Happy News and Giant Flowers Petal Box

Happy Sunday, my sparkly friends! I hope you're having a sunshiny weekend. :o)

I have exciting news and a petal box to share! I am thrilled to be featured today for the incredible Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog's Spotlight Sunday! Not only that, but I'll also be posting a new project tomorrow as a Guest Designer for their next challenge. I confess to happy dancing about these honors. :o) If you want to read a tiny bit about yours truly, pirouette on over to Tammy's spotlight post. :o)

Inspired by a few flowery and girly challenges, I made my mom a petal box this weekend, featuring the rose from the Giant Flowers cartridge. This cart is fantastic. I previously made the lotus (which I loved), but I think I adore this rose even more.

(Do you like this amazing angle I chose to photograph it? I know, I know... but I was mega rushed.)

Over the next few weeks I will be making a set of cards to stash inside the box for her to send friends and family. While she has varying styles, she most often gravitates to feminine flair. The Art Philosophy petal box is made with Echo Park Yours Truly paper, chosen for it's whimsical elegance and gorgeous shade of red. The rose is created with Core'dinations cardstock, as I love my paper flowers to have texture. The edges are trimmed in Star Dust, sporadic petals have dew drops via Glossy Accents, and a sparkling white butterfly was lured for a visit. When assembling the outermost rows of petals, I decided to use a pencil to gently curl the edges instead of folding/creasing them. I like it much better and will go the pencil route for all petals next time.

To make the rose stand out, I opted for the striking red and black combination. I made a narrow band of black cardstock to go around the entire box, adhered a layer of black lace on either side along the top and sides, and formed two rhinestone flourishes. I was tempted to do more in terms of decoration, but refrained since the band will be handled whenever she wants to use or look at one of the cards. I hope she likes it. :o)

Challenges entered:
 * Bitten by the Bug 2~ Rose
 * Craft Your Passion~ Anything Goes
 * Crafty Ann's~ It's a Girl Thing
 * Crafty Calendar~ Flowers in Bloom
 * Simon Says Stamp and Show~ Anything Goes

Thank you for fluttering on by! You give me warm fuzzies. I'll be back tomorrow with my Guest Designer creation, which turned out to be one of my personal favorites. :o)

Key Recipe Components:
 * Cricut cartridges: Art Philosophy, Giant Flowers
 * Paper: Core'dinations, Echo Park
 * Rhinestones: Recollections and Queen & Company
 * Butterfly punch: Fiskars
 * Miscellaneous: Lace (from stash); Stickles

Wall Hanging with Giant Flowers Cartridge :)

Happy Wednesday, my sparkly friends! I hope you're having a beautifully crafty week! :o)

I am so excited to share this little wall hanging that I made yesterday for a few challenges! (One may seem a bit out of place at first glance, but I explain it in the challenge list below!) I was extremely blessed to win the Giant Flowers cartridge from the amazingly talented (and sweet) Shelly of My Paper Love. (Thank you for the millionth time!) I wasted no time putting it to use. The hardest part was choosing which flower to make first! :o)

After much debate, I chose the lotus because of how it blossoms pure and radiant, flourishing through its muddy environment. I wrote a little passage to accompany it and to serve as a primary focal point... no need to squint, as I'll type it below! :o)

A closer view at the incredible flower:

A better look at the sentiment, which will be pretty big if you enlarge it:

Text:

Growing in faith, the love of the Lord blossoms within. Strengthened by grace, our hearts trust in the One and Only.

Amazingly, I forgot to take a side angle photograph of the flower because I was rushed this morning. :( It is exquisite! You can obviously cut these massive and larger than life, but I wanted to experiment and see how it would work on a bit of a smaller scale for this 8.5'' square wall hanging. I am thrilled with the results. Cut at 2 inches, the assembled flower measures roughly 4.25'' wide and 1.25'' high. In person, this flower is truly stunning. I inked all of the edges with Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet Distress Ink to soften the trim as well as bring more life to each petal. Most of the nine flowers include centers to cut, but the lotus does not. I chose a pretty Tim Holtz Fanciful Button that somewhat mimics its circular seeded center. Plus, the little filigree hearts work nicely with the sentiment.

Speaking of which, the sentiment was inspired by the love my sweetheart and I share. Our focus is the Lord and His perfect love, and as we grow in faith together, our love grows at the same time. It's truly a beautiful thing. :o) Desiring the passage to be a focal element, I used a Spellbinders Fleur de Lis square for the base with pearlescent, textural white paper. I inked the pink sentiment paper's edges with Victorian Velvet (as well as the main base layers), straight-stitched it to the square, and added Wild Orchid Crafts Guipure white lace as a decorative trim. Since pearls make everything better, I added a little graduating row and a few on the corners. I was going for elegant simplicity, which pearls innately achieve.

To put the sentiment and incredible flower in focus, I kept the rest of the wall hanging streamlined. I used a flourishy paper from the DCWV French Country stack to make a nice backdrop on its own. The flourishes are all sparkly, with several areas of delicate script. I added a Gypsy Wanderings flourish above the flower for a little added punch, but kept it tonal so as not to detract. I simply added a touch of Victorian Velvet Ink (I couldn't put it down!). I dolloped it with pearls because... well... I just love them. ;) I stitched around the entire base with a zig zag stitch for variety and added two filigree heart corners from Storybook. Matching Wild Orchid Crafts lace completes the bottom, which I dotted with pearls for a graceful touch. (Side Note: I love this white Guipure lace design even more than the larger, slightly different cream version I used on my last project. **swoon**)

For a pop of sunshiny warmth, I added three sparkling orange butterflies. I love how they stand out against the pink base. Two pink ones are also fluttering about, although their script bodies do not show in the pictures... they coordinate with the script on the base. The pink ones are dotted with a pearl, with one of them resting atop a pretty lotus petal. (I wouldn't be able to resist, either!) All of them are facing upward because their focus is always above... just like we strive so hard to keep our focus on the One above. I hope you like this as much as my sweetheart does... if it's not too girly, I'd love to give this to him for our anniversary since it was inspired by him and created with our anniversary in mind. He prefers when I make things with my favorite girly supplies, anyway. :o)

Challenges entered:
 * Fantabulous Cricut~ Fancy Trims
 * Go Fish Challenge Blog~ Photo Inspiration (creative use of typeset)
 * Love to Crop~ Pink, Orange, plus ONE other color (white)
 * My Sheri Crafts~ Warm Wishes! (They said we could use our imagination... to me, the ultimate warmth is heavenly love shared with my sweetheart and the thought of summery flowers. Nothing warms me better on this chilly day!)
 * Sentimental Sundays~ Let's get sentimental (focus on the sentiment)

Thank you for fluttering on by today! I wish you all a gorgeous day of blessings and smooshy hugs. :o)

Key Recipe Components:
 * Cricut cartridges: Giant Flowers, Gypsy Wanderings, Storybook
 * Spellbinders Nestabilities: Fleur de Lis Squares
 * Sentiment: Written by me
 * Paper: Bazzill, DCWV
 * Inking: Tim Holtz Victorian Velvet Distress Ink
 * Lace: Wild Orchid Crafts Guipure White
 * Button: Tim Holtz Fanciful Buttons
 * Butterfly Punch: Fiskars
 * Pearls: Recollections