Time to play in the Rose (Blossom) Garden!

Hi All! I hope your summer is off to a fabulous start! We're at the Eastern Shore (MD) this weekend enjoying a little quality time for Father's Day. The count down to our trip to Florida (and the Close To My Heart National Convention!) is in full swing.

Today is "Play in the Garden" day here at Violets & Sunshine. Are you ready for another challenge? It's time to make something fun using the Birthday Boy key on CTMH's Artiste Cricut Cartridge. As usual, I tried to think outside the cartridge box on this one, and here's what I came up with:

So what do you get when you turn a start-spangled party hat upside down? Why the perfect little patriotic wall pocket of course! I cut the party hat at "fit to page"from CTMH Glitter Paper, and then cut the same size from White Daisy cardstock to use as a liner. I glued the two together with wet glue for a very sturdy wall pocket. (You will want to use hot glue some other strong adhesive when you make it into a cone.) I cut the large stars from White Daisy and Cranberry cardstocks and the Outdoor Denim patterned paper from our Tommy collection. Each color of star was cut at 3, 3.25 and 3.5 inches. I layered the larger two together using wet glue and added a white pipe-cleaner between the layers. I then added the final star with dimensional adhesive and accented it with a little bit (or a lot...) of Silver Glitz. I cut the banner from Glitter Paper using "fit to page" and then sized it down in .25-inch increments and cut it again from Cranberry cardstock, Tommy paper and White Daisy cardstock. I layered the pieces and folded one end around a bamboo skewer so that it would look like a flag. Before adhering it to the skewer, I stamped the word "Freedom" in Outdoor Denim Exclusive Ink using the Urban Alphabet stamp set. I then adhered the flag to the skewer and wrapped the skewer with pipe-cleaners so that it matched the stars. I added extra stars to the flag that were left over from the hat cutouts. I used Color Ready Seam Binding for a hanger, which I tied through the holes that are already cut in the hat for just that purpose. I added some red crinkle paper and some red, white & blue bakers twine from my stash to finish it off. 

Here are a few close ups:

And here it is proudly hanging on my backdoor. (It's not easy taking a picture of something hanging on a glass door!)

 I hope you are inspired by my little patriotic party-hat-turned-wall-pocket. Don't forget to play along with us in the Rose Blossom Garden. The challenge winner this month will take home the fantastic "Perfect Fit Dad" stamp set.

Is that fun, or what?!

Look forward to seeing all the fun creations you can come up with!