Simply Beautiful

I don't know about you, but I am constantly seeing things online where I think to myself, "I can do that!" With the ever-growing popularity of Pinterest, there is definitely no shortage of inspirational ideas out there. For me, I am drawn to cards. I have a cards board on Pinterest, subscribe to two different card magazines, and follow several blogs offering up spectacular artwork in the card arena. Recently, about 60 different Close To My Heart consultants participated in a "Dream Pop Blog Hop". You could start anywhere in the chain, then just click on a link provided in the post that would take you to the next person's blog, until you made your way back to the place you started. It's a great way to see how others are using the products!

There was one image in particular that caught my eye while hopping blogs. It belongs to Gina Brandstetter at gmbscrapper.blogspot.com. The image is actually that of a My Creations Bookmark Album cover that she decorated, but I decided to make it as a card. Here is Gina's artwork:

Now, here I was mentally figuring out what papers I had to cut to create the "Beautiful" cluster at the left - but guess what? The entire base for my card - and this album cover - is the top-left portion of one of the patterned papers from the "Dream Pop" paper pack! Check it out (it's the sheet at the bottom-left):

So all I had to do is cut that portion of the paper at 8" x 3.5" for the front of my card. Next, I cut a 4.5" circle from the Banana cardstock (CS), and mounted it to the right-side of my card, trimming off the excess. Now the fun part - cutting all of the flowers! These were quite easy using the "Art Philosophy" Cricut cartridge (pg. 48 ). For the smaller flower, I cut the following: Strawberry CS - 1.75" & 1"; Raspberry CS - 1.25"; Banana CS - 1.5". For the larger flower: Strawberry CS - 2.25" & 1.5"; Raspberry CS - 1.75"; Banana CS - 2". Stack the flowers and adhere each of the layers together (I only glued the centers, so I could bend the petals up a little). I then punched a 1/2" circle and a 3/4" circle from Banana CS for the flower centers. Add a couple of clear buttons tied with embroidery floss, and you're flowers are complete!

All that was left was to adhere the flowers to the front of my card, add a strip of Silver Shimmer Trim to the top-right corner, and three Clear Sparkles under the word "Beautiful".

I love it! I would also love to see what you do with the papers in your "Dream Pop" paper pack! You don't have yours yet?! Time is running out! See if you're in time to get one by going to http://funforyou.ctmh.com and clicking on "SHOP". The "Dream Pop" paper pack is only $10 with a $35 purchase! Good luck!