Jump Up - it's 3D Wednesday

Welcome to Hump Day, the day that takes us over the hump to the weekend! Yay. Today is also the day we share 3D projects at My Creative Time. This variety of little teensy pansies is my favorite. My mom had these in her yard when I was little. This variety is called Johnny Jump-ups. I've always loved these pretty little flowers and the name was just cute to me.

Ok, so this is how my project started. I wasn't sure it was going to work out, but I decided, in case it did, to get pics of the process. I pulled out a few of the papers I wanted to use and got to work.

This is not all the paper I used, I needed quite a few more scraps, so I pulled out some different shades of green for more natural looking foliage I planned to create. Not every leaf on every plant in nature matches the others exactly anyway.  I ran the green through the crimper to soften the paper and make it more pliable for my leaves. After I crimp it, I sort of roll out the crimps with my fingers and smooth the paper a bit before cutting my leaves. The circles are 1/2 inch and I did nothing extra to prep those; just punch. You'd be surprised how many little circles you can get from scraps! For each flower, I cut 4 vanilla (one of these will be the base onto which you'll attach all the petals) and 2 eggplant.

Forming the pansies is pretty simple. Let me tell you, I've been struggling for months to find the perfect way to make these flowers and couldn't come up with one that I was pleased with. Until now. Simple as can be -- circles! Pppfftt!!! Well all righty then! Simply glue the two purple circles to the upper half of one of the vanilla circles overlapping each other. (I think you can see that ok in the pics, right?) Then on the bottom half of the base circle, do the same with two of the vanilla circles, but not overlapping each other. They will however, be overlapping the bottom half of the purple ones. Does that make sense? Again, I think it's pretty easy to tell in the photo how they are applied.

To finish the flower, I used TH Distress Marker, Dusty Concord, to draw veins in the vanilla petals, including the petal that is not yet attached. On the final petal I used TH Distress Ink, Wild Honey, to add color just to the upper part where the veins are, then I pinched it together just at the top. Now I glue it to the flower using Glossy Accents or other semi quick drying glue. (Because I am impatient when working with flowers and when I get this close to finishing, I don't want to wait for glue to dry before I can move to the final step. LOL) After it dried thoroughly, I then added a dab of Glossy Accents to the fold of the pinch (that sounds weird, doesn't it) and placed a yellow bead. This is extra, you don't have to add that, but I liked it and I had them, so I used them.

Once I had cut a big pile of leaves, I inked them with TH Distress Ink peeled paint, then went over just the outside with walnut stain. I always use these two colors on all my leaves for all the flowers I make, no matter what shade of green the paper is, by the way. With a tweezer or your fingers, pinch together where the stem meets the leaf, as you can see below.

If you're following along with me, now all that's left is to glue the leaves to the back of the flowers and use them on your project! I used mine in this tiny little flower pot I picked up for 25¢ I attached the flowers to toothpicks back-to-back with hot glue, and stuck them into a small styrofoam egg I had left from an Easter project which just so happened to fit perfectly into the tiny pot!

I continued to add flower stems as needed until I had the look I wanted to achieve. Then I made the cute flag from bamboo skewer, the little window card using the new mini frame die, and added the ribbon to around the top of the pot (in the first pic). I wish it had photographed truer to the color though...it's a perfect match to the color of the flower petals but looks more blue on my screen. I hope you can see it more purpley!

Thanks for coming by for 3D Wednesday. Be sure to check out the other designer blogs as well for their awesome projects today.

Product List:
My Creative Time, Mini Frame die
My Creative Time, It's All About You stamp set
My Creative Time, Bloom Where You are Planted stamp set
My Creative Time, Vintage label and banner die
TH Distress Inks, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain, Dusty Concord, Wild Honey
TH Distress Marker, Dusty Concord
Circle punch 1/2 inch, leaf die, beads, dragonfly charm, grosgrain ribbon, paper scraps, styrofoam egg, bamboo skewer, round toothpicks, tiny terra cotta pot