Back at the beginning of March I made a transatlantic dash to be with my daughter who’d given birth to twins at 34-1/2 weeks by emergency c-section. Thankfully due to swift action by the medical staff at Wexham Park Hospital Mum and babies made it through without any complications. Since then I’ve been in the UK spending valuable time with the twins, their amazing big sister Alyssa, my daughter and son in law. Now after jumping through a great many hoops I’ve finally made it home again.

It’s been a real challenge keeping my daily blog going with new projects but somehow I managed it. That said, I’m happy to be back in my craft studio with full access to all my toys. I was asked by a friend if I was bothered that I was required to spend two weeks quarantining at home now I’m back in Nova Scotia. Two weeks confined to my craft room? Seems like heaven to me!

INSPIRATION FROM HOME

So this was the last project I made while I was in the UK. While shopping for cute baby clothes, I found this wooden Home Sweet Home plaque in Primark for 80p and I couldn’t resist it. The house shaped plaque was pretty plain with just the heart-shaped hole, the sentiment, painted roof effect and a piece of rough string to hang it up. However as soon as I saw it I knew exactly what I was going to do, which was good as my daughter asked me as I was dropping it into my shopping basket. All I needed to start was the Pansy Dies and a little inspiration from my garden at home.

From the Pansy Dies set I wanted the dies that would emboss as well as cut. There were the two sizes of leaves, and the two parts of the large pansy. Then I needed the curved stem and the two parts of the bud.

For my colour scheme I chose card in Mossy Meadow, Basic White, Fresh Freesia and Highland Heather.

Next, using my Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, I cut out all the pieces I’d need. First there were three of each of the two leaves, and also two stems from Mossy Meadow Card. Then from Basic White Card I cut the largest (3 petal) part of the main pansy. From Highland Heather Card I cut two of the triangular shaped pansy petals, plus two of the smaller bud pieces. Finally from Fresh Freesia Card I cut the larger layers for the two buds.

It was at this point I realised that I needed to do just a little more before I could assemble the large pansy.

A LITTLE STAMPING

First using Tuxedo Black ink I stamped onto the Basic White petals using the smaller of the centre stamps from the Pansy Patch Stamp Set.

Next, from Pale Papaya Card I die cut a drop-shaped piece, and attached it to the white petals with Multipurpose Liquid Glue. Then I attached the separate Highland Heather petals to the back with more liquid glue and set the flower aside.

Next I needed the leaves, and I used liquid glue once again to attach some of them onto the plaque near to the Home Sweet Home sentiment. Two more leaves were glued peeking out over the bottom left corner.

With that done I turned to the curved stems and buds and as before I layered the pieces together using liquid glue. Then I glued one stem directly onto the plaque over a leaf, while I used a Mini Stampin’ Dimensional under the other one near the left-hand edge.

HOME DECOR

The arrangement was coming together nicely but I needed to add a little height to the remaining parts. So I took the two remaining leaves and fixed them to the back of the large pansy image with liquid glue. Then I flipped the pansy and leaves over and added Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals to the back. Finally I attached the completed piece to the plaque over the initial leaves and bud stems. With that my pretty decor piece was complete.

I’m so pleased with how this project turned out and it now hangs proudly in my home. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Last week I used the pansy dies to decorate a wooden box with a decidedly un-pansy-like flower. If you missed it, make sure you check out my blog post When is a pansy not a pansy?

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Pansy Dies with the coordinating Pansy Patch Stamp Set using a single ‘bundle’ item number. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the same two items separately. I’ve included links to both options below in case you want to compare them.

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