I’m so excited about our hop this month.  Besides demonstrators from the US and Canada, we have my dear friend Jeanne, a military wife living in Germany, hopping with us.  Hold on to your hats; it’s going to be amazing!

If you’re hopping in order, you got here by way of Kathe Deck’s blog.  Isn’t she so talented?  Kathe’s projects are always classy – down to the very last detail.

I made flowers to fill a decorated mason jar, and a pop up card.  I’ll confess – I really wanted snow this year.  I whined last winter because we were always “promised” a nice snowfall by the weatherman, but we got nothin’.  Maybe a little snow dust, but that’s it.  So this year, I wanted snow, doggone it.  And I learned to be careful what you wish for.  Holy cow.  We had snow up to our eyeballs.  Well, not quite.  But it was up to poor little Walter’s eyeballs.  Walter is our little dog.  He’s about 10″ tall.  Our other dog can eat from the table if we’d let him, and weighs about 160 pounds.  They’re like Mutt & Jeff.

So after all that cold and snow, I’ve been on a flower kick.  I decided to paint a mason jar (thanks for the green beans, Mom!  Hope you didn’t want to use the jar again) with white glue and Blushing Bride ink refill.  While it was still wet, I sprinkled on a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter.  I added burlap and Victoria crochet trim around the top and bottom, and under the Coastal Cabana flower. 

The flowers were made from creped filter paper and the floral frames framelit dies for the Sizzix Big Shot.  Simply die cut all the layers at once, then stack them, staple the center and crumple the layers around the staples.  Easy!  I dip-dyed the Coastal Cabana one in rubbing alcohol and ink refill.  The Blushing Bride flowers were spritzed – also with alcohol and ink refill.

The centers are “fringe flowers.”  We made these at technique class, and someone mentioned they’d look cute in the center of flowers.  They’re super easy to make.  I cut a 6″ x 1″ strip of designer series paper (use larger or smaller, depending on the size you want) and folded it in half lengthwise.  Then I put sticky strip along the bottom edge.  You want only half of the sticky strip on the paper so you can wrap it to the other side.  Here’s a picture –

Looking at the photo, I realize it would have been a lot better if I had used paper that wasn’t close to sticky strip color.  Duh.  But you can see that it’s wrapped lengthwise around the fold.  You can put it around the open side, if you want.  The first way (shown) gives really fringy, fluffy flowers.  The other gives more loopy flowers.

Before removing the red liner from the tape, use fringe scissors to fringe the strip.  Be careful not to cut too deeply, or you’ll end up with several small flowers.  (Don’t ask.) Pull off the liner, then roll tightly.  Fluff out the fringes, and you’ll get something like this.

This one should be “fluffed” a lot more.  For the flowers in my project, I wrapped the fringe flowers around a wire, then pierced a hole in the creped filter paper flowers.  I stuck the wire through the dyed flower, the wrapped it with floral tape.

The jar will make a cute centerpiece for Easter and Mother’s Day.  And it will probably stay on the table through my birthday in September.  I put a little battery operated tea light in the bottom of the jar, because I had some left over from Christmas projects and needed to get them off my stamping table.

Since the dress form pop ‘n cut die is one of the weekly deals, I decided to make a pop up card to go with the centerpiece.  Maybe I’ll give the centerpiece to Mom for Mother’s day, along with the card.  After all, it is her canning jar.  I got the idea for the hat from Robin Freicht.  I used  silver foil for  the mirror, and Soho Subway and Watercolor Wonder designer paper for the walls, Delicate Doily sizzlit rug, hat and dress.  I’d like to have a polka dot dress in those colors.  Gorgeous!!  I added a Blushing Bride ribbon sash.  The greeting is from the Sale-a-bration set You’re Lovely and  Teeny Tiny Wishes.  The greeting on the front is one of the Delightful Dozen stamps.

Your next stop is Terri Antoniw, a fabulous demo from Canada.  Remember you can use the buttons to go forward to Terri or back to Kathe, or go to the hop home page to see all the participants.

Click here to go toTerri’s blog.

Click here to go back to Kathe’s blog.

Click here to go to the hop home page.

Have a wonderful day!  Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. 
Enjoy the hop!

Products used:
Stamps:  Delightful Dozen, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Gorgeous Grunge, You’re Lovely; Paper:  Creped Filter Paper; Subtles Collection Designer Series paper stack; Soho Subway, Watercolor Wonder designer series paper; Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride, Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit card stock; silver foil; Ink:  Blushing Bride, Coastal Cabana classic ink refills; Blushing Bride, Summer Starfruit, Island Indigo classic ink; Jet Black StazOn; Other:  Dress Form pop ‘n cuts; Framelits: Dress Up, Circles Collection, Ovals Collection, Deco Labels, Floral Frames; Card Base pop ‘n cuts, scalloped oval punch, extra-large oval punch, delicate doilies sizzlits, itty bitty shapes punch pack, subtles candy dots, mini silver brads, Victoria crochet trim, burlap ribbon, Whisper White organza ribbon, fringe scissors, sticky strip, square lattice embossing folder, Blushing Bride stitched grosgrain ribbon, Big Shot; Non Stampin’ Up!: White glue, wire, floral tape, flower filler stuff (I have no idea what it’s called; it was in a box of Stephee’s stuff that was left at my house), battery operated tea light