Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Finally! A Tutorial!

Good morning to you! Awhile back I had asked everyone what tutorials they would like to see her on the ole' blog, and creating flowers was one of the most popular answers! So I decided to get my act together and create a tutorial. For my fall inspired card today, I used my Cricut Expression, the Flower Shoppe cartridge, and the Thanksgiving cartridge. (Maple leaves)
When creating flowers you want to cut various sizes and many of them, so that your flower is nice and full! No skimpy flowers around here! ; )



I inked the edges of each flower in brown. Sometimes I opt for a deeper color than the paper or even white.....it is just a personal preference.

After inking all of your flowers, you will want to stack them. Be sure to only glue the centers of the flowers so that later, when it is dry you can pull up all of the ends. I also make sure that the petals of the flowers criss cross each other........

......remember to keep the glue to the center! : D

All of pieces are assembled, but I still need a center. This is the fun part! I often add gems, pearls, buttons etc......

But since this is a sunflower I wanted to create a fuzzy center. The centers tend to be a dark brown or black but I didn't have anything in those colors. Than I had an "AHA" moment! ; )


Grab a container of Flower Soft.......I chose cream since I didn't have dark brown, which is the color I am really aiming for.....

Fill the center of the button with a generous amount of glue......

Fill the center with Flower Soft. Pack it in there as much as you can.......you want it fluffy remember! : )

Then grab a bottle of dark brown walnut ink, or Glimmer Mist, or Shimmerz........

And spray that cream Flower Soft till it turns into dark brown Flower Soft! (You will notice that I had a moment of clarity and took the smaller flower off under the button. Obviously, if you spray the button/Flower Soft, the flower would be sprayed too! So I took it off and put it to the side to readhere later! ; )

I gave my flower a coat of ice resin to make it a bit translucent. I will have a tutorial on using Ice Resin in the near future!

And now my sunflower has a fuzzy brown center! : D

I love those moments of inspiration where you find the ability to use materials on hand and use them in a new and different way!




Have a wonderful Wednesday my friends!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Sweet....

Needless to say this weekend has been difficult for me and my family. My gram was laid to rest on Saturday. She is at peace and in a better place, but I will miss her being a part of my life. On top of that I got a nasty cold. My head has been clogged, I have a cough, and I have been so run down and tired! I haven't crafted all week, and I really feel a bit out of the loop! I am slowly trying to get back into my normal routine with everything.

I have a Crafty Secret's card to share with you today. I actually made it a few weeks back and just never got around to showing it. (Which is a good thing, I had some back up cards! ; ) It uses the new set, Queen Bee. I colored it with Copics and a Spica glitter pen. The kraft doily is by Maya Road and I cut out the center with a circle Spellbinder's die. I popped it up with foam circles. I added a doily behind the lower half, a bit of Pink Paislee twine and a stick pin to finish it off.
I love Pink Paislee twine....... : )

And of course I added a touch of glitter to his wings.........

Thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers..........it is greatly appreciated by myself and my family. (Because I know they read my blog daily!) : )

Have a restful Labor Day to you my friends!