Today's Create with Connie and Mary Thursday Challenge is Anything but a Card! Now…don't get confused! Mary and I are still doing the Create with Connie and Mary Thursday Challenges on the public blog where ANYONE can join in and link to their creation!
Paper Pal Arts (PPA62) also has a challenge using buttons…although mine isn't a card, I hope it will still qualify as using buttons in an unusual way!
We also will start Saturday Challenges this week…these are just for our Create with Connie and Mary subscribers…who are eligible to win prizes if they play along! It's not too late to join! We are just getting started and you can access all the fun projects we've done so far!
Well, anyone that knows me, also knows that 3D items are what got me started stamping! I love making boxes and favors and home decor items! Today's Anything but a Card Challenge just fit me perfectly!
Like most everyone, I get my inspiration from things around me. I was browsing thru a craft store and saw pumpkins made from felt flowers and cloth balls…the flowers were the shape of Stampin' Up!'s 5 petal punch, so I knew I could recreate them with my punch. I also plan on making one out of the felt some day…I just didn't have any orange felt on hand. I'm happy for this challenge so I could finally sit down and make one!
I grabbed a Styrofoam ball out of my storage closet and used the Craft Knife to cut off the bottom so it would sit flat and a little off the top so it looked somewhat like a pumpkin shape. I punched a BUNCH of 5 petal flowers out of Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I sponged the edges with Tangerine Tango Classic Ink. Then I used my Bone Folder to "soften" up the cardstock, by running the edge of the bone folder along the punched flower cardstock, curling it slightly. That helped it shape to the Styrofoam ball better.
I started at the bottom and added the 5 petal punched flowers to the ball with straight pins. I overlapped the petals, row by row, so that the Styrofoam didn't show thru and the petals from one flower would hold the next row of flowers in place. At the top, I placed a large punched Old Olive Fancy Flower, cutting thru the petals slightly so they would also curl up.
On top of the punched Fancy Flower, I built a stack of Old Olive and Garden Green buttons to resemble a stem. I used the 1/8 Taffeta Ribbon and made a bow for the "vine". Around the centers of the 5 petal flowers, I added Pumpkin Pie buttons and Rhinestone Jewels to cover the tops of the straight pins.
I think it makes a fun and whimsical little pumpkin decoration! It really didn't take that much time to make one either…the longest part was finding enough Pumpkin Pie buttons!
We hope you play along with the Create with Connie and Mary Thursday Challenge and check out what the rest of the Challenge Team did this week! Make sure to use CCMC118 in your post!