A Beautiful Challenge

Hi All! Happy Spring! It's April 15th, and you know what that means.... (No, not "it's time to file for an extension on my taxes...") It means it's time for the second Rose Blossom Garden Challenge for the month of April! Today's challenge is to use the "Mother's Day" key on the Artiste Cricut Cartridge by Close To My Heart. While that key has a lovely little box on it, I decided to think outside it a bit and see what I could come up with. Here it is:

So what do you think? For this project, I used patterned paper from the Chantilly collection, a little strip of Blush cardstock, Sparkles, Color-Ready Seam Binding, and a little glitter gel. The basket is actually made from the cupcake wrapper cut at 2 1/2 inches. I inked around the edges with Blush Exclusive ink, and added a strip of Blush cardstock accented with White Daisy brads [ret.] for a handle. I also added a little circle of chipboard covered with the same green patterned paper that I used for the leaves as a base for my bucket. I used pink and clear Sparkles for a final touch of fun.

To create the tulips, I cut 20 tulip shapes at 1 1/4 inches. I inked around the edges of each flower with Blush Exclusive ink and scored and folded each in half. I then glued five together to make a 3D flower. (Important note: the color of the tulip will be the color that is on the inside of the fold. So I folded 10 with pink and 10 with yellow on the inside. Scoring the tulips made it easier to fold them in half.) After all the adhesive was dry, I added glitter gel to give them an extra pop (and to hide the seams). I used toothpicks for stems, and poked them through the chipboard base so they would stand up.

For the leaves, I cut 6 leaves at 2 inches. I then used the flip key to cut 6 more so that I could glue them back to back with the green patterned paper showing. I inked the edges with Sweet Leaf Exclusive ink and glued them to the base of the bucket.

I cut the "#1 Mom" at 3 inches and then used the flip feature again to cut another one so that I could glue them together. (I wanted to used the yellow pattern for both front and back.) I tied the sentiment to the basket handle with crochet thread (the bakers twine was a little thicker than I liked) and added a Color-Ready Seam Binding Ribbon bow. 

This was such a fun project to make! If you remove the sentiment, it could easily be used for a birthday, get well, or "just because..." gift. The best part is that these flowers don't have to be watered and they never die. It's a little bit of perpetual spring! Be sure to check out all the fun ideas to be had in the Rose Blossom Garden. Remember, this whole project was cut using only the Mother's Day key. (Okay, except for the circle base to the bucket, which is from my stash...) 

As a reminder, here's how the challenge works. Each month you will be given 2 challenges: one on the first of the month and one on the 15th. Each challenge will involve a single key on one of the CTMH Cricut cartridges. You may choose to play in one or both challenges, it's up to you. At the end of each challenge (so that's twice a month) we (the design team and our lovely leader, Brenda Rose) will choose 3 Top Projects for that challenge. Then, at the end of the month, we will choose a Top Project for the month and do a random drawing from among the participants for the monthly prize--which will be  a Close To My Heart stamp set that coordinates with our Cricut cartridges. (How cool is that?!) April's winner will receive the Perfect Fit Frames stamp set.

So come play along with us in the Rose Blossom Garden! I can't wait to see what you make!