Scraps of Life: August Guest Designer at Cheery Lynn!

Hello and good morning! and I am honored (and tickled pink) to be the Cheery Lynn Designs August Guest Designer! I confess, when DT Coordinator Bonnie asked me to be a guest designer, that I had only ever used one Cheery Lynn die before! Bonnie assured me that it was not an issue and that some product would be sent to me to play with! And boy...did I get some fun things in the mail!

I wanted to match the current challenge (Challenge #235 - Back to Nature Theme) so I found some fabby Graphic 45 Botanical Tea paper (retired) with a bird on it and went to town with my new dies! I spent some time just cutting things before picking the elements for the card. Let me just say, these dies cut like butter and fall right out of the die template! There was no poking or fussing or tearing...just cut and go! As a long time die user and a new customer of Cheery Lynn, let's just say, I am SUPER IMPRESSED!

Now, let's talk about the card! I created a top-fold 5 5/8" x 4 3/8" dark brown card. I trimmed blue paper to 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" and attached that to the card front. The next layer is an ivory panel cut with the Dutch Daisy Boutique Stacker A2 Frame - DL293. This is a very intricate die, and makes such a beautiful background.

Next, I layered on the bird paper, cut to 4 1/4" x 3 1/8". I created a focal point with feathers, leaves, and flowers, all cut from pastel and ivory paper (Medium Rose - B154, Small Gardenia - B433, Flourish Leaf Strip - B178). I combined the flowers to create roses from the pink paper. Each rose is approximately 1" across. I cut the feathers (Feathers - CABD62) and leaves from paper scraps. My favorite die of the card is the Hello Die - CARA8. The font is simply stunning and the word is the perfect size for a card!

I created a fun bow with the Pretty Pretty Bows - B422 die and more of the feathers. There are two sizes of bow with this die set and I created the large bow, which measures approximately 3 3/4" across from tail to tail. As much as I love working with real ribbon, it is fun to create paper bows to match the project exactly! I know that Pretty Pretty Bows will become a staple of my die repertoire!

Remember, the winner of the current challenge will be chosen randomly. They will receive $20 towards shopping at the Cheery Lynn website. The challenge will end on Wednesday afternoon August 17th at 15:00 Eastern time. We will also showcase the Top 3 picks from our Design Team.

Thanks for looking! I will be back on August 14th with a new Cheery Lynn project! Until then, stay cool and create pretty things!