Valentine Bouquet

I’m not a huge fan of punch art, but I do like 3-D projects.  These little flowers seem to be a cross-over project between the two:

Flowers from the Full Heart punch

Do you ever struggle with a concept that is perfectly shaped in your head but won’t take that shape underneath your hands?  No comments about the condition of my head, please!!   These flowers are cuter on their own than as a group.  I think I broke the Rule of Odds – odd numbers in an arrangement – and that may be why it doesn’t look quite right to me.  I don’t have any artistic training, so my problem-solving techniques amount to trial and error.

These were simple to make.

  1. Punch 6 hearts with the Full Heart punch.
  2. Use a sponge dauber to define the edges  of 5 hearts; stamp, emboss or texture each.  Score down the center and crease.
  3. Use the 6th heart as a base.  Attach 5 hearts in flower shape with Tombo Adhesive.
  4. Punch a 3/4″ circle of cardstock.  Layer the flower, the cardstock circle and a button and pierce through button holes with piercing tool.
  5. Set aside the button.  Use a needle and threat to tie the circle and button together with linen thread.
  6. Place the button on top of the flower and circle.  Use fine craft wire to attach the flower, circle and button to a bamboo skewer, twisting securely on the back.  Trim ends and bend in towards skewer to avoid sharp edges.

Back view of Heart Flower

It took me about 40 minutes to make 8 of these.  I’ll bet you could do them faster!

A Mom’s gotta brag a little…

My son loves to take photos.  He has the ability to see ordinary things in an extraordinary way.  A year and a half ago he bought a new digital SLR camera, and we’ve all enjoyed seeing  the world through his lens.

For the past two years, I’ve teamed up with him at Christmas to produce cards using a selection of his photos.  This year he bought a macro lens and took amazing plant photos last summer at Lotus Land and his Grandma’s garden, both in Santa Barbara.  (Sorry, Grandma doesn’t have a web site!)  It was really hard to narrow it down, but we finally decided  on 6 floral shots.  Before I show you the cards, I have to warn you that I’m not much of a photographer, and taking pictures of pictures is harder than you can imagine!

Poppy and Roses

Waterlilies and Rose

Lotus and Cosmo

The prints are standard 4×6 prints, mounted on a coordinating piece of cardstock 4 1/4 x 6 1/4 and attached to a 5 x 7 card.

Of course, there’s a custom stamp on the back to identify the photographer.

More Sweet Centers

I’ve seen loads of these on blogs and forum galleries and decided to try it myself.  I’m here to tell you this is about as easy as it comes, and if I hadn’t needed a heap 0′ Sweet Treat cups for my Hostess Club, I would have made a rainbow of these flowers.  Well, a Halloween Rainbow…Yellow and Orange…Toe-bod-butt colors.

You see, in my family, we don’t call these Candy Corn.  We call them Toe-bod-butts.  Please excuse our French, but that’s what we’ve always called them.  The yellow part is the toe, the orange part is the body, and the white part, well, it’s the butt.  That’s just what it is.  Of course, when we start scouring the grocery aisle for them around August we have to remember to ask for Candy Corn.  You get funny looks at Safeway when you ask for Toe-bod-butts.  Go figure.

Sweet_Centers_Flower_Pick

  • Sweet Centers Stamp Set
  • Very Vanilla cardstock
  • Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, and Old Olive Classic Ink pads
  • Two 2 1/2″ circles of cardstock  (for the back to cover the bag of the Treat Cup)
  • Tombo adhesive, Sticky Strip, Linen Thread, Old Olive 5/8″ grosgrain and Old Olive 1 1/4″ grosgrain stripe ribbon, Circle Scissors Plus, bamboo skewer

Gotta order me some more Sweet Treat cups!