A Basket of Mums

I went digging in the archives for this one. :)  Actually, it's never been posted here, just on my official Stampin' Up! website.  Back when I originally made this, I entered this project in a contest on Shelli Gardner's blog, and was honored to have been selected as a winner!  And since it is one of my all time favorites, I decided to post it here. 


Fall is my favorite time of year and I've been having so much fun playing with all the gorgeous new colors Stampin' Up! introduced this year.  Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler and More Mustard are the perfect fall colors.  I wanted to come up with something that was unusual, but very fall-like.  I was inspired by the gigantic mum that is planted by my front door.  I haven't ever seen anyone make mums, so I was on my own to come up with a way to do it (although surely someone has figured this out before me!)  I'm so pleased with the way the flowers turned out!

To make the mums, I punched three petals with the Boho Blossoms punch for each flower.  I then used the faux suede technique to end up with six layers.  I popped a brad through all six layers, then fluffed up each layer around the brad.  It's that simple!

 I used the Baskets and Blooms die and my Big Shot to cut out the basket, as well as the Jewelry Tag punch for the little tags.  I love that punch!  To get the word "Blessings" on the tag, I used a Stampin' Write marker to color the single word from one of the stamps in the Falling Leaves set.  After stamping the word, I punched out the tag.

I hope you enjoyed this blast from the past.  This is one of my favorite fall decorations, and I really need to get it out this weekend!  Who am I kidding...I need to ask my husband to go to the attic and get the big box of decorations down for me. :)