Garden Gateway Hollyhocks with Kelly

Hello and welcome friends! It’s Kelly here today with a fun floral project mixing some old and new! When I was creating with the Garden Gateway die during the release, I was having so much fun envisioning all of the different flowers I wanted to use around this beautiful gate! Now that the hollyhocks are blooming like crazy, I thought It would be fun to use the BotaniCuts Hollyhocks die to accent the gate!

To begin, I used the BotaniCuts Hollyhocks Die to cut out all of the pieces three times! I wanted to make a full arrangement of flowers (just like the ones in my neighborhood) so I got to work inking them up using Distress Oxide inks and a finger sponge dauber. I also added colored pencil detailing to the leaves and the blooms. I glued them together using liquid glue and then used my foam mat and a stylus to give them the curved shape. If you watch the assembly instruction video for the hollyhocks, Betsy shows how easy this can be done!

I die cut the gate out of Kraft Gray cardstock that Betsy has used in the past. I just love it and I’m so glad she shared where she got it because I can’t stop using it! Thank you, sweet Betsy! Now….as much as I don’t like to point out mistakes, I need to in this case! Ha ha! I forgot to add the gate hardware and didn’t notice until I had covered it up with a garden of hollyhocks. Because I couldn’t see the gate properly, I glued the hardware on without noticing it was WRONG! Ha ha! how embarrassing! So, my tip for you would be to add the hardware at THIS point and do it correctly! I wanted a shaped card, so I made a top-folding A2 card base and then die cut it using the largest arch die included in the A2 Arches Die placing the top of the arch just above the fold. I die cut a separate panel using the same die and then added the clouds using a stencil from my stash. The backside of the shaped card base was unappealing in appearance because of my thrashed cutting plates, so I glued the stenciled panel to THAT side to cover it up!

Once I had all of that done, I decided I wanted a hollyhock behind the gate so I glued that down with liquid glue and then added the gate over the top using mini foam squares. From there I just had fun adding the clusters here and there and grouping the blooms until I was satisfied with the arrangement.

The final step was the adding the sentiment, which is from the Bloom & Grow Sentiment set, to the gate. I heat embossed the main sentiment using detail white powder and then cut it out using the coordinating die that can also be found in the Garden Gateway Die. I used white pigment ink to add the detail around the perimeter and then added it to the card using black foam squares. A sprinkling of glitter on the blooms finishes off this summery design!

Thanks for joining me today!
~Kelly