Ring around the Rosy

As a general rule, I don't make New Year's resolutions because I inevitably fall short and then feel like a failure.  But this year, I decided to make a few guidelines for myself, and implement one thing at a time.  One is not to try not to sweat the postpartum weight loss until I'm closer to weaning, and to try not to expect too much of myself until everyone in this household is healthy.  (We're nowhere near that yet).

Another is to make 3 cards every week, and to make all the cards in my idea files by the end of the year.  Obviously, there are a lot of factors that will probably thwart me in this resolution, but I'd like to have it as a goal to start so I have some structure to my week instead of being glued to my office chair nursing a baby, or waiting to nurse a baby.  There's a lot of crafting I can do over a nursing or sleeping baby, and I've got to get myself out of this rut.  Plus, Birdie seems to be on the verge of getting something like a schedule during the day, so maybe I'll start feeling more sane soon.



Today represents a start to the cards anyway.  I'm pretty happy with this card--I've been wanting to try paper roses for a long time but just never got around to it.  They are surprisingly easy!  A bit time consuming at first, but I could see getting faster as I go.  Some of it was learning curve, and some of it was that I decided to suede some of the petals, so that took longer than if I had just made them straight.  But I think the extra texture was worth it.

There were many different places of inspiration for this card, but I will say that if you google "fancy flower punch roses, stampin' up" you'll get a ton of great tutorials on how to make them.  The little white flowers I recreated from a card I saw on Ann Schach's blog. For the background, I saw someone do that on a card and thought it looked like a pressed tin ceiling.  I thought the finial press would be the perfect background for this card.  

Supplies:

Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Old Olive, Crumb Cake cardstock

Elements of Style stamp set (for the sentiment)

Fancy Flower punch, Five petal flower punch, large oval punch

Finial embossing folder

Crumb Cake, Always Artichoke, Pretty in Pink ink, Rose red marker

Color Spritzer tool

sponges

pearls

paper snips

glue dots

paper piercing tool (for shaping and curling)

bone folder (for shaping, sueding and curling)

Scotch quick dry glue (you could also use tombow mono adhesive or a glue gun)