SOU Die Cut Challenge Reveal: Flower

We have another exciting die cut challenge for you at  Stuck on You Sketches and, it is an easy one.  The theme is flower.  With all of the cuts out there in shabby, 3d, playful, vintage...etc., this challenge is great for anyone.  My niece came to visit me from Ohio for a few days.  I haven't had much of a chance to get to know her over the years since she has always lived there.  I was amazed at how much she is like me at her age.  I am not sure she was aware that I knew what she was thinking before she even thought it.  She is a charming girl.  She will be moving here as she got the job she came to interview.  I am SO excited.  She graduates this year with her Masters in Speech Therapy.  She is to work with small children who were born deaf.

The die cuts were made using my silhouette including the butterflies, cloud, label and flowers.   I opted for a black and white photo to allow the colors of the embellishments to create the horizontal line across the page and corner adorners.  I pulled out my stamp set from the My Minds Eye. The Sweetest Thing to make the circles above the picture and in the bottom left corner.  I only inked the edges to create a circle above the photo. The full circle would have been overbearing on the photo.  The background in the upper left and bottom right corners is nothing but Washi Tape,  from the same My Minds Eye collection.  I wanted to space out the die cuts this time. I have been clustering for a while now which is a great design concept but I felt my layouts were starting to look alike.  I opted to spread them out but to lay them in a pattern to still highlight the photo. Placing the title over the picture helped.  I created a mask with my silhouette, but drawing a rectangle and placing random sized circles and ovals in it. I then used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick to create the dotted back drop for the tile and photo area to ground them better.

 

Once put together I felt the page still needed something other than die cuts to tie all of that free space together. I opted to use sewing. I created a zig zag frame around the edges and made a swirly path for the butterfly at the top.  I also sewed inside the picture to make an inner frame on the photo to give it more emphasis.  I have always used patterned papers for my layouts, but am finding plain white paper to be a great backdrop to highlight colors and photos.  It is more of a challenge, for you are definitely starting with a blank slate, but with all of the techniques out there I always like the results when I use that clean backdrop.

 

So get your punches, scissors or machines and make some flowers to create your own flower creation.  We would love to see you post it on our blog so you can share your ideas with us.  Everyone is always looking for new ideas.