10_10

50 States Flower Review

Good morning everyone!
Today I am "Exploring" a cartridge...this weeks lucky cartridge is.... Mr. Classmate himself....50 States
Yes, this studious little cartridge has been around for quite some time. I must admit, if he had been released this year with all the other TONS of Cartridges, he probably would have been "kicked to the curb". He was definitely marketed to the education community. And the packaging made it a little hard to think beyond the 50 states shapes, flags and the educational needs he would meet.

BUT...if you look beyond all that, he has some little gems stored within the "prongs" of his case.

Today I am not focusing on anything but the FLOWERS! Yep that's right....the FLOWERS. So here are a few...not 50, just a few flowers I was able to come up with by working with this little fellow.


The Yellow Flower

This is the "Kansas" Flower on Page 28.I cut him in 4 different layers and at 4 different sizes. I then cut "slits" to make the individual petals. I then "Fluffed" the petals up to give it the dimension.This flower looks a bit like a Carnation or it could be a sunflower.

Check out the tutorial on this flower HERE




The Pink Flower

This is the "North Dakota" flower on page 46. I cut this flower in 4 layers in 3 different sizes. I cut "slits" so the petals would be a little more loose. To me this one looks like a rose.
Check out the tutorial on this flower HERE.


The Purple Rolled Flower

This is the "Ohio" flower on page 47. After cutting this flower out, I cut a slit to "open" up the flower. I then glimmer misted it and rolled it. These are much like all the other "rolled" or "lollipop" flowers that have been floating around the net most of this summer....Who knew...they were tucked away all this time in our little cartridge :-)
Check out the tutorial on this flower HERE.

The Red Flower
This is the "IOWA" flower on page 27 and the center set is the "North Dakota" one. For this one I did use my Gypsy to "hide" the center cutout. But I think you could still achieve this look without doing that. I did, once again, cut the petals "loose" so they would have more play. After glimmer misting, I waited until it was just about dry to "shape and sculpt" the petals. This is just a matter of sitting down and playing with the petals until they look the way you want them to. Crazy thing is: once the glimmer mist is completely dry, the paper gets pretty hard and so these flowers keep their shape really well.


The Orange Flower

This is the "Maryland" flower found on page 32. I cut out the flower option that had two cut at the same time, one with a circle cut out and one without. I then once again cut "slits" so the petals would be loose. I then staggered the layers starting with one that had a hole so that the top layer would be a solid. I then curled the petals just before they were dry.


The Teal Flower

This last beauty is the "North Carolina" flower found on page 45. For this one, I simply cut 3 flowers two at 6" and one at 5". I then glimmer misted and then layered them by "mirroring" them. I then "shaped" the flowers just before the petals were dry to give it dimension. I finally layered the 3 centers and "fluffed" them and added a touch of sparkle to it.

Yep...that's right, all these beauties were created with the 50 States Cartridge. I don't have them on any projects yet, but they are now a part of my flower stash and ready to go at a moments notice :-)

BONUS PROJECT
Here is a card I made last year. I used the same techniques for this flower as I did for the others. With this one though, I did three different colors of glimmer mist to give the flower petals a more varigated look.
Here is a closeup of the flower.

If you would like the flower cutting file below: Please sign up for my newsletter and become a follower and I will be sending the link out in Sunday's newsletter. PLUS another flower too :-) The newsletter will go out Sunday evening. It will be available in the following formats: AI, DXF, GSD, KNK, MTC, SVG, SCUT(Scal 2.0), WPC and WPC14.

AND LAST.... A FREEBIE FLOWER I WHIPPED UP :-)
You can download the zip file: 
The zip file contains the following format: AI, DXF, GSD, SVG, SCUT(scal 2.0), MTC, KNK, WPC and WPC14. Remember to snag it while you can....it will only be available FREE until Sunday at midnight :-)

Thank you for joining me today! I hope you were inspired to make a whole bunch of "pretties"
-Melin

16 comments:

  1. What a great idea. I LOVE the dimensional flowers!
    ck2sew@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in Creative Busy Hands Cricut Freebies Search List, under the Flowers post on Oct. 15, 2010. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful flowers and thank you for the freebie.

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks for sharing. I will have to reconsider my thought on this cart! I love flowers and if there are 50 flowers then this is actually the perfect cart for me. You did a great job, love the flowers and the color choices!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Boy I want this cart now :) Thank you for sharing
    your freebie flower. Fran

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOVE, love, love your blog! Have I mentioned that I love your blog?? (tee-hee) Been a follower for a while and just grabbed your cute li'l button for my blog!!

    TFS all of your stuff!!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the flower. thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  8. You did a MAGNIFICENT job with the bear/50 states WOW!!!! and the flowers are great too!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is awesome. Thank you for the freebie.


    http://michelesscrappyworld.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for sharing your flowers! They're gorgeous! And thank you for the free file, too!

    ReplyDelete
  11. this one has been out for so long it might be easy to find it for cheap.... LOL!!!

    -- dalis

    ReplyDelete
  12. It's great!!! Beautiiful flowers techniques. Thanks for the tutorial and many blessings!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow, those flowers are lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love those flowers. The details are gorgeous. I tried to download the file but I just received the email today, Tuesday, Oct 19, and the files are not available.

    Could someone share the file if they downloaded the file? My email is: aimejia@swbell.net

    ReplyDelete
  15. I went and bought this cart just because of this post an I'm so glad I did. There is so much more to this cart than I ever would have thought!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it so very much. Due to excessive spam, all comments are moderated. -Melinda