the "YOU" and the striped edge are all stamps that came with this kit. 

The "YOU" stamped on Whisper White was punched out with the Large Oval Punch. The striped Baker's Twine came with the kit.

I used several Stampin' Dimensionals to make this card pop even more.

The "THANKS" and the split chevron were from past Paper Pumpkin kits. The striped edges on the top and bottom of this piece were snipped from leftovers from the Love You A Lot kit. 

Hey YOU, what do you think? 

Hey

Smiles.