Tuesday 30 March 2010

Blog hop: Heat-embossed flower card

Hello you!

If you've dropped by from Debbie's blog as part of the the first
Banana Frog blog hop then greetings to you, pause here a while why don't you? Rest those legs.

If you're here by fluke, serendipity, downright nosiness or the wonders of Mr.Google then 'hola' to you too. Everyone's welcome.

And if you dropped by on the off chance that today would be the day that I'd be sharing a project based on something I found inside a pair of men's trousers ... then wow, is today your day or what?!!!

If you're faint of heart, fret not, it's all quite above board because:
[a] they're lovely brand-spanking-new trousers;
[b] they're from Desigual - an amazingly creative brand and;
[c] they belong to my partner of 18 years.

See, nothing untoward going on here, it was all in your head! Now we've got that cleared up, feast your eyes on these delights: Fabulous or what?

From the outside they're a fairly conservative pair of neutral summery trousers, while on the inside there hides the treasures [to a crafty pattern obsessed girl] of a flowery waistband lining and contrasting pockets!
Add in a yummy twill ribbon, a tiny amount of lilac-grey trimming and the brand slogan of '[Desigual]Is Not the Same' embroidered on the pocket ....

.... and my goodness!!! ... Has a man's trousers ever given a girl such pleasure? [Be careful how you answer that!]

My Mr. bought them while we were in one of London's Desigual stores recently. Have you ever been to one of their shops? It's one of the few places on earth where he's failed to find me in a crowd while I've been wearing my yellow coat!

The place is a living kaleidoscope. It's awesome. In every sense of the word.

Needless to say, it was me who'd spotted them and thrust them at him for his perusal. He's colour-blind and I alway feel a responsibility to draw his attention to any anomalies he won't have noticed, so I pointed out that the flowers were actually orange, lime green and purple. My thoughts were that while he may accept their floweriness, the colours may be a bridge too far.

To my surprise he willingly tried them on and bought them despite also being made aware that the turn-ups were lined in the very same fabric. It's enough to make a crafty-girl proud!

OK then, now I've shared the trousers with those of you interested in trousers, I'll move onto the reason the rest of you are here .... the Banana Frog stamped project. This month's theme was 'Flowers':

No prizes for guessing where I got the idea for a loud summery daisy-print design from!

I decorated some textured white card and a chipboard flower using Crafty Notions spray inks; two of the flower stamps from the new 'Super Dreamy' set [you can get 15% off Super Dreamy and Build a Daisy this week using the code M30NEWS at the checkout!]:
... and a lot of embossing powder. A lot!


I used a combination of stamping on the bare chipboard in ink; stamping then embossing; and simply pressing a VersaMark pad onto areas of the chipboard and dousing it in embossing powder:I love how it turned out and all I can say is that if you're a piece of die-cut chipboard within my reach the next time I get crafty .... you're going to find yourself wearing a heavy-duty embossing powder coat my friend! Beware!

If you like the idea of taking inspiration for a craft project from something else entirely [like a pair of trousers!] then you'll like my other blog The Copy + Paste Project. There Kirsty Neale and I share lots of things from outside papercrafting which inspires our artistic work.

Right then, I'll let you go now to the next stop on the hop, which is to see Anthea's blog here :

  • If you want to share any of your Banana Frog work then don't forget that there's a Banana Frog Flickr group set up especially for that.
  • There's also and a Copy+ Paste one too, into which you can drop your photos of projects inspired by any of our posts.
  • Failing that - Tweet me, leave me a comment or send out a carrier pigeon.

Go forth and be inspired crafty types.

But, please, if you're going to go looking inside a man's trousers for inspiration ... be careful won't you? !!

Jx

38 comments:

  1. Fantastic card! PS I'd have that lining out if I were you, far too nice to stay hidden away there ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love desigual as well...so many colours!
    bye,
    floriana

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fab card, will be trying that out xx

    ps the trousers are cool too!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oooh nice trousers Julie!

    And that card is just lovely, the flower really pops. :oD

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice trousers! Nice card too, mind you. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. great card and inspiration with the fabric.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I share your love of the flowery trousers but would have to draw the line with the turn ups being the same, my man could not carry that off!!!;-D
    Your card is brilliant and now I'll know to really go for it with these chipboard pieces, the colour is fab,. I also like the way you have left the flower overhang the card. XX

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fab card! Quite like the trousers too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love the lining of those trousers! And the textures and colours you've achieved on that chipboard flower are brilliant! Thanks for sharing :o)

    ReplyDelete
  10. The flower has turned out beautifully, really effective. I have some chipboard crying out for some glamour so might have a go.
    Love Diane....p.s fab jeans!

    ReplyDelete
  11. very inspiring trousers indeed!!!!and I won't tell what they inspired me ;))) wonderful flower! amazing what beautiful things we can make, messing all the place with powder, hey ( or are you the clean kind???)lol, have a great day!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Im always on the look out for ideas on decorating chipboard and hope to have a go at this techneque soon. The trousers are very uneque they look cool.

    from tracey x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Inspiration strikes in the most unlikely of places. Who would have thought....?! TFS. ~Glen~

    ReplyDelete
  14. Are you hoping he will ruin them so you can cut them up and steal the insides? They are very purdy.

    An accompanying song for them would have to be ..

    Emilie Simon- Flowers

    ' I want to buy you flowers it's such a shame you are a boy, but when you are not a girl, nobody buys you flowers.'

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sending you a note via smoke signal that says "I'm ALWAYS careful when looking inside men's trousers for inspiration. You never know what you might find!"

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's so easy to forget how fab flowers are - love the project

    Regards
    Miriam

    ReplyDelete
  18. What a lovely card and the colours are gorgeous. Gave my heart a bit of a flutter when |I saw the open jeans though! ;-)

    Vx

    ReplyDelete
  19. oh Julie that card is fab - what embossing powders are they, the colours are gorgeous!!

    Hugs
    Debbie
    x

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi all - it's lovely to see so many new faces popping in [and equally as nice ot see some old frineds ... by which I don't mean your old faces .. you know what I mean! Thanks for all the lovely comments. I'm glad you liked the card - I'll pass your compliments about his fashion sense on too!

    As for the powders Debbie - they're a mix of everything! There's a basic white one with:
    Distress 'Old Paper'
    Adirondack 'Cranberry'
    and the fluorescent ones are Ranger 'Orange Sherbet' and Personal Impressions 'Hot Pink'.

    Some were bought in the sale so I'm not sure they're still current lines though.

    Thanks again everyone for dropping in - see you again soon I hope.
    Julie :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I specially like your flower!
    Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  22. Love the trousers they are lush lol, not sure i would let him wear them i'd borrow them myself hehe, Ands the card is brill too, it looks like you've used patterned paper instead of inks and embossing powder xx

    ReplyDelete
  23. great inspiration, great result, off to find some fun embossing powders, black is so yesterday ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Gosh, those trousers are lush! Luv the insides especially! Gorgeous card! Luv how you embossed it!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I love how you were inspired by your man's trousers!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Very cool... Great project..

    ReplyDelete
  27. Great post - love your humour! Your embossing is pretty cool too! Must tell DD about Desigual! x alexa

    ReplyDelete
  28. Love the colours, how refreshingly summery in all this rain!

    ReplyDelete
  29. You're hilarious!! I love your husband's pants. I don't say that to just any one on any given day! :)
    Love the flower too! FUN blog

    ReplyDelete
  30. You really made me laugh and I needed that! Love the card too :)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Oh the places you can find inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  32. For a girl who doesn't "do" cards this one's fab. Can't wait to see those trousers turned into a neat crafty item.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I love Desigual - so unusual!
    Gorgeous stamping & embossing too.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving me a comment, asking me a question, sharing your own story or just randomly saying hello.