Paper Flower Appreciation Day!

Hi to all the folks coming by for KarelJ's Make Up Your Own Holiday Blog Hop!

This is one fun hop to be in! If You are coming from Denine at Pumpkin and Spice  you are hopping along the right path. Isn't her blog fabulous? And...You can shop there, too! I love blogs where I can shop! My Hubby? Not so much! But back to the blog hop...

 If you have stopped by here just to see what I am up to, why not head back to KarelJ's blog to start, so you won't miss anything on this wonderful, creative journey!

Here is the entire line up of crafters participating in this weekend's blog hop. I know there a quite a few of us, but there are two days for you enjoy, so hop at your leisure!

1. Karelj at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity at http://www.kareljcreations.com/
2. Janice at Cricut Confessions at http://www.cricutconfessions.com/
3. Summer and Jennifer at The Cricut Diaries at http://www.cricutdiaries.co/
4. Denine at Pumpkin and Spice at http://pumpkinspiceblog.blogspot.com/
5. Colleen at Col’s Creative Corner at http://www.scrappycol.blogspot.com/ You are here!
6. Mistyrose at Sweet Magnolia Rose at http://sweetmagnoliarose.blogspot.com/
7. Ellen at Card Monkey at www.cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com
8. Rachel at Suburban Crafter http://www.rachelstampshappy.blogspot.com/
9. Monica at Scraps 2 Treasure at http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/
10. Jen at Young’s Scrapping at www.youngsscrapping.blogspot.com
11. Becka at Creations With Becka at www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com
12. Jamie at Glitter, Paper, Stamps, Oh My! at http://www.jamieisacraftymomma.blogspot.com/
13. Michelle at Peanut Butter and jelly Designs at http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com
14. Celeste at Touched By A Butterfly at http://touchedbyabutterfly.blogspot.com/
15. Leah at Leah’s Card Designs at http://leahscarddesigns.blogspot.com
16. Calie at Calie’s Creative Corner at www.Caliescreativecorner.blogspot.com
17. Audrey at It’s A Beautiful Life at www.audreyscardsbydesign.blogspot.com
18. Bonnie at A Scrap Above at http://ascrapabove.blogspot.com
19. Diane at Crafting This Moment at http://www.craftingthismoment.blogspot.com
20. Nicolette at Beyond Scrapping at www.beyondscrapin.blogspot.com
21. Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping at http://ginathorntonstamping.blogspot.com
22. Kathryn at Creations With Kathryn at http://www.creationswithkathryn.com/
23. Yolie at Just Yolie, Just Create at http://justyolie.com
24. Patti at Short ‘N Scrappy at http://www.shortnscrappy.com/
25. Krista Orr at Scrapaleupagus at http://www.scrapaleupagus.blogspot.com/
26. Kay Craig at 100 Things at http://kopperhead100.blogspot.com

Karelj is offering an over-all blog candy for those who are hopping along with us. She thought it would be fun to have some holiday-themed candy for this hop--but, of course, made-up holiday items were hard to come by! She decided to do a whole bunch of *regular* holiday themed stamps for you to enjoy. From Fiskars, there is an assorted holiday set; there's an alphabet from All Night Media, a set of 100 plus clear stamps and a storage case from Family Memories, and 5 sets of clear stamps from various dollar bins in big box stores. How to win them? Follow along the blog trail, leaving a comment on each and every blog. On Monday, Karelj will ask her buddy Randy (random.org) to select a blog number (from the list), a day (Saturday is one, Sunday is two), and a comment number from that blog. Please make sure you have left a reliable way to contact you (email is best, in the safe format of **** at **** dot com ) so you can be notified by her personally. If you don't, she’ll have to select another winner.”
I am also giving away some fun blog candy. See the end of my post for details. Did you notice the flowers in the picture at the top of my blog? They are for my:
                                                      
                                                           Paper Flower Topiary

I love paper flowers! My hubby knows how much I love them, so instead of real roses for Valentine's Day, he gets me Primas! I decided that my love for my paper flowers should have it's own holiday, hence Paper Flower Appreciation Day. Paper flowers are so great that they can have any day you choose for this holiday! I'll go with today, even though in making this topiary, it's been more like paper flower appreciation week and a half! LOL!  So while there may be shorter easier ways to create these lovely decor items, here's

what I did!

Materials:

Cricut Expression

Gypsy

Cricut Cartridges-

Forever Young (Flower)

HomeDecor (Butterfly)

Mother's Day Bouquet (Flower)

Picturesque (Flower)
Walk In My Garden (Ladybug)
Easter 2010 (Easter Bunny)

Topiary Form

Clay Pot

White Gesso

Mint Green Acrylic Paint

Ranger Claudine Hellmuth  Studio Mixed Medium Gloss

Ranger Alcohol Inks

Ranger Distress Inks
Viva Decor Pearl Pens
Martha Stewart Glitter
Doodlebug Flock

Dew Drops Memento Dandelion

Dew Drops Versafine Chalk Turquoise

Ranger Stickles
Diamond Glaze

Ribbon

Moss
Prima Mini Roses

Floral Picks

Corsage Pins and Floral Pins

Hot Glue Gun

When I first decided to make a topiary, I went to AC Moore and spent about 10 minutes looking at the Styrofoam balls and searching for dowels. After giving up on finding the dowels, I went to a salesperson to ask about where I could find dowels when I looked  over her shoulder and spotted a pre-made topiary shape. I checked the price to find it was only $7.49 and naturally I had my 40% off coupon, so I was sold. I found a clay pot and base that it fit nice and snug into and came home to begin my project.

To start my project, I primed the clay pot and base with 2 coats of White Gesso, letting it dry between coats. I also painted the dowel on the form with white gesso. Once the gesso was completely dried, I used an acrylic paint that I had by Dona's in Mint Green to apply 2 coats to the clay pot. Here is how it looked.

Then I let the pot dry overnight. The next day I used Ranger Claudine Hellmuth Studio  Multi Medium Gloss to seal the paint. The finished pot looks like this.

I love this product line from Ranger for altering art and collage. It also comes in Matte. The range of use these products have are amazing. If you ever get the chance, and haven't done so already, check out Claudine Hellmuth. . If you enjoy mixed media, you'll love her work.

Once my pot and form were ready to go, I grabbed my Gypsy and started picking out my favorite flower cuts. My first cut was with Picturesque but I made the flowers too small. Naturally, I didn't realize this until I had put 10 flowers together and tried them out on the form. I would be looking at close to 100 flowers at the size I had originally cut them at which was about 1 inch ( I know! What was I thinking!) for the largest layer on the flower. Once I had that figured out, LOL, I checked my receipt that said the form was 5 inches, so I went with almost two inches (1.92 x 1.82) for the largest flower from Picturesque, and made 5 layers to the flower. I used the flower that was 6th in on the 3rd row on the overlay, for my first flower. It looks like a  Chrysanthemum to me. I made 10 of them. I used K&Company Que Sera Sera Specialty Paper. Then I cut 10 of the flower next to the Picturesque Chrysanthemum, I went with 6 layers of this flower starting at 1.86 x 1.59 for the largest and .89 x .76 for the smallest. I ended up only using 5 of the layers. I used Blue and Purple paper from SEI for these.

My next flower was from Forever Young, another  of my favorite carts for flowers, and I used the 7th flower in on the last row of the overlay, I think it may be a daisy. Anyway, I cut 10 of them in 4 layers  and the shadow, starting at 1.53 x 1.47. This is also the size I cut the shadow for. I used the Que Sera Sera paper for the flowers.
For the last flower, I used my Mother's Day Bouquet Cartridge. I chose the 3rd flower in the 1st row for the Topiary. I cut the largest layer at 1.72 x 1.59 with the shadow the match this layer. Then I cut 3 more layers, plus the shadow for 5 layers. The smallest layer was 1.07 x .98.  I used K&Company WB Gypsy Baby Paper Pad. I chose the pink and blue for the flowers. I also cut 10 more flowers starting at 1.63 x 1.51 for the largest layer and shadow, down to .85 x .78 for the smallest. I used K&Company Que Sera Sera Specialty Paper on these.
 Ok, so here is where I will admit there was no real rhyme or reason for my flower sizes. I just knew I was going to go bigger than the 1 inch!

Here are a few pictures of the flowers in progress:





Here are a bunch of flowers almost done

 

Forever Young Flowers on Mat

Stacks of Flowers before Dew Drops

Inked Flowers with Dew Drops and Distress Inks (Worn Lipstick)

Here are some other pictures of the Mother's Day Bouquet Flowers in progress. I have to say that I think these are my new favorite flower to use. They were inked with Distress Ink, Worn Lipstick as well.

You can see how I manipulated the paper to shape the flowers. I won't bore my fellow crafters with the details. A search of Youtube will bring up a gazillion videos on making paper flowers. I spritz my flowers with Shimmerz Spritz in Baby's Breath, to shape them. These are the flowers from Mother's Day Bouquet.

The next thing I did was poke a hole in the center of my flowers with a Paper Piercer. Here a few flowers lined up and ready to get pierced!

I colored my corsage pins with Ranger Alcohol Inks. My method of coloring skittles with Alcohol Ink is to place them a small baggie, add a couple of drops, and done! I started out using this method, as you can see by the picture below, then quickly changed to sticking the pins in a sponge and touching the tip of the bottles to them. It was much more efficient! I had a picture of all 65 picks dyed, but somehow it was deleted either form my camera or card. It looked so cool!

And began the task of placing them in the form.

I've never done anything like this before, so it at first I was just trying to set them in rows. I also had them placed too close and they bunched up. I decided to just start placing them as random as possible and here is what it looked like. You can also see the corsage pins in all their alcohol inked glory!

I ran ribbon around the pole and used a flower to pin it in on the top. I filled the flower pot with moss, held in by floral pins.

So after I put all the flowers in, it occurred to me that maybe I should have painted the topiary top white. That led me to needing to fill in the blank spots. I decided to use butterflies, so I went straight to Home Decor for my favorite butterfly. I cut two sizes, 3.31 x 2.16 and 3.67 x 2.39 and copied them. Then I flipped the copies. I used a couple of pieces of Basic Grey (Eva, I think) paper and some K& Company to cut the butterflies. I used Viva Decor Gel in Cream to accent the butterflies. I also cut some ladybugs from Walk In My Garden glued them to corsage pins and filled in some spaces. I used Ranger Black Diamond Stickles to glitter the head and spots. I used Diamond Glaze to make the back shine. For the space that was still showing, I used stickles to glitter it up! I can be resourceful when necessary!

As I was working on the flower pot, I decided that it looked a little empty to me. I cut a couple of Easter Bunnies from Easter 2010 and ran them through the Xyron machine. I then ran them through a second time and added Doodlebug White Flock to them. I glittered their bows with MS Glitter and glued them together. I used a pin glued between them to stick them in the moss. I figured I can pull the bunnies out after Easter and still enjoy the topiary. I also placed some Prima Mini Roses in the moss for added color.

Here are a couple of more pictures for you

Back of Topiary

I enjoy trying new crafts, so this was fun for me. Now that I have made one, I have lots of ideas for more. I know this was a very long post, and I thank you for looking at my project. I hope you might be inspired to try one. It was very inexpensive to make, under $10.00, and easy too!

So now that you have seen my project, here is my blog candy

I am giving away a Serenade Cartridge so you can make your own paper flowers!

If you leave a comment for me and a way to reach you, I will use Karel's pal Randy (Random.org) to pick a number for the cartridge. Don't forget to leave me a way to reach you! The winner will be chosen on Monday. The winner does not have to follow my blog, but I would love it if you did!

Thanks for hopping the blog trail with me! From here, your next stop is Mistyrose, I know you will enjoy her Made Up Holiday! She is very talented!

So whatever made up holiday you may celebrate, take some time to stop and, well, you can't smell paper flowers, but you can still enjoy them! Happy Paper Flower Appreciation Day!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen