We received our W’ink challenge for March’s club: Purple and Green…that was it. Pretty much, we could do whatever we wanted as long as the focus was on purple and green. Because old habits die hard, I mentally “shelved” it for three weeks…not only because I am a big procrastinator, but also because I had not clue what I was going to do. Monday before club rolled around and I realized that I had five days to figure something out to bring to club. As I was trying to sleep my mind was racing through different card ideas/layouts/etc, but none of them gave me that big “light bulb” moment.
A couple nights of that brings us to Thursday afternoon. I decided to skip the gym and focus the whole evening on not only figuring out what I was going to do, but also executing it. I had thought of a few ideas during the day and sketched them out when I got home (sketching and coloring in the middle of an accounting department isn’t looked to kindly upon). Something wasn’t right: yes, they were all fine, but fine was just not good enough. My mind kept going back to flowers…purple flowers…green leaves…purple flowers…green leaves, but I kept dismissing it (for some reason, I don’t know why). I finally embraced the purple flowers/green leaves idea, but knew I wanted to try something new; I did have all evening to do it. I remembered seeing Gretchen’s post about hand-made roses and thought that maybe I could do something like that, but I wasn’t sure. (Ok, side-note: so in case you haven’t notice, I am not very decisive; something which drives my sweet husband crazy; I need to work on that) After some inner debate, I decided to use the roses and make a pull-out pot card which seemed to be everywhere a while back.
I went to Gretchen’s blog and realized that she got the paper rose idea from someone else (yes, this surprised me since I think she is amazingly creative and inginuitive). After following the trail, I found the instructions to the rose on Julie William’s Blog Simi Stamper. I read over it and thought, “I can do that.” I noticed the steps were similar to making fondant roses from my cake decorating classes and I was pretty good at that, so how much more difficult could this be, right? Oh, so wrong. I realized (and maybe I knew it all along, but just didn’t want to admit it) that paper is not as cooperative as soft fondant. Anyway, long story short (I know: too late) I was able to get four purple roses complete and added them to the rest of my pot card.
A couple nights of that brings us to Thursday afternoon. I decided to skip the gym and focus the whole evening on not only figuring out what I was going to do, but also executing it. I had thought of a few ideas during the day and sketched them out when I got home (sketching and coloring in the middle of an accounting department isn’t looked to kindly upon). Something wasn’t right: yes, they were all fine, but fine was just not good enough. My mind kept going back to flowers…purple flowers…green leaves…purple flowers…green leaves, but I kept dismissing it (for some reason, I don’t know why). I finally embraced the purple flowers/green leaves idea, but knew I wanted to try something new; I did have all evening to do it. I remembered seeing Gretchen’s post about hand-made roses and thought that maybe I could do something like that, but I wasn’t sure. (Ok, side-note: so in case you haven’t notice, I am not very decisive; something which drives my sweet husband crazy; I need to work on that) After some inner debate, I decided to use the roses and make a pull-out pot card which seemed to be everywhere a while back.
I went to Gretchen’s blog and realized that she got the paper rose idea from someone else (yes, this surprised me since I think she is amazingly creative and inginuitive). After following the trail, I found the instructions to the rose on Julie William’s Blog Simi Stamper. I read over it and thought, “I can do that.” I noticed the steps were similar to making fondant roses from my cake decorating classes and I was pretty good at that, so how much more difficult could this be, right? Oh, so wrong. I realized (and maybe I knew it all along, but just didn’t want to admit it) that paper is not as cooperative as soft fondant. Anyway, long story short (I know: too late) I was able to get four purple roses complete and added them to the rest of my pot card.
I really like the way it turned out; I do think the pot was missing something (it looks a bit bare to me), but knew that if I added something to it, then it may detract from the roses which, after all the effort I put into them, were definitely the focus. If you have some time, try making some paper roses; though they are a bit daunting, I think the final result is very worth it…especially if it is for someone well deserving.
Now if I can find a way to do it without using so much Crystal Effects…that would be great!
Recipe: Whimsical Words and Itty Bitty Background stamp sets, Creamy Caramel and Pale Plum cardstock, Old Olive designer paper, Lovely Lilac, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, and Close to Cocoa classic ink, sponges, sticky strip, crystal effects, and flower punch (oh, and lots and lots of patience).
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