Challenge: What's Old Is New

The other day I posed a challenge to myself, and I have to give credit to my children for inspiring it.  They were complaining that they were bored and there was nothing to do.  My typical response to these sorts of complaints is to tell them to go "shopping" in their own closets for toys and crafting items that they haven't used in a long time.  Hey, pot, it's me, kettle!  How many times do I overlook stamps, embellishments, Cricut images, and everything else in my own crafting stash?  Therefore, I decided to create a scrapbooking layout using something I had never used before.

Using my Artistry Cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart, I cut the floral wreath from the Background option (page 21). I have an old school Cricut with physical cartridges, so I don't know the name of this particular image for those of you with digital Cricut machines.  

I cut the wreath out of Green Apple cardstock at 10.75", and then I hoped that the little flower image on that same page would match the flowers in the wreath.  Alas, it did not, so I had to cut the wreath a second time in Peach cardstock and fussy cut them out.  

To add some dimension to the page, I cut more flowers (from the Icon-1 option) in both white cardstock and Peach cardstock.  Close To My Heart's cardstock is two-toned, so one side is a lighter shade than the other side.  My wreath flowers were cut using the lighter shade of Peach, so I made the extra flowers the darker shade.  I popped up several of the flowers with foam tape, added a bunch of sparkle with my Clear Shimmer Brush, and sewed on three heart-shaped wooden buttons.  

I am currently obsessed with the wooden buttons from Close To My Heart!  The package comes with several sizes of both circles and hearts; some of the buttons even have a stitched pattern around the perimeter.  They're amazing!

The "friend" sentiment is from an old Close To My Heart stamp set called Friendship Word Puzzle, and there is a little flower stamp on that set.  Originally I stamped three yellow flowers around the sentiment, but I didn't like them.  To cover them up, I used the little butterfly stamp from the Details I Love stamp set, which is currently available; I also used the three lines from that set to put a spot for journaling at the bottom of my page.  The butterflies are stamped using the rock n' roll technique, and I just love how they are both yellow and pink!  The final touch was splattering some sparkle from my pink Shimmer Brush.  

This challenge really made me think outside of my usual box of tricks, and I am pleased with the final result!  I've had this cartridge for many years and I've used it many times, but I've just never cut out this image (or really any of the fun background cuts) before.  Just like my children, I am delighted to find that something "old" is now new and exciting again!  

If you'd like to see this page come together, please check out my YouTube process video (linked below).  I've linked all available supplies for this project to my Close To My Heart website (hover over the names of the items to find the hyperlink).  If you decide to take on this challenge for yourself, I'd love to see it; please leave a comment or picture below!