April (snow) Showers bring May Flowers

I am so honored to have been asked to be a Guest Designer over at Country View Challenges today.  To be chosen as Top 3 in Country View Challenges BLOGAVERSARY Challenge was incredible.  Since it was my mom's birthday present that garnered the merit, it made my mom's birthday all the more special.  She was thrilled:)

This month's challenge theme at Country View Challenges is "Nature's glories".  When I saw this theme, I had to smile.  We had a very long winter and it was still snowing in April.  I so very much wanted spring to arrive and this challenge inspired me to create my own spring!!  One of the very first flowers that bloom in spring here in the mountains of North Carolina are the sunny yellow Daffodils.  I created these paper blooms while waiting for the real thing to make its appearance :)

One afternoon while the snow was flying outside, I sat down with some newly acquired Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap (for some translucency) and started playing around with the idea of creating daffodils.  First, I thought about how to create the flower itself.   I mixed various colors of Distress Ink and Distress Stains with Matte Multi Medium and painted the tissue wrap.  I let that dry.  It added some color to the Tissue Wrap as well as gave it a little more rigidness.  It needed to be a bit more sturdy to run through my Vagabond.  The petals were made with Tim’s Tattered Flower Garland.  I used some half circles to create the center of the flower (the outside edge of the circle was cut with pinking scissors).  I edged the petals and semicircles with some Distress Ink and got ready to put the flower together.

The semicircles were folded to create the cone-shaped center of the daffodil.  I use "bendy"plastic drinking straws for the stem.  I cut the top of the straw at an angle to create a "cradle" the center of the bloom.  I glued it to the straw and then added the petals one at a time around the base of the cone. I then wrapped the entire straw with more Tissue Wrap that had been treated with Distress Ink and Multi Medium.  Tim's Tissue Tape (colored with alcohol ink markers) was used to make the transition from stem to petals.  Some small pearls were glued in the center of each of the daffodils.

I wanted to make a special vase for my daffodils.  I bought a simple glass corked bottle for about a dollar at Michaels.  Then I used a very special treatment on the glass to create the faux cracked glass effect.  This technique (using Glue-N-Seal and Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint) was created by Wendy Vecchi and was featured in Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 102.  (Seriously, if you have not taken either Creative Chemistry 101 or 102, you really should!  You still can.  All of the content is still online!)  I actually used a Distress Marker to color the crackle finish.  Other inks tended to melt it.  Ugh!!

I used some of Tim's Ideology Paper Stash to create the butterflies.  They were die cut using one of his Sizzix dies and then sanded around the edges.  I used a gem clip (gem painted with alcohol ink) as the body of the butterflies.  Then I used Tim's Tattered Banner Sizzlit die for my Spring Beauty banners.  The butterflies were clipped to some dried Wisteria vine from my back yard to add to some "airiness" to my bouquet.

A ribbon of wired burlap was added to the vase with one of Tim's Ideology customizable brads.  So much fun!!

I hope you enjoyed checking out my little taste of spring.  I certainly enjoyed making it while the snow fell.  Thanks for dropping by.  Here's wishing all of us some beautiful spring days here in the Northern hemisphere :)  -- Mary Elizabeth