Just Us Girls {3-D/TEMPLATE} Challenge #77

Happy Saturday morning, friends!  I'm back with another edition of Just Us Girls challenging YOU to create!  Today, the oh-so-sweet-and-ultra-talented, Dana, is our hostess.  Leave it to that girl to show us a way to make a new, beautiful flower.  Today's challenge is to make a zipper flower for your project!  I gotta tell you, I'm STILL addicted to the burnt edged flowers that Dana challenged us to do, and I use those beauties everytime I need a pretty focal point.  I think these new zipper flowers might rank right up there with the burnt edged blooms though!  I bought several zippers, so I'm all set for a while :] 

So I decided I would share what I like to call a series of unfortunate events that I encountered yesterday in preparing and actually creating my card.  First off...I had no zippers and I couldn't think of any discarded clothing items that might have an old one I could salvage (plus, I had my color scheme all planned out...I needed choices, people).  So, before lunch, I ran downstairs to Target (yes, it's in our building at work) to see if they had any.  Nada.  Ran home at lunch to tend to my pup, but popped into Michaels first to grab a zipper.  No dice.  Finished my work day and decided to run to JoAnn's...but at one of the first stop lights, I decided to take a right and check out AC Moore instead since it's closer.  Of course they don't stock zippers!  So, back on my trek to JoAnn's...where I found the mecca for zipper sales!  Woot woot!  Mind you, it's almost 6 at this point and my card isn't even started.  I finally get home after 6, make dinner, take care of my pups, and eventually get started on my card. 

Looking at my card, it seems simple enough, right?  Just a little extra effort to put the pretty bloom together, but other than that, pretty basic.  Yeah, I thought so too.  My sentiment and the cut file it is layered on are an early sneak peek at the MTME April release where yours truly is the designer of the stamps and the label cut file :]  I cut the pieces on my Cricut, stamped my sentiment and embossed the label.  I set those aside while I sat downstairs and assembled my flower and my card.  I was ALMOST finished getting everything ready to adhere, only to drip a HUGE glob of water on my sentiment and label!  AARGH!  So...well after 11, I had to go back upstairs, recut my files, stamp, sponge, and emboss, before I could try to finish up.  I did that and assembled the rest of my card.  FINALLY!  I was finished...ready to photograph.  Or so I thought.  I picked up my finished card and opened it.  This is what it looked like:

So, easy enough fix...just completely unnecessary.  I cut the card in half and adhered the front panel to another piece of cs.  Ugh.  This all might not seem like a lot of "unfortunate events", but trust me, it was.  I didn't even touch on the zipper flower and how I butchered that! 

Let me start by saying that Dana has a wonderful, easy to follow tutorial on Want 2 Scrap.  I stitched my zipper as Dana recommended, using white thread.  She recommends using Fabri-Tac and not hot glue to adhere the flower coils.  Unfortunately, I didn't read her tutorial until I started making my card.  So, not only did I have to call my sweet friend Lisa while I was at JoAnne's to figure out what length of zipper to buy, I didn't know I needed to pick up some Fabri-Tac.  No worries though, I'm a big hot glue fan, so I figured I would just use that and be careful not to burn myself like I normally do.  I was successful in not putting a blister on my finger this time, but boy did I overload the glue!  It is EVERYWHERE!  Oh, and I couldn't figure out how to adhere it with the glue without some sort of base, so I punched a circle and adhered it to that :[  That's why mine is sort of flat.  Either way, once the flower resembled a bloom and was glued together, I admired my craftsmanship.  NOT.  I could see white thread all over that flower and glue was at every turn!  UGH.  No way was I starting this one over.  I pulled out my Cardinal (R59) copic and colored the thread AND the glue!  LOL  Hope you can't really tell in the photo!!  Ha ha

Anyway, that was my crazy night.  All for the love of a pretty bloom!  I do love this technique and the resulting flower, so I definitely will be using it again and hopefully perfecting my application of the technique :o]  Some of the other goodies you see on my card are the Beautiful Beech Leaf cut file, Border Builders Elegance Scallop cut file, my Fluttering-by text paper, my Cherry On Top paper recolored to match the palette of our very first My Time Made Easy Pretty Palette Color challenge (MTMEPPC01) that Lisa is heading up. 

My layout was inspired by the Mojo Monday sketch (MOJO183).

So, with all that craziness, I hope you find it MUCH easier to whip up a pretty bloom and play along with us this week!  Can't wait to see the beauties you all come up with :O)  Be sure to swing by our fab DT's blogs for a lot more inspiration.  Don't forget to visit Alyssa Scritchfield, our very talented guest designer this month!  This is her last challenge with us :[  So sad to see her go...but I hope she'll still be a regular with us!

That's all I have for you today.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hope you have a fantastic weekend :]