Flowers!

Hi everyone. Hope everyone survived the holiday snow storm! We got lucky and didn't get too much snow, but the wind has been howling something fierce today. Branches are busting off the tops of the trees and hitting the roof of the house. Thanking God that it is only the branches and not the trees! I also hope that Santa was good to everyone!

I have been sitting home feeling a bit blue which always happens this time of year. Been like this for a few years now. I don't know if it's the seasonal/winter depression or if it's Christmas itself. I do tend to feel bad that I can't afford to get everything I would like to get for all the kids. Of course it doesn't help that I have a teenager who, as much as she loved her gifts, was disappointed that she didn't get more.

Anyway, in my down state I have been sitting here making flowers. I started last week and have continued the last couple of days. I am pleased with what I have done for two reasons: 1. I like the looks of these flowers, can't wait to put them on a page or in a mini album & 2. I am using up some scraps that I've had saved for ages and probably wouldn't have used for anything else. I have made these flower using a punch from The Paper Studio-1 3/8" flower, which made the smaller flowers in the tin & a couple of the centers for the larger flowers and the larger flowers were made using the Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals BIGZ Die from Sizzix, which I used with my Cuttlebug. I am simply doing what I call the punch & scrunch! Once I've punched the flowers out I spritz them with a water base spray, then scrunch them up into a little ball. Carefully open up the ball leaving some of the wrinkles in, then hit them with a heat gun to dry them. Be careful when using the thinner pp's because I tend to lose a petal when using them. If you do that you can rearrange the petals while the flower is still wet, so the petals have uniform spacing then dry them. Once dry place as many as you want together with a brad or whatever you chose. Have fun!