Another month, another blog hop. Though my craft room is a shambles while I reorganize, get rid of things I no longer use and try to sell retired stamp sets, I found 2 patches about 12" square to work on these projects. I have to admit the flowers were formed and assembled while I watched The Bachelor on Monday night. One of my silly vices.

This blog hop concentrates on the Occasions Catalog and Sale a Bration, but can have some of Annual Catalog as well.  The majority of items in my projects come from the Occasions Catalog. I hope you enjoy them.

You arrived at my blog from Marsha's blog. I so enjoy her projects, she is a very talented lady.

The first project is a card for a special friend. I used the Rose Garden Thinlits Die and one of the sentiments from the Rose Wonder stamp set. After die cutting the large rose in Wisteria Wonder I made the decision that I couldn't waste all those inner pieces so after edging the outline and the inner pieces in Eggplant envy I glued down the rose "frame" and then added the pieces back in. I crimped and pinched those pieces to give them dimension. I then die cut the leaves in Mint Macaron and edged them in Mossy Meadow and glued them down with the Detailed Glue pen.  Wink of Stella is my new favorite product and I used it on each of my projects somewhere, though the photographs don't really pick it up. On this card it is used on all the elements. The base card is Smokey Slate and the layer is from the Sale a Bration flyer, Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack.

My next project is based on  a sketch I found.  Since I needed a masculine card I chose the Going Places DSP stack. The base card is black and black was used as the mats for the smaller layers. I used the globe stamp from the Going Global stamp set, though I struggled with using it or the compass in the set. I matted it on a 2 1/2 inch circle. The gold around it is Wink of Stella. I finished off the embellishing with the Gold Thread.

Project 3 is something I really love doing. Altered art. This project is an altered cigar box.  This particular box is one of the heavy cardboard variety though I have also done wood ones.  I covered this box using the Birthday Bouquet DSP both inside and out.  Mossy Meadow was used to do all the edging. "The Bachelor" flowers on the top of the box were punched from watercolor paper I had washed using Watermelon Wonder ink. The flower centers were die cut using the Botanical Builder Framelits. The leaves were stamped using the Rose Wonder Stamp set and the Rose Garden Thinlits die. I had color washed water color paper with Mossy Meadow, stamped on them and edged them with the same ink. I love manipulating paper to see how realistic I can make the flowers and leaves look.  Pool Party CS was used to punch the Petite Petals for accent. I added Venetian Crochet trim around the side of the box, an Antique Brad, and ribbon and pearls from the Love Blossoms Embellishment kit to finish it off. Oh, I almost forgot... "The Bachlor" flowers, leaves, and small blue flowers are all covered with clear Wink of Stella.

I hope you enjoyed my projects.  Your next stop will be to Leanne's blog where there are some wonderful things awaiting you.