A Flower-pot card

I CASEd this card from a lady on the Christian PaperCrafts board... and it turns out that she got the idea from Split Coast Stampers and there's a tutorial right there! I didn't use the tutorial, I figured out how to make it from her photo, but the basic design of mine came out pretty much the same as the original except I glued the sides of my flowerpot pocket, and I left the back of the pot sticking up to give the tag and flowers more support, because they seemed a bit heavy. You can see the tutorial HERE. I can't link to Anita's version because the board is members-only so nobody can see it, but hers looks pretty much the same as mine only with a tag on it.

I cut the flowerpot by hand. Fold a sheet of cardstock lengthways instead of the way you fold a regular card, and then cut it in half. Fold the top inch or so down to make the flap, and use a border punch on the top edge. Unfold it again, and trim a very small edge to make the flowerpot pot-shaped. Slide a card-front into the card and measure the edges, then trim it off so that it will fit into the pocket.

Wrap a ribbon around the flap and tie it off in a bow or a knot. Use a gluedot in the center of the flap so that the ribbon can't slide off the card. If you want to add a charm or a punched tag, make sure that you put it on BEFORE you knot the ribbon! Glue the top edges of the pocket to hold the card together.
Alternatively, wrap the ribbon around the entire card and tie it off. People will 'open' the card by sliding the ribbon off.

Punch or cut your flowers and leaves and glue them so that they fit into the pot without the backing card showing through. (Put glue on the bottom half of the top flower/s, and the top half of the bottom ones! Leave the other half unglued so that the bottoms of the flowers hang over the edge of the pot like a real plant.)

I cut my flowers with the Cricut and the 'Make The Cut' software - the flowers came from their free online gallery... but you could use any large hand punch, or any flower shape. The Don Juan cartridge that came with my Cricut has a flower that would work just as well. They're cut from plain cream cardstock and chalked for a more delicate colouring than ink or markers...

Challenge: CPC-CM45

Christian Paper Crafts Colour Monday #45.
This week's challenge (okay, actually LAST weeks, but I just got to it) was to combine pink, brown and white in your card... that happens to be one of my favourite colour combinations... and I just so happened to have made some thank you cards that were pink-and-brown. I just had to add a touch of white to make them fit. The lettering was cut with my Cricut (Don Juan cartridge) and so were the white hearts.

Easter Cards and a Challenge CPC-CM42/CPC-ST41

This morning I finished off some more Easter cards using Cathy's template. I love this look... they're very quick and easy and they make the patterned paper go a very long way. The hardest part is deciding how to arrange the squares and what embellishments to put on them! Apologies for the blurry scan - the buttons and some of the stickers are 3D and my scanner gets blurry around the lumps. :( Just click on the picture to see a larger version. The 'Just for you' stamp is from my favourite Heidi Grace line, and the 'Celebrate' stamp is from Joanns. I just LOVE those Heidi Grace stamps - the images are so sharp and clear you'd never guess they were done with an acrylic stamp.

And now for the challenge. This morning I tackled two challenges from the Christian Papercrafts board. Actually I combined them! Monday's Colour Challenge was to use chocolate brown, two shades of pink, orange, and cream or white... and Tuesday's Sketch incorporated a large bloom/circular feature with a swirly line. I started with the sketch.

It looked like it would be perfect for a spirelli... but while I was digging in my diecuts box to find a suitable circle, I came across a pair of pink diecuts to nest on the card instead. I mounted the smaller one on popdots and hung them over the edge of the card since they were so large. Add a basic swirl with yet another Heidi Grace stamp that was perfect for the job... the sweet sentiment is from Stampin' Up, and it looked like it just needed a touch more colour, so I gently rubbed the edges with a small pink inkpad and it was done. It's so simple it felt like I was cheating, but I'm pleased with the design.

I still wanted to tackle a spirelli card... so I kept the sketch and moved on to Monday's Colour Challenge. Orange is NOT a colour I use very often except for Halloween cards! But I had a spool of nice bright ribbon and some embroidery thread that nearly matched. I inked up a white spirelli shape with two shades of pink ink (Joanns Essentials) and added a touch of Stamp It Circus orange to the center. The papers were RAKed to me a few weeks ago so I cut narrow strips and nested them... and lastly I added a little heart to the center of the spirelli and stamped a sentiment. I don't do a lot of Missing You cards, but they're a popular subject for Operation Write Home and it gave me a chance to use my new Stampin' Up sentiment from Ebay.

Challenges from the Christian Paper Crafts website

I went exploring last week and found myself an interesting new craft group called Christian Paper Crafts. There used to be a paper magazine associated with it, but it seems that that has been discontinued (not surprising given the immense amount of time and money it takes to create on, and how little return people get on it in this economic climate. I used to know a couple who published a science fiction magazine in Australia, and it was a nightmare of a job!) Anyway, there's no magazine to see right now, so the front page of the site says 'page not found' but ignore that and click on the Community or the Galleries. They're both going strong. They have a different challenge each day of the week except Sunday, they post really thoughtful bible commentaries and studies regularly, and their design team are magnificent, so there's plenty of inspiration to be had! I've started tackling some of their challenges and here are the cards I've made for them this week.