Paper Punch Flower

Woooh, I have been so busy that I have become a bad, bad blogger! As I said a couple of posts ago, I am taking an on-line quilling class at My Creative Classroom. Sheesh, I am as bad at that as I have been at blogging. I finally figured it is like learning the piano, lots of boring practice before you can play Mozart, lol.

I am also taking a class there to open an Etsy store. I could probably figure it out myself, but this seemed so much easier than trial and error. It really is, but going slow.

I have also been working with someone to design a blog exclusively for my egg art. It is pretty much finished now. All I have to do is redo the home page pictures and little notes. The blog itself is finally finished. One needs to click on "blog" on top of the home page though and that took me a few minutes to figure out when she had me take my first look, lol

It is called "Egg Transformer" and you can find it here. The set up is so different due to the fact that it is Word Press rather than Blogger. I would LOVE to know what you think of it. So far I have only transferred my egg posts from here. I do have quite a few eggs that I will be photographing and posting on there soon.

Have you read this far? I try to keep my writting fairly short but I have so much going on that I wanted to share with you.

Now onto this post, lol,  which is kind of picture heavy.

I have an egg (yes, another egg) that has an opening cut out of the front which is surrounded with cutouts of butterflies. It is so pretty. What I want to do is make a nice butterfly garden in it with a trellis in the back and a birdbath in the center. In my mind it is so pretty, tee he he.

To have a proper butterfly garden, I wanted to have several different flowers as well as some vines going up the trellis. Maybe even a couple of butterfly bushes if I can figure out how to make them. The many different flowers turned out to be 10! WOW...this is only a goose egg, so I hope it all fits!

So far I have made 4 types. I have made a few more of each type of flower than what I photographed, but I think you will get the idea. You can click on any of the photos to see the fine paper tole details on the petals and leaves. It really adds a realistic look to them. I kind of hope you do so you can really see those details.

Queen Ann's Lace:

Cone Flowers:

Garden Holly Hock:

Lisiantus:

The lisianthus are supossed to be white on the inside bottom of the petals. I am not fond of them that way, but nature certainly knows better than I do. 

What do you think?

I have a card all planned out in my head that I am going to make this afternoon. I had previously ordered several new toys that I just need to play with, lol

HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY WEEKEND!

What Has Kept Me Busy

Hi Everyone. WOW, it has been to long. I have finally finished the first item that has kept me busy the past couple of months. The first thing is the tiny paper flowers my mother and I made to sell at an egg art show. I have posted some of them before and you can see them by clicking flowers in the left column.

I have to say up front that I did not make the egg. The flowers inside, which are called punch flowers are what I made.

If you look closely, you can see the white trillium's scattered between all the roses. These are extremely time consuming, but are so very pretty. I am not sure if they could be used for cards, since they are so very small.

There was also an egg using the morning glories we made, but sadly I did not think to take a photo of it.

What else has kept me busy? Well this cutie has

This is my grandson. This photo was taken when he was 19 months old. He is now 22 months and his cubby cheeks have really slimmed down, but I just love this picture.

I babysit him for 11 hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. PHEW!!! It is so much fun to watch him as he makes me laugh so much (even when I shouldn't laugh at his antics) For sure, 11 hours does seem to really drag after the first 5 hours though...thank God for naps, lol

Now that the babysitting schedule is set and the flowers are finished, I can finally get back to my beloved card making, yeahhhhhh!

Thank you all for sticking with me through this time!!!!

{{{HUGS}}} Sandy O (grrrrrr...still have not figured out why me siggie is not working)

Trilliums and Morning Glories

My mother and I finally finished some of the itty bitty flowers we have been working on...phew...they are a bit of a challenge to work on since they are so very small. I have to wear magnifying glasses, lol. They are technically made to decorate eggs, but are the perfect size for inchies too.

Here are our first 2 Morning Glories. As you can see from the dime, they really are very tiny. We actually made 5 vines, but I took pictures of the first 2. The one on the left still has some glue to dry, but when it is dry, you can not see it.

These are the Trillium's we made. A dear friend that we met at the egg shows asked us to make them for her.  We never heard of them before so had to look them up on Google Images. There are a few varieties, so we ended up making 3 different sizes. It took us quite a while to figure out how to make them, which sizes, which punches to use and which paper worked best. She wanted white ones, so that is what we made for her.

Smallest size.

Medium size. 

Largest size is on the left.

Funny that my mother likes the smallest ones, while I like the biggest. We ended up making 110 of them.

You can see more of my itty bitty flowers by clicking the flower link in the left column. I made Lilly of the Valley and Dogwoods. The are smaller than these, lol, but I loved making them. They are my very favorite flowers after all ;o)

This is quite a different paper craft, I hope you like them.

Hugs,

Flower Soft: What I Have Learned So Far

Well, I spent yesterday playing with my new flower soft. I just received my flower pot kit and decided to "practice". I learned a few things I want to share with you in case you are wondering whether to purchase some or not.

• When fluffing, do it very gently. If you press to hard, it will not fluff and will ball up.
• The kits come with a white sponge to hold the wire flowers while they dry. It really doesn't work well. Green floral foam works much better.
• Their glue gave me hand cramps trying to squeeze out. I switched to Clear Gel Tacky Glue by Aleene's and it worked fine. It did take longer to dry, but my hand was happy.
• To add glue to card toppers, use a VERY small paint brush with a pointed tip. The smallest one I had was still a bit to big and it is really small!
• Squeeze glue directly to wire when making flowers. I wish the wire came in green instead of white.
• The FINE flower soft is perfect for the card toppers. The REGULAR is perfect for making flowers on the flower soft wire.
• REALLY let it dry well, lol
• You can burnish the flower soft on the cardtoppers gently, but not on the flowers made on wire
• To make a bouquet, make the flower wrap first. Then measure the wire a bit longer than the wrap before making the flowers. It is easier to fit them in that way.
• For card toppers, it is better to put the greenery on first, then the flowers. It is much messier and less pretty the other way around.
• Don't rub the glue on with the brush, dab, even for the greenery. It gives a more realistic look.
• White does not work well as a flower color for a card topper. I am not sure why their toppers have daisys on them but the white seems to get lost with the white paper. Even with the greenery. Maybe if there is some "fine" white it would work better but the regular white does not.
• You don't have to use the same color flower soft as the flowers on the printed topper. The flower soft covers the print anyway.
• It requires more practice than I thought. It is not as easy as the directions make it sound, lol. The flowers on the wire are easy to make though.
• It gets everywhere! Kind of like glitter. At least it did for me.
• I would never make my own with the styrofoam balls like some people do. To messy and would take up to much room to store. I also think it would be to chunky if I made it.

First toppers I made with white flowers. Here I made flowers first and then added greenery.

White flowers don't show up well.

Here is the one I added greenery first, then different colored flowers.

The next time I will make bigger spaces to make the flowers, I think the bigger flowers look prettier.

Flower bouquets. The one on the left is the first one I made. I had the darndest time making the paper tube thing. Certainly need more practice. I really think green wire would look much better. I did not make paper leaves yet which may cover up the wire, hopefully. They add some really thin ribbon in the kit which will be perfect for making a bow to add. I am not sure how I am going to use these since they are really small. Maybe make a tag with them and then add the tag to a card.
I hope this helps someone who may have the same questions I had about flower soft. It is definately addictive and I will definately be practicing using it.

Hugs,

Paper Tole Egg

I love paper tole and am learning how to do egg art. That made this egg a must make for me. It actually came in a kit I purchases last fall at an egg art show. It came with the goose egg already cut with the intricate pattern (I certainly have not mastered cutting them, lol). One picture of the flowers was decoupaged onto the egg while another came on one sheet of paper.

First I added the glitter and gold twine. Then I proceeded to do the hard part, cutting out each leaf and flower petal. Boy, I really thought it would be incredably hard, but it was not to bad at all with the help of a couple of layers of mod podge.

Each leaf and flower petal were shaped then adhered to the egg using some Alene's clear tacky glue. Sadly, as the paper settled, some of the shaping flattened, but the toling still shows a little. With a couple of Swarovski gems and a bow (something I need to work on, lol) the egg came together quite quickly, only taking a couple of hours. Not bad for my first one. The kit came with the topper and base, and with the magic of E6000 the egg is firmly in place.

I think I am going to add a little gold butterfly, I just love them and did not think of it before I took the photos.

I hope you like this different paper craft/egg art. Have you dabbled into something new? Maybe stepped out of your comfort zone? I really would love to see it!!! If you can, leave me a comment with your blog address and I will certainly pop in for a visit. :o)

I am entering this in the following challenge:
Ginger Loft: use those flowers

Hugs,

Inchies Perfect Flowers

Finding items for making a pretty inchie can be difficult, especially flowers. I have taken up making tiny, tiny, itty, bitty flowers, mostly for egg making. These tiny flowers, though, are the perfect embellishment for an inchie.

As you can see by the dime next to them, they are TINY. These are the first dogwoods I have made. I also made some lily of the valley, which you can see on my blog post here.

These flowers are made from paper that has been punched out with punches made specially for creating flowers this size. To adhere them to the stem, 2 glues are used. First, holding the petal or leaf with tweezers, the tip is inserted in some tacky glue. Right after, it is inserted in some super glue and quickly attached to the stem. The super glue causes them to adhere instantly. I am really not sure why only super glue is used, lol, but they are always made with the 2 glues.

Aren't they cute! I made 11 so far and have a few more to make. I will be making many of these, as well as many others between now and next October. The plan is to get a table at next years Egg Art Show and sell them to those attending the show.

I could not help but notice that they would make a lovely inchie. I decided to use an old pre-cut chip board square and cover it with some of the lovely and shimmery Paper Temptress paper.

Now, I will confess to you that this is not a true inchie since it measures 1 1/4" square instead of 1" square. I did not have a pre-cut 1" to use, so thought this would be close enough, lol.

I had such a difficult time tying this knot! Four leaves ended up falling off and I had to reglue one petal. Other than that, this inchie was super fast to make.

I am sure that you could purchase some small punches at your local craft store to make some of your own.

I am entering this into the following challenges:
Cute Card Thursday: Make your won embellishment
For Fun: Something you never used before
No Time To Stamp: Back to nature, any season
Stamp Something: Something punchy. use a punch
Tuesday Throwdown: Chipboard

Have a super weekend!!!

Hugs,

Unique Handmade Flowers

So, what makes these roses so unique. Well...they are made of fish scales. I know....uggggg and yuck...but wait...the people who make these get them from their local fishermen for free, which make them extremely affordable. After arriving home with them, they are thoroughly cleaned. Once they are cleaned the scales take (2) 24 hours baths in bleach. When dry they are colored various colors.

If you saw and touched them, you would NEVER guess what they were. They feel very much like a thin plastic. What is the best part of using them is that they are bendable, shapable and cutable. They truly are a fun medium to work with.

I took a class on how to make these roses at the egg art show I attended last week. With it came 3 full ziploc baggies of different color scales. I think there are more in these baggies than I will ever use, lol.

The texture and natural pattern of the scales make them perfect for flowers. When looking at them from the side you can see the texture adds a look of a really petal.

To use the flowers, all I need to do is clip the toothpick off. Glue adheres really well to these which I find to be another benefit. When using some other flowers, such as Prima, many glues just don't hold them. I usually use my glue stick and find that getting the glue on the spot I desire is quite a challenge. I will never give up using my Prisma! I do find these little flowers to be a nice change from the standard though.

I will be using these flowers on a card or project very soon and am excited to show you just how lovely they look in use.

Do you venture out of the norm when adding embellishments to your projects? If not, give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised.

I am entering these in the Top Tip Tuesday Challenge.

Hugs,

Tiny, Tiny Flowers

My favorite flower of all I have had the privilege to see, is the lily of the valley.  They are only around for a short time, but while they are here the sweet scent they send out is wonderful. They let the world know that they are here and make a big impression in their short amount of time.

Isn't that what we should do in our short time here on earth? We should leave a sweet scent (pleasant memories) every where we go. Then when our time is up, we will be remembered for the  beauty and wonderful scent we left behind. What a wonderful way to be remembered.

That makes me think of when I had an in home day care to make some money while my kids were in private school. I wanted to be home when they left in the AM, home in the afternoon and when ever they were sick. Home day care was my best option at the time.

I was truly  blessed with some wonderful families. I had the privilege to watch 2 beautiful baby girls until they were school age. I did take a year off  and the younger one came back at the end of that year. The other was in first grade by then. Her mother told me the most heart warming story about what happened when she gave the little girl the news.

Upon telling her that she was going back to Mrs. O's, she became thoughtful. After a bit, she said, "you know, I don't remember what she looks like. But I remember that she was really nice". Now, this little girl was very strong willed and the 2 little girls would often get into little spats. It took a lot of hard work on my end to deal with them in a way that would teach them to handle disputes in life the proper way. Of course, I did it in a way that the parents did at home, leaving the adorable girls with the proper "training". It warmed my heart to know that she remembered the love I showed, even when disciplining her.

That is how I want to leave this world.  People will not remember if I weighed a bit to much, if I dyed my hair to cover my gray (which I do not) or wore the expensive make up. Since it is our works that people remember, I want them to remember me as a kind and loving person.

Same with the lilies. I love how they spread and grow all on their own, every year leaving an even sweeter scent. They do not rely on others to do the work, they do it themselves by spreading and growing in their own power. They are easy going, adjusting to any situation, willing to grow in the shade or sun, in the ground or in a pot. They will help trees by keeping the soil moist for them or protect an open area from weeds. We don't have to be nice to them by fertilizing, watering and pruning before they will send out their lingering scent to us. To put it simply, they are GREAT. And...I remember them every year, looking forward to their brief visit each spring.

So for my first tiny paper flowers, I chose...YUP...you guessed it...the lily of the valley. Here is one  of the pictures I took:

Look at them next to the dime! Aren't they TINY! Now these are the very first ones I have made, so please be kind to me and don't focus on any mistakes, LOL. And boy...were they hard to photograph! I hope you can see the details. It is even hard to see the details in real life, LOL

Here are some pictures taken even closer:

 

The gummy stuff under the tericotta pot is a type of wax that holds the pot upright, since they can be knocked over so easily.

I would love to hear what you think about these. This is another of the paper crafts I will be showing you as I learn.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and will be back to visit me on Monday. I am not sure what I will be posting, so it will be a surprise for all of us, LOL

Till then, hugs

New Technique and My Last Quick & Easy For The Week

We made it to Friday, YEAH....

This past Monday, the SCS Technique Challenge was to make Paper Towel Flowers. Different huh? I guess since paper and paper towels are both made of wood, it isn't to much different. The one I made was  a lot of fun. I think if I had a different type of paper towel it would have come out better. Viva is more cloth like than other paper towels, so scrunching the flower was just about impossible. It came out kind of pretty though.

What do you think? I was going to run the top layer of cardstock in the big shot, but decided not to since the flower took a bit of time. This was supposed to be quick after all, LOL. I dried the paper towel with my heat gun to quicken the process.

Here is a close up of the flower.

 

I love the Organza Ribbon from Stamping up. Using it with Paper Temptress White Gold paper is stunning!

I hope you get to try this technique. It really is a lot of fun. I am going to try it again when I buy more paper towels.

I finally finished the TINY paper flowers I have been working on. So come back tomorrow and see these tiny creations.

Till than, hugs
 

The end of summer

I am finally back after an extended illness and so happy to be so.  I was able to stamp for the first time since March about 5-6 weeks ago. How I missed it. I would go into my craft room and just smell the air so full of the scent of paper and ink.  They really should make a candle like that!

My first this fall was actually 70 cards for my daughters baby shower. Talk about getting back in with a bang, LOL. I will post these in a few days!

Right now I would like to share a card I made as I thought about the end of summer and the onset of autumn. How I will miss the birds and flowers!

This is also the first time I tried the Stampin' Up wood sheets. How awesome are these! Just look how cute they cute and added such a nice touch to this card.

For the recipe to this card, just go to the card photo album.

Last week I woke up to some beautiful roses blooming. Though it has been a bit cold, these stubborn beauties gladly bloomed to catch the morning dew. A few were just budding for the next days dew, I am certain, LOL. Of course I had to take a photo since these will probably be the last until next spring.

 

As always, you can click on any photo to get a larger view. Though these are quite large already, teeh he he.

I am so glad to be back and that you came to visit. I will be here often through out the weeks so I hope to see you all here again. AND....go ahead and sign up for email updates, you will be sent an email letting you know when I create a new post.

For those who are new to my blog browse, leave comments (good or bad, LOL, I can learn from you too!) or send me an email but most of all... have fun. I hope you find my past posts fun and informative :o)

Last but certainly not least, for all of you who read to the bottom of the post...I will be posting some blog candy for you next week. No promise what day...you need to keep coming back to see {{{wink}}} It will be worth it though, I promise!

Till next time (Lord willing tomorrow!!!) HUGS...Sandy O