Hydrangia Cards

What a weekend ... out of town company, cell phone crashing (which is also my internet access) and Christmas ... whew!  I'm slowly getting back in business.  I made a card today (not the following), but it felt great to play again!!!

At last week's diva club, I demonstrated two hydrangia cards ...

The first card I demonstrated was this one.  I will briefly explain the cards to you "non" divas and to those divas who could not attend class because of holiday travel.

First you will need to make the buds.  Here we have five buds.  To make a bud, simply take a 1 1/2" wide strip of whisper white cardstock.  Fold it in half lengthwise.  Take the full heart punch (pg 210) and with the fold side in the hole of the punch and leaving about 1/4", punch one piece of the bud.  You will need two of these pieces for each bud.
Attach two pieces to form a bud, sponge with Rich Razzleberry ink and use a sponge dauber with old olive ink in the center.  Attach a small pearl.  Glue 4 completed buds onto your DSP.  Add a dimensional and attach the 5th, center bud. 

For the leaves, I used the Island Floral Bigz Die (pg 222) and cut out 3 old olive leaves.   I ran these leaves through the Big Shot using the Spider Web embossing folder (pg 218), making sure the center of the leaves lined up with the lines of the embossing folder.  Then I sponged the edges of the leaves again with Rich Razzleberry ink. 

For the above card, I took a 2" wide x 11 " long strip of whisper white card stock (very important ... our whisper white cardstock... it separates!)  Run this strip through the Crimper about 6-8 times to break down the fibers in the cardstock.  Next using a line stamp image (I used the large stamp in Wedding Sweet (pg 80) with old olive ink to put "veins" in the future buds.  Stamp both sides of the paper.  Then, punch out SIX -  

1 3/4" scallop circles (pg 210).  Sponge Rich Razzleberry ink on the scallops -- BOTH sides.  Then, take each scallop piece and roll it in a tight ball a few times, again breaking down the fibers.  Now you are ready to separate each scallop into two pieces.  You will end up with 12 pieces, each with a stamped/sponged side and a wrong side.   Stack and attach FOUR of these pieces together.  Take the top scallop and scrunch it up in a ball.  Roll the other three layers up to the balled layer.  You will now have three buds.  Glue these down on your DSP.

Leaves:  Take a 1" wide by 6" wide strip of Old Olive cardstock.  Fold in half lengthwise.  Run through Crimper at an angle.  Take a 1 1/4" circle punch (pg 212), and with fold in center of hole in punch, punch out THREE half circles.  Unfold half circles, sponge with Rich Razzleberry and attach with glue under the buds. 

You can finish your cards in any way.  The divas made this last card.  There was a little complaining as they were separating the scallop circles, but there was a lot of excitement and pleasure when the cards were finished.  They agreed that these beauties were worth the effort!   Have fun ... and go play!!!