Paper Corsage and FREE DOWNLOAD!

I was doing my daily google reader stop, trying to clear out some of the 1,000's of unread blog posts that I never seem to catch up on, when I came across this beautiful flower on holidash.com! I instantly fell in love and had to try it. ONLY I didn't want to sit and cut them out all by hand. That's what my Silhouette is for, right? :) So, I looked at the tutorial there, set up some cut files, and came out with this:



I followed her instructions pretty closely, as far as construction goes, with the following changes:
-I used paper instead of felt (obviously!)
-I glued the pieces together with hot glue
- I didn't bother with the cardboard and different color of felt for the base-- I just glued everything to a 2 inch diameter circle.
-After I got the petals all glued on, i put the 1" diameter circle on top, then took a 12"x1/4" piece of paper and curled it, then hot glued it in the center!

Like I said before, I don't take credit for the design or idea of this flower, all instructions came from this blog post and the designer is Megan Reardon. You can also find this corsage at notmartha.org. However, if you do want to make them from paper, I am uploading free cut files that you can download and use!


.svg cut file (for any cricut/ SCAL users that may happen upon my blog)

Good Luck and I would love to hear from you if you use the file!

Branding

Until I met JB, branding only had one meaning to me: that of a graphic designer-- logos, marketing, how a company is perceived, etc.

Then, I married a farm boy! Now, every April we travel to Blanding to help brand the calves.

San Xavier del Bac Mission

This weekend I visited the San Xavier Mission, just south of Tucson. I was pleasantly surprised to discover this gem in the desert.

Etsy Treasury

If you hop over to this treasury on etsy, you will find one of my airplane mobiles in a great collection called "Been Around the World"

My new favorite way to surf etsy

wow. You can call me slow but I just discovered my new favorite distraction. Making the "recently listed" items on etsy fill my whole screen and just watching them roll across my screen. Like this:


some of my favorite finds:

from erinjaneshop

from huebyjennyhouston

from michaelvanstudio

from JuniperLane

from farouche

from GreenGardenStamps

Real Inspiration

I took some art classes in high school with a girl named Meghan. You can see her self-portrait below. She has cerebral palsy, but she hasn't ever let it stop her from doing anything she set out to do. She paints by holding the brush in her mouth. How amazing!



(images via this article from Deseret News)

And if that isn't amazing enough, she has now decided to complete a marathon and triathalon. Only problem? She needs a special wheel chair to do so. So, some of her friends are working with another organization to raise money for Meghan to get a chair. They need $1,500.00. You can donate at this site.

I am inspired by her determination! It should also be mentioned, whenever I encountered her in school she was always so happy and optimistic. I like to post on my blog about art or design that moves and inspires me but none of that cane beat this.

Italia

Have I mentioned that my little brother is serving a mission for our church in Italy right now? He has been gone for just over a year. Today he emailed home some pictures from when he visited a cemetery in Genova (I think that's the name of the city). They were so beautiful I just had to share a few!






He mentioned something about how this cemetery used to be one of the 7 wonders of the world, but isn't anymore. I guess something more wonderful came up... ? haha