Guest Designer Post - Create A Smile #1

Hi there! I hope you have enjoyed the Create A Smile September release blog hop. I did! :) But today, I will be sharing you my first official Guest Designer Post for Create A Smile for this month. Enjoy!

Before I show you my card, here's a look of the stamp set that I used for today's card. It's the adorable Penguin Party stamp set!

Here's my card : 

The penguins and gift boxes were all coloured using some watercolours. I've stamped them on top of each other using some masking technique so that I could pop them up all 3 at once. 

Now, do you see that repeat sentiment stamping behind the penguins? Here's how I did it.

I made a distress look on my die cut piece with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I took the Hooray! sentiment from the same stamp set and stamp it using the same distress ink to create the background. 

Hope you've liked it and you like to give that stamp set a try. Don't forget to visit Create A Smile blog to check out all the other ways to use the stamps. I will have 2 more cards in store for Create A Smile, so go ahead and follow me to stay tuned ;) 

Paper Flowers Tutorial

I'm always trying to find ways to cut cost and this isn't a new idea but I've decided to make my own flowers. Of course, I would still purchase some flowers that I can't make but I'm working on making different kinds. I would like to share with you one of them :)

I think they turned out quite pretty :) So here's how you make them. 

You will need : 

A paper piercer (if you don't have it, scissors would work too)

Foam for you to put your flowers on so that you wont destroy your work surface.

Cardstocks or anything thicker than a regular typing paper would work best.

Brads (or glue, but brads are better)

1" Scallop circle punch (you can use any size, depending on how big you want your flowers to be)

Mists (ink pads, paints, will do too. This is all up to you)

Punch out 8 pieces. I've tried out 4 and 6 but I love the thickness with 8 papers. Spray or ink up your scallops. I spray them front and back. Again, this is up to you and how you would like your flowers to  look. 

Spray your papers with a bit of water to soften them so that you can make crinkles. If you're using mists/sprays you don't need to do this. If is too wet, wait a while or heat it slightly or else it might tear.

Open the papers slowly as they will still be wet and stack them up. Poke them at the centre with your scissors or paper piercer. 

Secure it with a brad. It doesn't matter what colour as it will not be seen. 

Crunch up the papers again, layer by layer.

Until it looks like this

Then slowly open up the bottom layers slightly, depending how you would like your flowers to look.

My flowers came out very firm after they are dry because I used cardstock and I can't wait to use them on my projects. Have fun!