Layered Flower Template

Hi Everyone! This card was inspired by Mel's template of "Mel Stampz" that she provided on her blog site. I liked the idea how she added stitches to her card so I added stitches to my card too. I used fibers for my stitching. . .I wanted to do something different and I have a ton of these fibers. Remember when they were popular several years ago. . .well, I still have them. I don't see too many people using these fibers on their cards and quite honestly, I really don't know what do with mine!

If you've been reading my posts for the past few days, you'll know that I've been focusing on Mel's templates and projects. She has lots of creative ideas on her blog so this week, I'm going to work on them.

Here is another card I made with Mel's template. Again, I used fibers for the flower but rather creating a flower card, I adhered the layered flower on to a 5.5 x 5.5 square card. I am so much fun making these cards.

Be sure to stop by Mel's blog site to check out the template and the other fun stuff on her blog!!

Mel has tutorials on how to create your own templates and it really inspired me to come up with my own stuff. I've had Adobe Illustrator CS2 for about a year but it's so darn complicated and well, I'm no techie so I rarely used this powerful program. I primarily use it to create templates for my Craft Robo (Wishblade) but I typically use templates made by other people because I don't know how to create my own graphic images on Illustrator. From Illustrator, my Craft Robo (Wishblade) cuts graphic images directly from the program.

Illustrator now comes in a newer CS3 version. I have CS2. This program is primarily used by graphic artists and illustrators so it's a very expensive program. The complete CS3 package run about $600 and the upgrade to CS3 cost around $200. I have it on my computer because my husband works in the computer/IT industry. I would not buy it for myself. It's not like I'm planning to become a graphic illustrator! LOL!

I decided yesterday to follow a few tutorials on how to draw on Illustrator and WOW! OMG, I found a tutorial that teaches you how to create simple flowers on Illustrator! It's so darn easy to create them! I couldn't believe that I've never used this program to create my own templates! Anyway, I created this flower template yesterday. As a matter of fact I created 5 different types. I'll post them as I make cards for the templates!

As you can see, the flowers are very layered and 3D! It does take a bit of cutting but if you don't mind. . .well, layering flowers are so fun!

What I do when I cut these templates. . .I watch TV! LOL! It really helps from getting bored while cutting. It sort of kills two birds with one stone.

Card Details:

Stamp: Inkadinkado

Paper: SU Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise, DCWV designer papers,

Accessories: SU Night of Navy ink, 1", 1 1/4", and 1 3/8" circle punch, grosgrain ribbon

Here is the flower template I created yesterday. Click on the image and it will enlarge. It'll look very, very large but if you print directly from the Internet rather than saving the template, it'll print to scale. If you save it and print it from your file, you may need to do a test print. The print size will be dependent on your computer program that you used to print the image. For example, when I print from Photoshop, it prints a size larger which is okay too. You can create different size flowers!

Thanks Mel for inspiring me to create my own templates!