I hope you all are having a good start to the week. My nephew came up after school again today to play with B. and spent the better part of the late afternoon/early evening with us. This is a big test week at school and I'm glad the school year is almost over. The kids have been preparing for these tests for the past 6 weeks with extra homework and staying after school for 1-1/2 hours twice a week for Intervention (which was not mandatory but encouraged). I went ahead and had B. do the Intervention, not so much for this test (because it doesn't affect her grade), but because we figured it would help with her regular schoolwork. Especially math. Even though she struggles with math sometimes, she (and one other girl) still scored the highest in her grade last year on this big State test in math. We just found that out recently. wow. The teachers have been stressed out since it's the State giving the tests and grading the school. Especially the math teacher. She made them do math for two hours straight one morning last week and had them skip their Art class. B. was not happy to say the least because she loves Art. I'll be glad when it's over and the kids can be kids again. I did pick B. up at her normal time a few times when the weather was beautiful so she could play outside since, like I said, Intervention was optional and I just knew she'd probably have homework to do on top of the Intervention. No fun sitting inside most of the afternoon when it's 80 degrees out. So I made sure she got a break from the Intervention now and then.
Anyway..... I'm back with another wedding layout and a little tutorial to show you how I made the daisies with my Cricut.....
All the junior bridesmaids in A.'s wedding carried a couple of yellow daisies that were tied together with a gray satin bow. I remembered that I had saved the bow from the wedding from B.'s daisies, and decided that I wanted it on the layout as well since it's a keepsake from B. being in her sister's wedding....
I used Beacon Fabri-Tac to adhere it to the layout. I really like the way it turned out and the Fabri-Tac is acid-free and safe for scrapbooking. It's a pain to squeeze out of the bottle though but at least it bonds really well.....
I cut the daisy petals out using my Cricut and some cheap white Colorbok cardstock from WalMart. I colored them with Scattered Straw distress ink and iridescent gold glimmer mist. I really like how they turned out. I have three different sizes of daisies on my layout - 3" (pictured above), 2-3/4" and 2". Then I added some stitched flourishes using the Bazzill In-Stitch'z flourishes templates and light green and white baker's twine from The Twinery ("honeydew") stitched with one strand. I tend to use these flourish stitching templates quite often for layouts.....
Sketch inspiration comes from one of the Scrapbook Generation sketch books (Vol. 8). I inked the edges of all the papers and photos with Frayed Burlap distress ink. The pearlescent gray cardstock comes from the DCWV La Creme stack. And I used the DCWV Lemon Flower stack for all but one of the patterned papers. The one that's like a gray damask on white came from the DCWV Midnight Chic stack which is 8-1/2" x 11" but worked perfect for this layout since the papers were cut down to 10" high by different widths. I like how I can incorporate papers from the smaller stacks into my 12x12 layouts. The Midnight Chic stack is really pretty and has all black, white and gray patterns in it... damask, polka dots, stripes, chevrons, tone-on-tone, florals, houndstooth, etc. but only in those three colors. I love it since it's a nice neutral collection of papers to have on hand and goes well with wedding and other formal pictures. I picked it up recently during JoAnn's Daffodil Dash sale 50% off for only $7.50....
Ok, now on to the daisies tutorial....
Using the Cricut Walk In My Garden cartridge, cut the daisy out 4 times in the largest size that you want, 1 time in a medium size, and 3 times at 1-1/4" for the centers.....
Then with an ink blending tool, add just a bit of color to the petals, but don't color them in solid. I wanted some white to show and I inked the edges and tips of the petals too....
Then stack them together starting with the largest ones, off-setting the petals as you go. Glue the layers together in the centers (I used Scotch Quick Dry adhesive).
Pierce a hole through the middle. I used my WRMK brad setting tool and it was sturdy enough to go through all eight layers. Put a large brad in the center to hold it altogether. I used these black ones I found at Ollie's Bargain Outlet a long time ago. I think they were Making Memories possibly.
Go around the daisy, gently lifting each petal up to give it some dimension. Then spray some glimmer mist on and dry with a heat tool. Lift the petals some more and fluff them out until you're happy with them.....
I really love how these daisies turned out, and although they are dimensional, they aren't real bulky either. And they went perfect with my scrapbook layout....
