EUCALYPTUS FLOWER

My brother-in-law sent me flowers for my birthday earlier this month. It was a lovely lush bouquet that smelled so wonderfully those first few days. And, much to my delight, there were lots of varied greenery stems.

Several days after I received the bouquet, a leaf from one of the eucalyptus stems fell onto the counter. I picked up the leaf to throw it away. However, it never made it to the garbage. Once it was in my hand, I felt the leaf, enjoying the feel of it, and, of course, simultaneously wondering if I could use a few of these lovely leaves in a creation.

In the photo, you can see how I utilized this leaf, along with three of its brothers.

Since each of the four leaves is a good size -- approximately 2 1/4" across -- I needed to use a flower that wouldn't be overwhelmed by these leaves.

I ended up using the large flower stamp from the retired set, Beautiful Day. 

I started by stamping the flower twice in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. One of them I colored in completely with Stampin' Blends in Dark Mango Melody, Light Mossy Meadow and Light and Dark Calypso Coral. 

For the second stamped flower I only colored in four petals.

After coloring all the bits, I fussy cut the whole flower as well as the four extra petals.  I carefully popped the four petals over their counterparts on the whole flower with Stampin' Dimensionals. You can see in the whole flower below that the four petals were fairly naked since they were going to be covered up with the four separate petals.

I used Green Glue to adhere the leaves to a 4 1/4" square of Mossy Meadow cardstock because this was the color that matched the leaves closest. I did consider embossing this piece, but decided against it because I felt the lovely leaves would give it the interest the creation requred.

Then, using Stampin' Dimensionals in a couple of spots, I adhered the flower on top of the leaves.

The final step was to mount it to a piece of Calypso Coral cardstock that measures 4 1/2" square.

Since the bottom eucalyptus leaf extends beyond the edge of the piece, I show it on a small easel.

I do not plan on using this as a card that will be mailed out or given to someone. I will be using it as a decor piece in my living room. Sort of a little lasting gift to myself.

So, there you have another example of upcycling. Most people would have picked up the fallen leaf and tossed it in the garbage. As per my personality, I weighed the possibilities of using it in a craft project. To be honest, the bouquet is now all gone to the garbage heap, except a handful of eucalyptus leaves. My mind is already planning.

Upcycled

Smiles.