Flower Power

or more to the point Flower Soft power.. Hi Blogland, you know when you haven't used a specific product for ages and then you go back to it and think "WOW" why don't I use this more often? Well, that has been the case for us here at Pinnacles this week.. As we revisit Flower Soft in our lessons..To be honest it is quite a niche product to use, but can add dimension, and you all know how much I like dimension,and texture to your crafting projects.
So here's how to use it.From a patterned piece of card I cut the following measurements, 2" x 5 3/4", 1 1/4" x 5 3/4" & 3 1/4" x 2".You will need 7 pieces of Flower Soft wire cut at different lengths.To your first wire, add some Glossy Accentsand sprinkle your Flower Soft over it.Whilst the glue is still wet, sprinkle some fine glitter. The glitter will stick to any exposed glue and add a little bit of sparkle to you project.Stand the wire in a foam mat to dry.Repeat this process for the other 6 wires.With the widest piece of card stock which was cut earlier, punch a border down one side.On this particular project I used one of the new release Martha Stewart Border Punches called Modern Garland/Petal Frame. This Punch also has a co ordinating corner, so you could also achieve an Around the Page effect with the right measurements of card stock.Apply this punched card and the other thinner piece of card to your base card. The base card was cut to 5 3/4" x 5 3/4".Take a vase Peel off and apply it to the smallest piece of card stock you cut earlierand cut it out.Curve the image slightly to add some dimension.Place a piece of double sided foam on the backand start applying your flowers, which should now be dry.Punch out some foliage. I used the Martha Stewart Frond and Pine Leaf Punch.Apply another layer of double sided foam tape and apply your remaining flowers and then the leaves.Finally finishing off with another layer of foam tape to hold everything in place.Move the flowers around until you achieve the effect you require..Stamp your sentiment onto your prepared card,and mount your vase & flowers onto your card to complete your project.. Simple and effective, just like me!....
Here are a few others I have made using different sized vases, different coloures of Flower Soft and different Punches.Using Autumn Flower Soft, Rain Drop Martha Stewart Punch, which also has a co ordinating corner to form an Around the Page set, and Metallic Gold StazOn, oh yeah!, Stazon has now gone all metallic and is available in Gold, Silver, Copper & Platinum.Green Flower Soft with an Art Deco PunchUltra Fine Koala Grey Flower Soft with a Martha Stewart Modern Garland/Petal Frame Border PunchYellow Flower Soft with an Art Deco PunchDelphinium Blue Flower Soft with a Rain Drop Border Punch and Polar White Flower Soft with the Modern Garland/Petal Frame Border Punch
So, all in all I've had quite a blast making these, and it's only Tuesday!!.. Off to play and make some more me thinks..
Hope you like? & thanks for checking us out..
See you soon..
Andy (Pinnacles).

Up, up and away!

Hi Everyone, later this week is a friends, erm... "Special Birthday" it's one of the zero's, I won't say anymore than that!! She is a complete fashion freak, and shoes are her particular weakness.. Some of you ladies may be nodding in agreement I guess.. For you, your weakness may be for shoes, and for me, it is Cricut Cartridges... Just added a few more to my ever growing selection.. They're not all mine you know, they are for the shop!! honestly!!
Any hoo, My Summer in Paris Cricut Cartridge arrived last week and it inspired me to complete this project for my friends 30th Birthday, oh dam! I gave it away.. Oh well, damage done!
Looking at the outside of the card you may be wondering, "why a hot air balloon for someone who likes shoes?"ahh, but take a look inside..
So, here's how I made it.
I took an A4 piece of glossy card stock and ran over it with an anti static bag to remove any static and more importantly non visible sticky finger prints, well, most of them anyways...I then took my Brayer and applied Some "Mountain Rose" Adirondak Dye based ink... Using a Brayer is a technique to be learnt and is difficult to explain in pictures and words, perhaps I should start doing video tutorials, what do you think? Whilst I'm on the subject, do you think I waffle on too much on my posts?, do you like the step by step instructions? or would you prefer just to see what I have made? Let me know your thoughts and leave a comment.. Back to the project.After applying the Mountain Rose colour, I then applied some Sunset Orange, I know it's difficult to see in the picture, but it's definitely there, honest!.Next I applied some Currant Ink to the glossy card. But, before doing this I punch a circle from a "post it" note and stuck it in the top corner of the card, and then went over with the Currant Ink.Remove the circle and you have a Moon, or Sun on your project.Then place the whole of the "post it" Note around this circle and Brayer on some more Sunset Orange Ink, just to soften the effect.Next, tear some scrap paper, this will be used as a mask to form some mountainsand brayer on same Latte coloured Ink.Then go over the remaining White area with some Espresso coloured inkto give some depth to the mountains and the project.And you should end up with something like this, I say "something" as the effects will be completely random and unique each time..I cut the card down to sizeand then matted it onto some White card stock. The card was still rather large so a standard envelope will not fit it! My Martha Stewart Score Board will sort that out though...
So, onto the Balloon. I cut the images out from the Summer in Paris Limited Edition cartridge @ 6" and layered the front image onto the back.This in turn was stuck onto the front of the card with a double layer of foam pads, just to give it some real dimension and height.I printed a sentiment from my PC and literally rolled the remaining ink I still had on my brayer over it so that it would tie in with my project.This was matted onto some excess glossy card stockand mounted onto the front of the card.
Nearly there folks!!I cut out 2 shoes from Summer in Paris @ 3 1/2".Again, these were mounted on top of each otherand I positioned them inside the card, as a sort of surprise kinda thing, adding the last bit of the sentiment to complete the project.My friend is ganna wonder what kind of card I have given her until she sees the inside and realises that I know her better than she thinks!!!
Anyway, I'm sure she'll love it, as I hope you do too?
Thanks for checking us out..
See you soon..
Pinnacles.