Flowers for Tzena

Flowers are all the rage right now in the stamping world, it seems. Here are some Stampology (Autumn Leaves) flowers I put on a birthday card. Each flower head was stamped twice, coloured with distress inks and shimmered up with some Perfect Pearls, then cut out and added with brads.

Here are some links to amazing mostly-paper flower tutorials (all links active at time of posting), enjoy! If you have a link you would like me to add, let me know in the comments section.

Studio MSG Easy Felt Flower Tutorial
Swirlydoos Paper Bag Flowers
Splitcoaststampers Rolled Flowers Tutorial

Fringed Quilled Flowers Video Tutorial
Splitcoaststampers Dimensional Flower Tutorial
NinaBDesigns Swirl Flowers
Splitcoaststampers Tissue Flower Tutorial
Stamp Talk with Tosh Flower Tutorial (Dahlia Dies)
Creationsbycorie Puffy Flower Tutorial
Sunflowers and Dragonflies
Wendy Smedley
Dawn McVey's Poofy Vintage Print Button Flowers
Sherry Cheever's Coffee Filter Flowers
Joanne Mainly Flowers Scalloped Punch
Amazing Paper Grace Crepe Flowers
Another Scalloped Punch Version
Kreate's Kards Tutorial 1
Kreate's Kards Tutorial 2 - Ruffled Flowers
Kreate's Kards Tutorial 3 - Puff Flowers
Simple Things - The Crepe Rose
Tim Holtz's Sticky Backed Canvas Roses
Ribbon Flowers
Tim Holtz's Grunge Paper Roses
Paper Possibilities Scalloped Heart Flowers
Peejays Poinsettia
Peejays Anenome
Becky Olsen Circle Roses
Valita's Fresh Folds Teabag Scallop Flower
Patty's Stamping Spot Vintage Paper Flowers
Spellbinders Nestabilities and Origami Fold Flowers Part 1
Spellbinders Nestabilities and Origami Fold Flowers Part 2
Forever Amber's Tutorial
ATC lindaB's Fabric Flowers with Melted Edges
JenLoweDesigns Origami Teabag Fold Flowers 
Yogi's Scalloped Flowers (Peonies and Daisies)
Scrapping By Design Punch Flowers
Fluffy Flower Lesson (music will play)
Fluffy Cupcake Punch Flowers

Queen of Hearts

One of the online artist communities I frequent is ByhandArtists on Yahoo. A challenge was issued there to create an homage to the Queen of Hearts. The card I created is about 4 inches square and I like its bold graphic feel. The link to the challenge is here: http://quietfirestyle.blogspot.com/2010/02/february-14-queen-of-hearts-challenge.html

Each Valentine's Day, my husband makes me a card. He does this for my birthday, too. He sneaks down to my basement studio and rummages about for bits and bobs to put together a card. This year he made a card and then heard about the Queen of Hearts challenge, and decided to create an homage to the King of Hearts. You can see his card and the "sock puppet king" he created below. In the interest of matrimonial harmony, I am not going to comment further!

Vintage Flowers

I was looking for a way to use these flowers that I made from vintage music scores. I made this Valentine's Card for a friend and her husband. Kate is an avid cook, so I thought the saying was appropos.

To make the flowers, I punched scalloped circles out of the music scores and aged them further with Distress Inks. Then I stacked them, punched a hole in the middle and inserted a vintage brass brad. I was able to give this card to Kate in person. I did not get one Valentine card in the mail this year - which I feel bad about. However, I have a few stockpiled for next year now. :-)

A Knitter's Gift Cards

Here is a fun project I have been working on for a friend of mine who is an avid knitter. Mary is a kind soul - she is always knitting something for someone else. It seemed to me she could really use some gift cards to go with her lovely presents. I collected a few knitting related stamps, but the project really took off once I received the knitted background stamps in the Faux Fun stamp set by Waltzingmouse. On some of them (the white heart and the dark blue card) I embossed the knitted background and the texture made it look real! I also purchased (at an incredibly discounted price) a BigZ die of a small square envelope so I have made envelopes to match. (Click on any photos to enlarge.)