Designer Crafts - Flowers

April showers may bring May flowers, but Designer Crafts Connection members are bringing them to you in April for their DCC First Monday project.

Flowers are everywhere, and not just in your garden.  You don't have to look too far for flower themed projects, especially now that Mothers' Day is right around the corner (May 10th, in case you need a reminder).  You can easily find ideas for paper flowers, painted flowers, molded flowers, fondant flowers, etc, etc......  but my flower project is all about magnetic flowers......

I usually visit the Dallas Gift Market in winter and summer and one of my favorite showrooms is Demdaco.  I think I could spend the whole day browsing their creative displays.  One of the companies they represent is "Embellish Your Story" by Roeda.  This company has designed a whole line of metal frames, boards and embellishments for every season and family celebration you can possibly think of.  You can imagine how delighted I was to see that this company was a new exhibitor this year at the CHA trade show in Anaheim.

I've been dying to work with their product and the representative offered to send me a few samples to play with.  Each item is already perfect, but, what can I say, I'm a designer and, like everyone else, I can't resist adding my own personal touch.  Here's what I received:

2 large magnetic boards - one black chalkboard and one aluminum
2 sets of 4 small flowers (yellow and teal) and
a set of green magnetic flower frames.

As you can see from their booth photos, this is just a smidgeon of what they have to offer.

Since our theme this month is flowers, I started with the chalkboard.  I have 3 grandchildren, so I was immediately drawn to the flower frames (I used the stock photos that came with the frames for this project), but needed to add just a little touch of my own.  It had to be quick'n EZ, so I added brush handle dots around the edge of each frame.

To make the dots, you need a paintbrush with a small handle and some white craft paint.  Squeeze some of the paint onto a disposable plate, or piece of wax paper, then, holding the brush straight up and down, dip the end of the brush handle into the puddle of paint.



Lift then place a dot of paint onto the edge of the frame.  Dip the handle into the paint each time you want to make a dot, so all your dots will be the same size.

I also wanted to add a touch of white to the small, yellow flowers.  Using the same technique, I placed a dot at the outer edge of each petal, but instead of lifting the handle up again I dragged it toward the flower center to create a short line.  You can also do this with a toothpick if you want a narrower line.

Once I had all the embellishments embellished, I used chalk to to draw straight lines and leaves for flower stems on the chalkboard, added my saying, lines around the edge and it was done.  It was so easy!

Chalkboard art and lettering is very forgiving and it's supposed look as if it was made by hand, so no one can go wrong here - and if you do, wipe it off with a damp cloth and start again.

I created something completely different with the aluminum board.  I love photography and am fascinated by the look of photos on metal.  I don't have whatever it is that one needs to print directly onto metal, but I have the next best thing.

 

My sister took this photo of my daughter and granddaughter, so I printed it onto Craft Attitude™ a printable film for inkjet printers that is perfectly clear and adheres to any surface.  I also have a Cricut™ Explore™ digital die cutting machine, so I used that to cut out the title in vinyl and added it to the bottom together with a thin black strip to underline.  I'm sure you can do this with any die cutting machine that will make intricate cuts.  There are tabs on the back of each board, so all I have to do now is add a ribbon and hang it my room.

You can find more information about where to buy this product here: http://www.demdaco.com/Embellish-Your-Story-collection/collection-landing-embellishyourstory,default,pg.html?title=Embellish%20Your%20Story&brandId=B2C

Watch how everything clicks together here: https://vimeo.com/70141513

 Hope you enjoyed my introduction to this new "craft" product....  y'all come back now!

Yours truly,
Julie :)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON CRAFTING!