ColourCraft: 3D flowers with EXpandIT by Karen

I've been experimenting with my EXpandIT again and I wish I could show you these in real life because the photos really don't do this fabulous texture justice! I had so many squeals of delight watching these flowers 'bloom' before my eyes and the little bouquet above is just the flowers left over from the cards I made. Let me explain:

I had the idea that EXpandIT would give a nice 3D effect to flower heads and was curious to see how well I could colour the Natural coloured EXpandIT with Brusho Crystal Colors. For a base on the stems I brayered the EXpandIT mixed with Leaf Green brusho over paper and then sprinkled some more powder and brayered it again to get different tones in a thin layer of EXpandIT. I then heated this to dry it and expand it. With a fairly even thin coat, the result was a nice fine texture.

As I die-cut the flowers, I thought the EXpandIT might get flattened passing through the machine but it held its shape very well. With some coloured EXpandIT left over, I die-cut more flowers and used a paint knife to spread the EXpandIT on the stems.

For the flower heads, I mixed different colours of Brusho Crystals into the EXpandIT and it took the colours beautifully to give lovely bright tones. I used Gamboge for my orange flowers, Sunburst Lemon for my yellow ones, then Violet, Alizarin Crimson and a little mix of these two colours for my other flowers. I applied the colours with a paint knife again and deliberately applied it thicker and more uneven than on the stems. Here are the flowers before heating:

and after heating where the flowers have 'bloomed':

I loved the flowers so much I gave some card blanks a very simple wash of Leaf Green Brusho diluted with water and let this dry before gluing on the flowers. I haven't added text to most of the cards yet: I can do that later according to the occasion.

Here you can see one flower where the stem had the EXpandIT applied with a paint knife:

and here is a flower on a brayered stem. I love both effects but I think this is my favourite as it has texture all over and more contrast between the stem and flower heads.

Isn't the texture and colour fabulous? I think without text these could make a lovely set of notecards to gift to someone or can be used as individual cards for a variety of occasions. I hope you like them. I am going to be making lots more as they are fun to do too.