Floral Explosion!!

Hi everyone, about a month ago my dear bloggy friend Sarn published a pop up floral box card on her blog here, which I really admired as I thought it had a real WOW factor!  The next thing I knew she had been kind enough to send me not only an instruction sheet but also a paper template to guide me! I was really touched and delighted, so I determined to have a go as soon as I was able. 

As regular visitors to my blog will know I’ve not been having the best time over the past month, having had my first bout of Covid which also caused me to faint, fall and injure my head. Just about getting back to normal, and now I have a nasty painful and swollen eyelid which the optician tells me is a stye, probably caused by being very run down! However in some ways that’s good for crafting, as just now I prefer not to go out unless necessary while my face looks such a mess! 

So yesterday afternoon was the time … and here’s the result. To thank Sarn for her kindness I decided to make this almost entirely from snippets, so I could hop over to support her at the Snippets Playground!

I cut and scored the box from a large snippet of white card, in line with the instructions. I punched the edges of the top “flaps”, then cut and attached pieces of designer paper to all the outer surfaces, the flaps and the inside back panel. I cut and attached 2 card brackets inside the box, then it was ready for the flowers!

I die cut a large variety of flowers and foliage from various snippets of white card, then coloured them by blending various Distress Oxide inks. I assembled the bouquet by glueing the die cuts to the back and front surfaces of the box and the inner brackets … I actually found this much trickier than I anticipated, so it was rather pot luck how the arrangement turned out! The instructions give an option of attaching the flowers to card strips which are then stuck onto the inner brackets, and I think that is probably easier so I may try it next time. I also found that for flowers with thin stems my stamping card wasn’t quite heavy enough to support the flower heads so a few of them were trying to flop over - I had to make a few adjustments to make them stand up nicely.  

I finished the box by decorating the flaps with a die cut scalloped oval from another snippet stamped with my sentiment, and two die cut butterflies from a snippet of silver mirri card.

Here’s another view of the box ….

I also took a couple of pictures of some (though not all!) of my snippets!

Stamps: Woodware Blooming (sentiment);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Kitsch Flamingo, Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Shaded Lilac, Iced Spruce, Mowed Lawn); Versafine Clair (Nocturne);

Papers: LotV Bonnets and Bowties, Shabby Shack;

Tools: unbranded flower and foliage dies; Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals; Magnolia Doohickeys Butterfly Dreams die; Martha Stewart edge punch.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Allsorts #788 - Anything Goes - TOP 5

Beautiful Blossoms #18 - Anything Floral Goes (2nd entry)

Crafts Galore Encore #125 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley #318 - Summer Colours

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2427 - Anything Goes - HONORARY MENTION

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Let’s Get Into Shape

Snippets Playground #484 - Use Snippets - TOP 3

Triple B (July) - Birds, Blooms and/or Butterflies (2nd entry)

Unicorn #100 - Not Square - TOP 3

Word Art Wednesday #655/656 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

This project really was extremely enjoyable, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Thanks again to Sarn for her support.

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,