FUSSY LOVE

I know. I know. I'm still railing about the lovely March Paper Pumpkin kit, May Good Things Grow. Remember THIS POST, where I first deconstructed an envelope from the kit, and then reused it in a card?

Following is a photo of part of the front of the kit, displaying my latest victim. 

Uh. I mean, pretty subject.

Shown below is the specific piece that I am picking on this time. Very very vintage-y looking. But, living in Wisconsin, I NEED SPRING! I've had enough of brown, dead-looking foliage. And, that's how the background of these flowers struck me. Dead. 

So I proceeded to  fussy cut and separate the flowers that had color. I was especially careful when cutting, in case I wanted to use the brown dead -- um. sorry. -- pieces on a future creation.

The first photo in this blog post, as well as the last one, depict the finished product.

For the oval on which the flowers rest, as well as the background, I made use of a very light-colored sheet of the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper stack (which I am thrilled to announce will also be included in the next big annual catalog, which goes live on June 1! Yay!)

Anyway, I was never completely crazy about this particular sun-bleacheded piece. But, when I held it behind my nosegay, it was PERFECT!

I used the Basket Weave Embossing Folder (in the new catalog also!) from Sale-A-Bration to give texture to the background. Before sending it through the Big Shot, I added Crumb Cake ink directly to the inside of the embossing folder that has the writing on it. Doing this adds some really pleasing depth to the embossing.

To finish off the centers of my flowers, I initially colored the centers with clear Wink of Stella. The problem with that was that the piece had to be angled just so in order for the sparkle to show up. And I wanted these centers to have more pizzazz than that.

What I ended up doing was digging through my long ago stash of retired Stampin' Up! products and came up with these clear micro beads. I love the way they look. They even add, in my opinion, to the vintage-y look of it.

I know a lot of the Wood Grain DSP is covered by the oval and the flowers, 

but the next photo shows a little bit of it closer up.

Combining the textured background with the popped-up fussy cut flowers, 

gives the card some pleasing dimension. 

The pink striped piece along the bottom of the card was one of the elements we were supposed to use on a different card in the kit.

Are you enjoying your March Paper Pumpkin kit? I can't wait until the bright red box containing the April kit shows up in my mailbox! Some people are already sharing bits and pieces of this kit on social media -- but I refuse to look. That's the best part of Paper Pumpkin -- the wonderful surprise!

Vintage-y

Smiles.