I started off making this card using the Banner Punch to make a sun, like I have seen other people doing online. The Banner Punch is one of the FREE items you can get in March during Sale-A-Bration with a $50 Stampin’ Up! purchase! Just punch a circle (mine is 1 3/8″) and punch some banners to make the sun’s rays. Such a clever idea! I used the Watercolor Wonder Designer Series Paper since it has the color variation already on it in the design. The background Soft Sky paper is embossed with the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder, also in the Sale-A-Bration Brochure. And I hadn’t even played with the Word Bubbles Framelits enough to realize one of the dies looks just like a cloud! I die-cut one in Whisper White and noticed a scrap piece of Vellum card stock on the table so I die cut that piece for a “wispy” see-through cloud!

Since my backordered Fringe Scissors came the other day, I snipped some grass for the bottom of the card. If you are waiting for Fringe Scissors they will probably be on the way soon! They are fun to play with!  While playing with the Banner Punch, I thought the banners, with rounded corners on the bottom, could look like tulips! I have an old corner rounder punch, but this is the current 3/16″ Corner Punch. You could also just round off the corners with your Paper Snips.

If you punch the little banner first and then try to round the corners, you’ll have a hard time holding on to that little piece. You can cut a longer strip 5/8″ wide, round the corners first, then insert it into the banner punch by holding the rounded end sticking just the end you want punched into the banner from the top rather than the side of the punch, so just the “tail” end of the banner will be punched.  That way you can make your “tulip” the length you want it. Cut your tulip stems by hand.  The leaves I punched with the Bird Punch but then trimmed them by hand because I needed the leaves smaller. In punching the “tulips” I was just practicing with scraps of the Watercolor Wonder paper when I realized that the other side of the yellow had the soft varied colors that would good as flowers.

So after making the sun with the Banner Punch, making tulips with the Banner Punch was just a happy accident!  Sometimes you never know what you will end up creating when you sit down to stamp!

For any punches or stamping supplies you need, and to take advantage of Stampin’ Up!’s biggest promotion of the year, Sale-A-Bration, be sure to shop at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store!