Try Something New Tuesday

Well, can't it be said that sometimes, things just don't turn out the way you planned? That's the story behind my second project for Try Something New Tuesday. I thought about not showing the card at all, but then that wouldn't have been very honest, would it? Not everything I make works or looks good. It's a fact of life. I don't want all my fabulous blog readers to think that everything I make turns out perfect every single time. You know I'm real about stuff like that, right? Most of us only show the stuff that TURNS OUT on our blogs! If that's all I show, that wouldn't be a very accurate reflection of what goes on in my studio--every single day I experience hits and misses with my work!

The first thing I made though to share with you today is an altered recipe box (I am doing this for a class at my very favorite scrap store Memory Creek!). I don't know who makes the box, but it's made out of thick chipboard. Instead of making it as a recipe box, I thought it would be more universally useful as a photo storage box! Everyone has photos they need to store. And why not have a pretty storage box that you can leave out on the coffee table to share with visitors? I used the new line of Crate Paper (Baby Collection, Pollen, Little One, and Catapillar) for the outside of the box, using Pollen for the sides and Little One for the removable top. Inside, the box comes with 6 dividers that I covered in Bazzill cardstock and Catapillar paper.

For a special touch, I used a sentiment ("a happy life is made of little things")from my PaperTreyInk/Little Lady stamp collection all the way around the perimeter of the top of the box. Right above that, I tied a GORGEOUS velvet ribbon, complete with a bow! I love this ribbon!!!! I have never worked with velvet ribbon before, but I loved it, so you can bet I'll be finding more and buying it! To make sure people knew it was a box specifically for photos, I used my Cuttlebug Olivia alphabet to spell out PHOTOS with some coordinating green designer paper. The letters are glued to the top of the box!

That's my first Try Something New project for today. When I find out who the maker of the recipe box is, I'll let you know.

Ok, on to today's second project. Let me first say, my inspiration came from a card in the new Paper Crafts magazine, page 86. The designer, Melissa Phillips, made these adorable cards with big, fat flowers on the front. They look like they're made out of paper, but I don't think they are. Actually, they are Vintage Blossoms from Attic Heirloom. Anyways, when I saw these flowers, I said to myself (famous last words) "I think I could make these"!. Well, not really. I thought I would try to make a flower like these out of my window punch, which I have never done before (which is why I thought this project would qualify for "Try Something New Tuesday"!!!!).

Before you know it, I had grabbed a ton of scraps from my scrap drawer and started making my flower "petals" with my window punch! The next thing I did was punch one circle out of scrap paper as the base to which I would glue my flower petals. Oh, and one more thing. After I punched all the "petals" out, I put each one into my Martha Stewart flower punch (I'm not sure which one I bought, but it's got the "frayed look" on the edges of the flower) and gave the "petal" a fringed look on the end (I know this is a little confusing....). Now I was ready to start gluing the petals onto the base. I did this in a roundabout fashion, until I had used up all my petals. For a sentiment, I punched another circle out of Pink Passion cardstock and stamped "hello" in the middle of it (from my Paper Tray set). It's matted with black cardstock, then glued to the center of the "flower". When this was done, I sat looking at my flower going "this is butt ugly". But I had put so much time and effort into making it, I was determined to see it to the end.

The flower still needed a little something, so I curled the edges of the petals with my scissors like you do when your curling ribbon. That made it look slightly better! I placed the flower in the top left corner of the card, and used the sentiment from Little Lady (the same sentiment as I used on the box) as the "stem" of the flower. I cut out some leaves using scrap designer paper. The card was still missing something though, so I doodled around the edges with a black marker and my Uniball white pen. There. Finished. Complete. Done. It was time to go to bed after I finished this baby. Maybe, just maybe, it would look better to me in the new morning light.

Well, it did look slightly better this morning when I came down to my studio! I'm sure I won't be mailing this to anyone since the petals go off the card making it too large to fit in an envelope, and because it's not some of my best work. But, that's life. That's especially the life of an "artist". You win some, you lose some. And I'm cool with that! Don't ever feel bad about creating something that in the end, just doesn't trip your trigger. But don't hide it either. We learn from our mistakes. If we don't make mistakes, we don't learn. It's as plain and as simple as that. Have a wonderful day!

Hugs,
Amy