Pinterest Inspired

Do you Pinterest? DD got me hooked on it  and I think it's just the coolest "organizing tool" ever for finding and sharing ideas and inspiration found on the internet. My card today was inspired by one of my very first pins onto my Pinterest Papercrafting board...it's actually an old idea made brand new by talented crafter and blogger, Kelly Griglione on her blog, Notable Nest. Kelly used the idea of a Free Standing Pop Up Card and added her own special twist by using clear acetate for the sliding element, a green word in script ("happy") for a fancy stem, and adding a flower to top it off.

I'm sad that I didn't take photos of this card at different angles to more clearly show how it's put together, but Kelly has a very detailed tutorial with lots of pics to explain how to make your own. I had to improvise a bit since I didn't have all the supplies Kelly used...I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the words "happy" and "birthday" using LD Charming Bold font, and changed up the flower to one that looks more like a rose.
The rose petals were cut with my Cricut from the Mothers Day Bouquet cartridge and sculpted using embossing tools from the Punch Bunch Craft Kit with a foam mat. The shaping technique was learned from many years of repeatedly watching Norice over at Creations Unlimited demo it and lots of practice. Yeah, I know, I still need more practice! There's also a video by Just Laury on YouTube that's quite inspiring.
I attached a brad to the center of the flower to attach it to the top of the acetate strip, then finished off with pearls to hide the brad.

Here's what the card looks like when it's folded flat. I simply tied a ribbon around it to keep it closed. This was a really fun and not too hard card to put together using Kelly's tutorial. Just keep in mind that if you use a heavier flower like I did, you'll need to use a sturdy acetate (or more layers of a thinner acetate) to support it. (Otherwise you'll end up with a drooping flower like I did on my first try at this.) I also had to increase the width (by 1") and height (by 1/4") of the base to compensate for the extra weight of the flower so that the card would stand balanced.

Okay...back to Pinterest to get more fresh ideas!