Wild Flower Bouquet and Metal

The Monday Technique Lovers Challenge on SCS was to come up with a creative way to use the metal of a soda can. Huh???  I was intrigued with the idea and have to give thought to what I would attempt.  I knew the metal of a soda can is flimsy and may not even be as thick as a piece of cardstock so I thought it would cut and emboss well with a Spellbinders die. I decided to use a flower die that could be used as a charm on my project and which led to my using the new released Rubbernecker Wild Flowers and Floral Silhouettes sets.

This was a much easier project than it looks.  It was time consuming cutting out all the painted flower heads and greenery stems but well worth the effort. *** I stamped the greenery image on the base a few times to create a backdrop for the bouquet.  I attached the first cut greenery and began assembling the arrangement by placing flowers and additional greenery in place with glue dots. Some of the flowers are peeking out from behind the greenery to give the appearance of a real life bouquet and to show dimension. Even though I was dealing with a very small floral bouquet I kept in mind my mother’s (she was a florist) rule that you never use an even number in floral design. Uneven numbers are  always more creative and pleasing to the eye. That rule applies to our card making when using images, ribbon, embellishments, etc. I chose gorgeous May Arts ribbon to complete my project and placed  a multi loop bow at the base of the bouquet. I cut a few strips of watercolor paper painted with green to create the flower stems for the bottom of the bouquet.  When I got finished I realized that I had become so enthralled with the flower bouquet itself that I totally forgot about my little inspiration charm.  I really didn’t have a place to put it in or around the bouquet. I ended up hanging it from the bow but I have my doubts as to whether it will actually stay there when I give the card as a gift. It just goes to show that you can start off going in one direction and end up somewhere totally different. But….that is what the creative process is all about.  If we always know exactly where we are going the journey will not be nearly as fun or interesting.

***When cutting out images of any size you will have much better success if you cut by turning the paper – not the scissors. You just apply the constant pressure of the blade with your scissors and turn the paper in and out to cut out the image. 

Stamps:  Rubbernecker Wild Flowers and Floral Silhouettes

Paper:  Watercolor- Arches 140 lb hot press, Regal Rose, Olive Green

Ink:  Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Butterscotch, Almost Amethyst, Regal Rose (colors chosen from the SU Color Coach)

Accessories:  May Arts Gingham, Glue Dots, Snips, Spellbinders Die, Soda Can, Copic Markers (sad metal painting)