Monday, February 27, 2012

CTMH Art Philosophy Paper Flower Wreath

I told you I've been busy creating!  I finished another flower wreath yesterday solely using the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge and I couldn't wait to share it with you.
I really wanted to showcase some of the options of the cartridge on this wreath and what fun I had "playing" with features and varied CTMH products.

You know, paper flowers are one of the hottest things going right now and the Art Philosophy cartridge has so many possibilities for you to create a spring bouquet.  If you look at the blue flowers, you'll notice that I cut out 2 sets of solid petals in Pacifica.  Then, using the "layer" feature on that flower, I cut the open petals in Sky.  I attached then in the center only, slightly bent the petals upward and added a Shimmer Brad to form the center of the flower.  The orange flowers were cut using the same technique but a different flower option.  This time, I cut the base petal from Elemental and the layer in Sunset.  This flower differs from the blue flower because I glued down the Sunset Layer to make a flat flower.  The centers are Antiqued Copper Brads.  The purple flowers were really fun!  I selected my flower.  Using the "font" option, and Colonial White paper, I cut the image,  What you get is a flat spiral.  The spiral is rolled to create the 3D flower.  For these, before I rolled the flower, I misted the flat spiral with a mixture of Pearl Paint, water and Gypsy re-inker.  When they were almost dry, I did the rolling.  Liquid Glass is a great adhesive to hold the rolled flower together.  By the way, that is Bronze Glitz Glitter Gel in the center.

Don't you just love that bird?  He is on the Cartridge too!  I cut him from Vanilla Cream.  Next, his wing is cut from Sunset on the Layer feature (I lined it with Desert Sand).  I sponged him with Desert Sand, Cocoa and if you look closely, you'll see that I sponged Sunset for a feather cap on his head and tail.   Just a note on cutting items using the layer feature.  You do not need to change the size of the image when cutting a layer.  The cartridge is so smart that it will cut the perfect sized layer for your base image.  When I cut the leaves and stems for "greenery" I used the same process.

I also wanted to take a few words to talk about my color choices.  Remember a few posts back, I talked about color selection for your projects?  This wreath fits perfectly with that post.  Orange, Purple and Green are the Secondary colors.  They are the colors derived when you "mix" together the Primary colors (blue, red and yellow.)  Because of their relationship to each other on the color wheel, they will always coordinate.  Now, you asked, why the blue flowers???  Blue and orange are what are called Complementary colors.  Complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel.  (I have an example of a color wheel in that highlighted post.)  Complimentary colors will always also work well together.

Thanks for bearing with this long post...I am always happy when I have the opportunity to explain the whys and wherefores of one of my projects.  :o)  For Now, Happy Crafting!


1 comment:

Cynthia said...

That wreath is pretty darn awesome!!! LOVE the color choices too. Thanks for the explanation on the "why" of your colors. :-)