flower show!

judging by the amazing cards i've seen on everyone elses' blogs this week, i'm assuming absolutely everybody knows that the current challenge at city crafter is called FLOWER SHOW AT JERSEY CITY and kirsty has given us this lovely photo for inspiration:

and she's additonally added the challenge of incorporating some handmade flowers into our design. hmmmmm...both those things remind me of someone...who can it be??!?!

oh wait it's *ME*! :) :) :)

ever since making last week's painty card for the combined UPC/jingle belles prompt, i've been wanting to get a bit messy again, and this seemed like a fine time to do that; so a few short, fun, paint-n-ink-stained hours later, here's what i came up with:

(patterned paper: american crafts & sassafras + vintage sheet music all from the MY FUNKY VALENTINE kit at pixie dust paperie...along with the "indie girl" stickers and the dear lizzy rose brad; sticky-back canvas: claudine helmuth; acrylic paints: folk art; watercolors: grumbacher; spray inks: glimmer mist, maya mist & diluted ranger re-inkers; ink pads: colorbox, ranger, stewart superior; rub ons: basic grey, fancy pants, american crafts, recollections; white mini-brads: oriental trading co; HAPPY letters: recollections (outlined w/sharpie); adhesives: tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape)

yeah. i went a little bit nuts. first on the hand-made flowers, and then on the card that would hold them. i've used my last few bits of pink paper, sheet music, and a dear lizzie flower brad from the pixie dust MY FUNKY VALENTINE KIT... some flowery chipboard letters that i bought at full price in michaels even without a coupon... (unheard of!!!) and about a zillion tiny stickers and rub-ons. i was going for "a profusion of flowers". i think i may have overshot the goal somewhat! :)

the hand-made flowers are scraps of sticky-backed canvas cut with the sizzix layered flower die. they are sprayed and brushed with various spray inks, watercolors and glitter glue, they are stamped with acrylic paint and stamping inks, they have white rub-ons applied randomly on top of all the other bits. when i had an effect of color and pattern i liked, i applied the sticky-back canvas to scraps of tissue paper, crumpled and rumpled them into shape and fastened them together with decorative brads.

were they quick to make? nope. do i ♥LOVE♥ them??!? quite deliriously. (mission accomplished!)