Flower clouds and cupcake blossoms

I had a dream. No, seriously, I did, and this is what I dreamt about.

This is my canvas set that I created in honor of my friend Daniela's new artistic endeavor, The Art Life Flower Shop. I wanted a way to showcase as many of her beautiful flowers as possible on one project and this was my brain's answer.

I started with two My Mind's Eye canvases that I found at Michael's and layered what I call a paint wash until I reached the desired look of a rainy sky. To add a little bit of sparkle, I spritzed it with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist. I took a piece of 12x12 paper and sketched my pictures out on each side, then used carbon paper to trace my designs onto the canvas. The base of the clouds, the hills, the little girl, and her dog are all paint, with the exception of her coat which is a piece of scrap fabric, (actually from an old Christmas ornament!!!), and the shiny umbrella and boots it Glossy Accents over yellow paint.

To fill the clouds, I cut the stems off of a bunch of The Art Life Flowers, then swirled Fabri-Tac on my cloud shapes and began filling them in with the flowers. I started with the larger flowers and then worked my way to the small posies to fill in any spaces I didn't like. The rain drops are self adhesive bling strips.

I punched the cupcakes with an EK Success punch and added the little touches of bling or drawing sprinkles with a marker. I highlighted them with different color paint and some Stickle grass. I drew the features and outline of the girl and dog with a fine tipped Sharpie marker. 

Lastly, I ran some fun rainbow ribbon around the outer edges, adhering with the ever useful Fabri-Tac. I loved making this set and while I haven't decided where they will hang permanently, their temporary place over the bed is working out just fine. 

One of the questions I was asked yesterday when I showed this pair off at the LSS was how much did I invest in flowers? The inquirer was under the impression that I had spent A LOT of money to make such a project. That is not the case. While I used about four packages per color and size for this project, The Art Life's flowers are very inexpensive, none of them over $2.00 for a package. How is that for great value? Want to know more about these great blossoms? They were also featured on The Scrap Review, where Paula Gilarde made an adorable project with them that I SO wish I had thought of!