SOS ♥200♥!!!

can you believe we're already completed 199 challenges at shopping our stash?! well, i can't, either, but miss leslie assures me it's the case, so i'll just add in a, "holy wow, the time just seems to fly by!" and leave it at that. in honor of our 200th challenge, we've decided to quite literally go *BIG*; in fact we are calling this one "big, bold and beautiful" and the brief is to use something big (letters, flowers, ribbon...) or to use bold bright colors or images. i decided to do both... surprise, lol! :)

plain medium sized (8x10") kraft gift bag from michaels; sunflower layers made of strathmore watercolor paper embellished with artist loft paints and lots of machine stitching; patterned paper for leaves: my mind's eye, paper company and an old wallpaper book my friend cheryl rescued from the trash one day when she was out running! (b/c THAT is friendship, people!!!) :) :) :) adhesives: elmers brand glue tape, 3m foam tape

ok, yeah, it's another gift bag, but since i really do give away almost everything i make, i tend to make whatever i need next, and at the moment it was a gift bag in which to stow a few mother's day presents for lovely husband jeff's lovely mum.  the sunflower was a custom job, obviously; it's composed of three layers of watercolor paper that i cut and painted before adding lots of machine stitching on top. i put a little foam tape between each layer to give it even more dimension.

it's possible i might've taken the "big" and "bold" elements of the challenge a little too seriously. the sunflower measures about 8" across, and the center is pretty close to 4"! here's a shot with my phone that kind of gives you a better idea. but basically, yeah, it's BIG:

hop on over to see what the rest of the lovely SOS gang... alica, barb, chana, chris, deena, donna, jessi and leslie... have done to celebrate our 200th challenge at shopping our stash! ♥♥♥