the Happy Birthday Project

I love how serendipitous (the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident) things happen.

It's no secret by now that I'm a designer for Sizzix, and I think you also might know that the lovely and sweetest Tammy Tutterow is our fearless leader. I was more than a little bit ecstatic when I reviewed my work schedule for the week to see that I had penciled in that I would create one of my first projects for Sizzix and unbeknownst to me I would be posting it on her birthday. woohoo. happy dance.

And, it was also serendipitous that I happened to pick up this sweet carnation stamp at Kept Creations on Saturday, everyone needs a little something new once in a while.

Since today is Tammy's birthday AND I scheduled today to create something for Sizzix it seemed to make sense that I dedicate my first project to her. So, here's to you Tammy -- I hope you have a great birthday! 

I think (well I hope) it's everything that you will love!

I also thought I'd share some quick instructions to make the pretty carnations if you want to give it a shot! 

You will want to grab some tissue paper and the pretty Flowers #3 set from Stephanie Barnard.

Fold the tissue paper so you have at least 20 layers and use your Big Shot to cut them out. 

The stack of tissue paper flowers will look a lot like this when they come right out of the die. 

You really want them to look like this. I re-stacked about 10 of the tissue paper flowers into a random pile like this.

 
 I used some cotton pearl and a needle to sew one single stitch in the center of the stack. You'll want to tie a knot on the backside to keep them together and leave the tail about 3" long.
 
Next just crunch them up to make your carnation. 
 
To add some color, spritz with your favorite spray ink, I used Cherry Cola Chalkboard from Tattered Angels.

If you want to make your flower look like a bud, wrap some floral tape around the bottom and extend it down the tail a little bit and trim the tail off.

Then you can use hot glue or any type of glue you like to to attach them to your project.
 

Supplies I used for this project:

• Sizzix: Flowers #3 657901, Majestic #658693, Baroque #656633
• My Mind's Eye Madison Avenue Lost and Found 6x6 Pad: MAD6x6
• Stampendous Cling Carnation: CRP186
• Tim Holtz Stick Pin
• Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints - Pink
• Hug Snug Pale Pink Seam Binding, Martha Stewart Pink/Gold Ribbon
• Canvas Corp.: 7 Gypsies Tissue Paper, Cherry Cola Chalkboard Spray
• Other: Vintage Paper Doily, Watercolor Paints, Foam Tape, Hot Glue Gun, Black StazOn

Thanks for dropping by today -- and please join me in wishing the lovely Tammy Tutterow a happy birthday!