7/11/2011

So much excitement!

Happy Monday!!! So, about all the excitement. This is a picture-heavy post. There will be a card, a tutorial, some pleading and an adorable little creature.

The excitement started on Friday when I found out that I made it to the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol 2011 Top 20!!! Squeal! Many of my sweet friends congratulated already and it means so much to me to see that they are happy for me! So, thank you so much for your support and for not begrudging me this! You can't imagine how much I appreciate it!

This weekend I created my card for the next round of this contest. The theme is selfmade embellishments. I love creating diy embellies, so I loved this theme! The only problem was to decide which one to make! I decided to create flowers, because who doesn't love flowers? And I wanted them to look delicate and elegant. Here is the result:


And a close-up of the flowers:


I really hope you like them! I will show you how I made them in a minute, but first the pleading :) Will you pleeeeeaaaase vote for my card??? I need your help to make it to the next round. Only the 15 cards with the most votes will make it. So now it is your turn to decide what you like best! If you like my card, please go here and vote! Or go here and read more about how to vote. Pretty please? THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Ok, now the tutorial! The flowers are made from Japanese Tissue Paper and I used the Sizzix Alterations die-cut from Tim Holtz called Tattered Flowers:



That Japanese Tissue Paper is more expensive than a normal tissue paper, but it's worth it! It is not tearing and just works great here! Trim 5 layers of the paper and die-cut through all of them:


Your flowers will look like this:


Then go ahead, don't be restrained, and do this to them:



Flatten them again:


And then stack them, but not neatly petal onto petal, but a bit shifted (I hope this is the correct word!):


Finally, take a threaded needle and some pearls and assemble your flower sewing the pearls to the center. Just crumple the petals like you want them to be and voilà!


For the white flower I used the two smallest flower dies together and for the cream flower I used the PTI die from the Beautiful Blooms set. Really easy and I love how they turned out! You could use these on an adorable headband or as a brooch as well.


And now to the cute little creature. I can tell you, my little heart almost broke on Saturday! In the morning I was sitting here with my little girl and we had the window open. I thought our neighbor's dog had this annoying, squeaking toy again, because there was a noise that just didn't stop. Then I went to close the window because I wanted to take a shower when I saw a little fawn trapped between the fences of our neighbor's and our garden! It was the little fawn crying for his mother all the time. I rushed downstairs, brought my girl to my MIL and ran outside (still in my PJ's). It had already freed himself but was now inside our neighbor's garden, completly confused and not knowing how to find a way out. Then it started running towards the street!!! I didn't know if our neighbor had closed her gate, so I desperately ran around the house, onto the street and into the neighbor's lot. Luckily she had closed the gate! Now it was standing there, a really tiny fawn, crying for his mother over the fence:



It already panicked when it saw me, so I called the neighbor (a lady of about 83 years) to tell her not to come out. What to do now? The only way out of the lot was this gate which led to the heavily trafficked street. I have no idea how it got in, maybe through a little gap in the fence, but there was no chance of getting it back through there again. I tried to call a forester, but no one answered the phone. So I called the police. Two really friendly officers arrived after a while. They never had such a situation before! But the only way to help the fawn was to catch it and get it back over the fence. It was heartbreaking to see that tiny panicked creature fleeing and throwing itself against the fence! I was scared that it would hurt itself. Here it desperately ran towards the gate after the police officer had first tried to get it:



But then it all worked well! It tried to hide behind the compost heap and the officer was able to capture it and lift it over the fence where the mother was waiting. Whew! It was so nice to see that the officers were touched by this little fawn, too! They were very relieved and happy that everything went well!

Ok. LOOOONG post. But I wanted to share this with you. Thank you for reading! And thank you for visiting. And thank you for voting if you like my card!!!

Hugs,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Paper: Bazzil Basics
Stamp: Hero Arts
Ink: Tsukineko
Dies: Sizzix, PTI
Small Pearls: Prima Marketing
Other: Japanese Tissue Paper, Wax Pearls

21 comments:

Aimes said...

Eeek can you believe it's Monday already?! LOL!
I LOVE your stunning flowers, Vanessa! Simply beautiful!
My what a story with that fawn! Love the piccys and also love the happy ending :)
Good luck my friend! I'm so honoured to be up there with you :D
Hugs,
Aiems
x

CinnamonSally said...

Hi Vanessa, Huge congratulations again on getting to the next round of Gallery Idol, you really deserve this as all your cards are beautiful. I love the stunning flowers on this card, and thank you for the tutorial I will have a go when I can get some of this special tissue paper. I am off now to vote for your card!! :0) GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

CinnamonSally said...

Hi me again, so happy you had a happy ending with your swwet fawn, great photos!

Unknown said...

I am so impressed you caught that fawn in a picture when it was in the air! What a great photo to scrap! Glad it had a happy ending:) Love the card too! http://visionsofpaper.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Rzasa said...

Vanessa, your tissue paper flowers are so delicate and beautiful. Good luck! :)

maryse n. said...

Love your card! It's just beautiful. The flowers turned out great. Good luck!

Debbie Carriere said...

Gorgeous flowers! I will have to find some of that tissue. Poor little fawn, glad it turned out okay! Great pictures! Stunning card! Good luck!

farmhouse-story said...

poor little dear! great pics and just a gorgeous card and flowers, vanessa! thanks for the tut, too:)

donna mikasa said...

Big hugs and congratulations, sweetie! So excited for you to go all the way! Love your work and I'll definitely be voting for you! Good luck! ♥

Thanks for sharing the adventure with the little fawn! So glad there was a happy ending!

Nancy said...

Thanks for sharing your sweet fawn story and photos. So glad that it had a happy ending! Your card and flowers are lovely, and it is so great to see how you made them! Oh, and by the way, you always have my vote!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Stunning flowers Vanessa! Such a gorgeous card and you totally rocked the handmade embellishments challenge! Good luck! Aww such a sweet little fawn - so glad it all turned out ok! :)

Meg said...

Your flowers are just so fabulous! I'm going to have to try out that Japanese tissue paper. Good luck!

Plus I'm so glad little fawn made it back to his mom!

Anonymous said...

Deine Karte mit den selbstgemachten Blüten ist wunderschön, Vanessa. Das Apricot leuchtet und ist von der Intensität genau richtig.

Und dann diese Aufregung mit und um das kleine Rehkitz. Ihr habt ihm geholfen und es ist nicht verletzt, das ist so gut zu lesen.

Ich drück die Daumen für die Abstimmung! :D

Ganz liebe Grüße, Tina

itsallrosi said...

just beautiful!

the flowers look so delicate but sound very durable made with the japanese papers.

and that baby deer, oh my! quite a few deer in my neighborhood and they're always jumping out in front of cards. I always worry when I see a baby that looks to be separated from its family

Jaclyn Miller said...

Vanessa, those flowers are soooo stunning and definitely delicate and elegant. I love that paper that you used. Best of luck in this round!

Cristina said...

Beautiful, Vanessa!! I love how you really let the flowers be the focal point of the card, and your color scheme is so rich and warm! Best of luck!!!

Agata said...

Such beautiful flowers, Vanessa! ANd such a moving story with the fawn! Anyway good luck with the voting!

Dawn T said...

Such a beautiful card Vanessa. I wish you all the best luck for the next round.... You story was wonderful,... nice that it had such a happy ending too

Anita Rex said...

Congrats on making the top 20 Vanessa! No surprise there! Love your card and flowers today! :> And such a cute fawn story! :>

Valerie said...

Such beautiful flowers, Vanessa.Your card is beautiful. Need to find some of that pretty tissue paper :)
Good luck!!

Alice said...

your flowers are delicate and gorgeous, Vanessa! thanks for the step by step. LOVE your gorgeous card. and awww.... poor little fawn! so glad that he was safe in the end. you are so sweet to try to save him. thanks for sharing, i really love reading this post! =)