Sending Flowers...

...will never go out of style and now, what makes it even better is that you can send flowers that won't die and leave a mess to clean up afterwards!

My project for today is a little bit of a double-trouble, two birds with one stone, etc., etc., and so forth...

I wanted to showcase another way to use Flower Soft other than just the normal glue-dab-and-sprinkle technique, so I got out my Flower Soft accessories (ie. wire and vase) and went to work on Mojo Monday's sketch for the week! Let me just say, although I'm usually a more is more kind of person, I have always had a hard time with layers on my card. I have been improving with practice over time, but I layers have always intimidated me. Maybe because it also involves a knack in coordinating colours and papers and I haven't really done much of that either. In any case, the Flower Soft project and Mojo Monday has definitely gotten me to step up to a couple of my own personal challenges! I didn't use as many layers as the sketch suggested. Instead of adding the last layer on top of my base, I got out my mini mister, Perfect Pearls (in heirloom gold) and water and mixed me up some Perfect Pearl mist to give a nice golden, shimmery sheen to the base of the card (my cardstock). Completely matching/coordinating paper without another added layer (I was afraid my card would topple forward when I tried to take a picture of it! *LOL*)

Here's the sketch for this week:

...and here's what I came up with:

I was having a really hard time with the flash and the super shimmery paper that I used, so that's the images there with no flash, and here it is with the flash, just to give you an idea of the shimmery goodness...

Whew! Lots of pictures for one little card, huh?! HAHAHA...that gorgeous paper is my never-fail DCWV Luxury Stack and it's oh-so-lux-uuuuur-ious! I feel like I can just rip any of the luxury stack papers and smack them down with glue and it would still come out lookin' nice and fancy. That's what LUXURY STACK means...*LOL*

Anywho, I actually had a lot of fun with this sketch! Once I finished the actual Flower Soft part (which also didn't take that long either!) everything came together pretty fast!

I won't get too into the nitty gritty of everything as Marti will have a complete tutorial of how to get the wire and Flower Soft to co-mingle on her blog >>HERE<<, so I'll just jump right in. I got my Flower Soft onto the wire and left them to dry while I was working on putting together the rest of the card. Cutting my paper and arranging them into my Mojo layout nice and easily - how did I not get into sketches before, they are SUCH a help - plus the sketch was awesome! I opted out of the optional embellishment as I didn't want to take anything away from my Flower Soft goodness and the only other embellishment I used was my SugarPops skittle beads! Pretty much the only other little details that give the project that extra oomph is the flourish stamp that I stamped onto the vase and the edging that I got from using my new EK Success edge punch. If you haven't already noticed, I finished off the inside of the card as well using the extra larger bits of scraps I had left over after all my cutting and trimming. I stamped my sentiment using a Versamagic Dew Drop (creamy and rich and stamped onto my smooth, shimmery paper so nicely). To avoid any oopsies, I heat set the ink.

That's it for me today! Blogaversary is just around the corner, I'll be getting my super blogaversary giveaway together into one whole picture just so everyone can get the scope on what's up for grabs as my big THANK YOU for a faaabulous year! This wouldn't be any fun if you weren't around to read it, right? Tune in tomorrow for some more Look Ma, No Coloring! projects and don't forget to check out my DT leader and DT sister's blogs for their takes on stamping without colouring! Thanks for dropping by!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials are available from Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Stamp(s): Butterflies a-Flutter by Pez-a-Doodle Designs, Studio G
Ink: Distress Ink, Versamagic Dew Drop
Paper: DCWV Luxury Stack
Embellishments: Flower Soft kit (Flower Soft, wire, vase), SugarPops by Sugar & Scraps, Perfect Pearls
Tools: Heat Gun, Mini Mister

CURRENT MOOD: CONTENT CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: THE HEATER GOING

So exhausted...

...I was very good today! Monday's are usually my gym days and that usually means from the moment I wake up, I'm trying to think of all the excuses for me NOT to go, that would fly with my Tammy, coworker. (We have a buddy system going and since she's really into going to the gym, I demanded that she MAKE me go with her - which she REALLY does and I usually have to be veeery creative in the excuses I come up with). Anyways, Tammy wasn't able to go to the gym tonight and I was like, 'Yes! Free evening for meeee!' But you know what? I went anyways! So good for me...I feel skinny already...

Now onto the point, I got home and went straight into the scraproom to get going with my new little babies! Can I tell you that The Mister got home from class and found me in my room with my jacket and my running shoes still on?! HAHAHAHA, three and a half hours after I got home, I was so focused I didn't bother doing anything else. The Mister leans against the door and he's all like, 'Gonna stay awhile, or are you heading back out?' Meh, what does he know...

I want to talk about my little creations some more, but I'm completely wiped from staring so intently at them...I had to get down really close and I think I'm almost going cross eyed from looking at the little pieces for so long...LOL. So here you are, if you're like my you're just loco for photos anyways...

Lucy in the Sky So Blue	Big Purple Dinosaur
Teal My Heart Away	Vivacious Violet
Rose of Sharon	Vivacious Violet
Lovely Lavender	Just Peachy
Seafoam Bridesmaids	Black Humbugs
Blue Bayou	Mellow Yellow
Candy Floss Pink	Galactic Grape

...and I hate to do it, but I guess I will also mention that for the most part, as far as I know, the names (JewelPops, SugarPops, etc. and the packaging) are copyrighted to me.

Sorry I'm not posting more talk...just very tired and I've been promising The Mister I'd come to bed in like, five minutes - and that was an hour ago...

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: NOT A WHOLE LOT

Introducing...

...Sugar and Scraps - my new Etsy store! *cheerleader herky* Yaaaay...ME!

As you already know, the micro beads have been a recent success on the boards and I've been having a fabulous time altering them and making them even prettier! I tried a little bit of this and that and got:

I got to use my Sakura Stardust and Metallic gelly rolls on the beads and I coloured them in full, dotted them and swirled them. I'd like to you to meet SwirlyPops, SwissPops and SolidPops. They used to have the name Skittles instead of Pops, but you know, since I don't really own that name, I thought I'd better bite the bullet and find a new one already. Pops courtesy of Nicole! I was having some problems with these, because even after they looked dry, once I tried to pick them up, the pretty much stuck to my finger. I'm working on a different alternative to make these possible and will hopefully have some pictures to show for them tomorrow!

But without further ado, my new pretty little babies:

Is it bad that I am COMPLETELY, and I mean COMPLETELY in love with these? Guest, please meet SugarPops, SugarPops, meet lovely guests. Now that I've got a bit of a system going, they're taking about twenty minutes to half an hour to make and then to package. I made and printed out the stripey paper all by myself and printed the title from my inkjet.

I haven't listed them on Etsy yet as I was hoping to have a few more on hand in case I actually get any orders.

I am SO excited!

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: