Circle of Color

Pam's book invites you to select a palette from paint chips.  The catch here is you must select a color whose name begins with one or both of your initials.  I poured through many paint chips hoping that I would stumble across a color that I'd never used before that began with an "L" or a "G."  I was immediately drawn to a deep purple called "Love Letters" and a beautiful green called "Luau Green."

I considered doing a very literal interpretation for this book--purple love letters--but the visuals that I was coming up with did not excite me.  I should add that Pam's book is cut into a circular shape.  I knew that I would want my spread to compliment and work with that shape.  These two colors naturally lent themselves to a plant or flower.  Yes, a simple, but exquisite flower.

This is when I got the idea to create a pop-up lotus flower.  I had seen different variations of these pop-up flowers.  After some research, I found the technique I wanted to do.  This particular pop-up does not require any special paper.  I decided to use vellum which creates crisp creases but also has a delicate feel to it.  I used Seedless Preserves Distress Stain to color my lotus petals.  Applying the Distress Stain caused the vellum petals to curl, so I had to weight them down with a book so they would dry flat.  The background paper serves as my Luau Green.

I used 10 sheets of vellum to create this flower.  Once assembled, I think a heavier weight vellum would have given it more body.  This vellum was quite thin and the petals are a bit floppy, but they still stand up.  I just love the simplicity of the spread!