Happy Birthday Julia (& a wire bouquet)

The secret of staying young is to

live honestly eat slowly
& lie about your age
(from the LPS {Growing Old} set)

Happy Birthday Julia!

Here's to you Julia! You're so kindhearted, talented, inspirational, & supportive. It's a joy to know you. So glad you were born! May this year be the most wonderful one you've ever had. :O)

This was inspired by this HOT project that Julia made. I flipped out for her soft colours & shabby gorgeous chic.

1...Happy Birthday to Julia! LPS Flower Challenge & BlogHop :O)
2...make a 3D wire bouquet
3...cheap tricks: (paper quilting...stitch plan...gesso label)
& old tricks links: embossing ribbon & card feet

LPS Flower Challenge &
Happy Birthday Julia blog hop:

Flower Challenge:

CHALLENGE: Use any LPS stamp (if you have one, if not, any flower will do) & add flowers to your card & leave a comment with your flower card on the LPS blog.
PRIZE: Random winner wins a digital image from the Little Paper Shop.
KEYWORD: (When you upload your creation to SCS or PCP, please use keyword LPSC14.)

Want to Hop with us & show Julia some birthday love?

--->If you're already hopping and you came from Jessica's blog, then you're in the right spot.

--->Want to start the hop? Start here on Jessica's blog.
Thanks for stopping by & happy happy happy birthday Julia!

-2-

make a 3D wire bouquet

This is my take on the flower challenge. These sweet flowers are from the LPS {Butterflies} set. They're so easy to shape into little primas.

STAMPS:

• Flower stamp from Little Paper Shop's {Butterflies} & Sentiment from {Growing Old}
  

• Papers: S.U. Naturals cardstock, Basic Grey Cosmo Cricket paper Fleuriste-Maize, vintage journal sheet.
• Brass wire (from old S.U. wire pack)
  
• Tombow Monomulti (or other strong glue)
• Paper piercer
• Needle & threads
• Turquoise seed beads glued on with...
• ...Crystal Lacquer (or other really strong adhesive)
• ...beads & flowers detailed with Gold Zig Painty pen
  

Step 1) Twist 3 pieces of wire together for flower stems & adhere hand cut leaves (patterned paper is Cosmo Cricket paper Fleuriste-Maize.)

To make the leaves stay on...
1...cut two leaves (fold bit of paper in half & cut 1, but you get 2)
2...put a dab of Tombow monomulti
3...while the Tombow is wet, sandwich the leaves together & stick the wire in
4...hold & dry (doesn't take too long, but gives you enough time to straighten edges)



Step 2) Stamp flower from LPS {Butterflies} set, cut out & snip between petals (this is embossed in black on watercolour paper)



Step 3) Colour over black outlines of flower with white opaque marker (CTMH)



Step 4) Shape the petals with stylus (on fun foam or mouse pad)



Step 5) glue on beads (turquoise) & Add details with gold Zig Painty



Step 6) Glue the flowers to the wire stems ( to make them stay, I used a small circle of watercolour on the back & sandwiched the wire with Tombow monomulti--same process as leaves)

-3-

(paper quilting & a stitch plan)

This is a fancy smancy way to use up scraps. Here are some potential pointers...

to make the quilted card base I did this schtuff:

1...got the papers together. This is 2 kinds of Basic Grey paper Philordee-Phresh & Phunky & I dunno the dotted one, sorry. (One piece of the Philordee is coloured with gesso to make it pale & textured) and a sheet of Cosmo Cricket paper Fleuriste-Maize.

2...adhered the strips to the card (with double-sided tape in the center of them so the adhesive didn't interfere with the piercing & sewing. A sticky needle is the worst!)

3...pierced the holes for sewing:
A) marked out where the ribbon would cover (to know where to stitch)
B) pierced with a large needle

4...mapped out a stitch plan:

I wanted to have different colours of thread so they'd show up on the different shades of paper. Writing on the back helped my ailing memory; the ol' grey matter, she ain't what she used to be, hehehe. ;o)

5...stitched it.

This funky piece of vintage journal paper was too high contrast, so break out the.... ?????

You guessed it: Gesso! I know, I never shut up about Gesso, but my heart pounds everytime I see what it does to paper, such a neat variety of textures, sighhhhhh.

This thin label was a bit woobly but that was solved by a coat of Tombow monomulti to stick to to cardstock layers & stitch:

Older Cheap Tricks:

The Embossed ribbon (no starch) tutorial is here:

The card feet tutorial (and template) is here:

Happy Birthday Julia
& a very merry unbirthday to all Youse!

To go to the next stop on the blog hop
click here to visit Taylor's blog!

P.S. for quick reference, so you don't miss out,
Here's the bday hopping order:
(click to visit these lovely ladies)

1. Jessica
2. Mel (you is already here) ;O)
3. Taylor
4. Jennifer
5. Cindy
6. Bonnie
7. JessieAllison
8. and last, but not least, the Birthday Gal: Julia!!!

(today the ol' blog should be called: Hoppy bday Julia!)