April Showers ... May Flowers

Good morning my dear scrappy-happy friends!  I am over-the-moon thrilled to be a guest designer for the Paper Girls Challenge Blog.  Being part of an online scrapping community has really pushed me to continue developing my skills and it also provides me with a sounding board for when I'm not that excited about a layout or card.  Some of my best friends are the gals that I have met through scrapping.  

(An updated photo - thanks to my boy, William)

I do hope that you enjoy the layout I've created for the April Showers Challenge:

I've been just crazy about Kraft paper lately and I really love how it provided a background for the colors and flowers I used in this layout.  I used Studio Calico paper, Kiwi Lane Designs templates, a few stickers from Authentique, an embellishment or two from Webster's Pages and punches from StampinUp!

So, you want to know more about the crafty tricks behind this layout??

In order to create the raincloud and raindrops, I used mists and transparency sheets.  Just scatter several large droplets of misting ink onto the transparency sheet and then cover with another sheet - you get a two for one here - press them together and then pull apart the sheets.  Leave the sheets to dry and then cut to your {heart's} content.  Super easy!

I have a couple of different types of flowers on this layout.  I created the small rosette flowers by using a 1" punch from StampinUp! and then cutting a spiral into the punch.  Carefully rolling the paper on itself, you will achieve a tight rosette.  Glue that baby and you are set - I add a little touch to mine by pressing down on the edges of the flower to get a petal look - a friend of mine sprays the flower first and then presses - either way - its not difficult at all.  Another flower that I made is with a scalloped 1-3/8" punch again from StampinUp!  I cut into the scallops and then curl the petals.  Ta-dah!

Thank you Kristy Lee!

And there you have it, a layout that will hopefully inspire you to create something wonderful.

Materials used:  Kiwi Lane Designs templates:  Wildflower 1T, 6T, Chestnut Drive 2B, 3A, 3B
Studio Calico Memoir Collection Flower Bed and embellishments
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo
Webster's Pages embellishments
Authentique words
Basic Grey "april" letters