Grocery Bag Flowers

We have a weed along the trail that I take for my regular walks, that I think is absolutely gorgeous.  It looks like a soft, crumpled paper.

I have a bag of jelly beans in a grocery bag stashed under my desk.  The bag is getting very wrinkled as I pile stuff on it to hide it (my family has figured out that I often have a stash of sweets).  As I was digging in the bag this morning, I realized that that crumpled grocery bag could work for this flower (and for The Paper Players challenge challenge to recycle!!)

Since this idea occurred to me while I was pulling stuff out to do the Splitcoast Color Challenge of Poppy, Baja and Pear - I didn't do my imagined earth-toned card reminiscent of a field of weeds - but I like how the brighter colors offset my white flower.

To get the flowers, I used my flower dies to cut two large white flowers, then I layered on three large grocery bag flowers and then three small grocery bag flowers.

Apparently I was not at my most creative this morning, because this card actually uses a sketch challenge too.  (Usually I try to have something of my own on each card - but this card uses somebody else's sketch, colors, and recycling idea!!??)  The sketch is from Mojo Monday.

For those of you that like to shop after doing your blog-reading (or is that just me??) - I have to highly recommend the sentiment set from this card.  It's called Big Wish by Verve Stamps.  It is definitely one of my go-to sets as it includes a wide variety of small to mid-size birthday sentiments.  They are all very unique, but some use basic fonts, some have a cute frill and some are very elegant.

Verve Stamps are very high quality clear stamps.  (I did a rant recently about cheap clear stamps.  Cheap stamps are "squishy" and it's really difficult to get a image.)  I had a conversation recently with someone who does NOT like clear stamps and it occurred to me that I should share two tips with you (just in case any of you feel the same.) 

1. Be sure you have some sort of pad when you are stamping.  Picture a basic wood-mount stamp - there is the wood, then some foam, then the rubber.  I actually unmount all of my wood stamps, right down to the rubber, so I have no foam.  I need to have it somewhere, so I place a piece of foam under the paper on which I am stamping.  The same concept applies to acrylic stamps - you need foam for that little bit of "give" that allows you to get a good image.

I use Darice's Rubber Stamp Pad - it's a large red foam pad that I have found at Joann's and at Michael's.  FYI: I cut mine in half.  A cheap piece of fun foam works the same way.  If you have ever used Close To My Heart's acrylic stamps, they come packaged with a piece of foam and, if you read the instructions, it tells you to put the foam under the paper!

2. If your image comes out mottled - not crisp and clear - the stamp you are using may have a factory coating on it that is messing with the ink.  Some people recommend that you do the following steps for every clear stamp, but I find that very few need it.  To get rid of the factory coating, you can either:

     a. Rub the stamp with a good quality white eraser.
          OR
     b. Ink, stamp on scratch paper, clean stamp
               - repeat once or twice until you get a good crisp image.

I think that if you keep these two things in mind, you will find that you are more willing to work with clear stamps!

• Stamps: Verve Big Wish
• Ink: black
• Paper: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade CS and dsp, Pear Pizzazz CS and dsp, Baja Breeze CS
• Accessories: Martha Stewart French Scroll border punch, Stampin' Up oval and modern label punches, Papertrey Ink Beautiful Blooms II #3 flower dies, Michaels gems, Stampin' Up Baja seam binding, Nesties circle and scalloped circle, grocery bags!

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I recently discovered The Paper Players blog and challenges and did a post on why I like them so much.  Imagine my delight, when my card was named "A Cut Above".  Details on this card on the same post.