2013-2015 In Color Showcase, Part 1

And I thought it was hard to find balance during the school year! WOW! What a month June has been. First, I had to finish a tough school year on June 11th. Then, a 3 day training, then a weekend to stamp, (or so I thought). My next week was an amazing experience as part of a Math Institute, which involved digging deeper in the common core math standards with fellow teachers. I came home every night full of ideas and no creativity. Last week, I figured that I would finally have some time to get back on track. After all, I was just watching a 3 year old, a 14 year old, and 15 year old while a 40 year old recovered from surgery. I got some school stuff accomplished, but not much else. We were having too much fun-- Bay Beach, the Zoo, playgrounds, Dairy Queen, "playing." So, finally, I am home and nesting and not leaving for two weeks. I hope.


Here's a project that I started two weekends ago, but had really bad pictures of it to blog, so had to wait to get home and blog. I feel bad because I left a hint on my Lily Ink Pad Facebook Page and then didn't follow up. So, for those of you waiting here it is.

The big reveal:

I found this flower shaped Memory Tray and knew I wanted to feature the new catalog products in a sampler. My basis was the In Color Paper Pack and everything new I own. I will feature this project over three posts in three days so you can see every little detail.

To start, I needed a template, which the tray came with. I am the worst cutter-outer, so I used my paper piercer to poke holes from my template to my paper. I then trimmed the Designer Series Paper.

and put it in each section:

But then, I needed to figure out what to do with the middle section. Our eyes are drawn to the center of such a symmetric frame, so I knew it had to be beautiful. I also knew I couldn't have cut a perfect circle. Did I mention I am not a good cutter? Luckily, I had ordered the new Circle Framelit set so I just had to use the circle that fit the closest and my Big Shot to cut it out. I realized when I did that step that the scallop edge circle would fit perfectly on the frame:

I just put the outer and inner circles on the paper and ran it through the Big Shot. I then had a frame to attach to the frame. Easy and cute. My favorite combination.

As for the rest of the inside, I used circles with folded flaps to make the flower. I ensured that the flaps flipped the same direction. A Doily made the perfect background and I added a Very Vintage Designer Button in the center. The frame needed just a bit more, so I added some pearls.

More to come in the next two days on other frames!

Happy Creating!