Be Still My Soul - Bloom

I think the Bloom floral die by Tim Holtz and Sizzix is so beautiful that I wanted an equally beautiful way to showcase it. So I made a home decor piece with a beautiful sentiment from one of my favorite hymns. Since I was in college it's been one of my go-to hymns when I am stressed, worried or anxious. If you want to hear it, here is a lovely rendition.

This is a very straight forward project so let's get started. 

I bought a large wood slice from Hobby Lobby, but felt like it was a little too rustic. So I broke out my Picket Fence Distress Stain. I still had this in a dabber top, but the spray stain works the same and you can apply it with a brush so either way it works.

In this shot you can see how dark the bark and edges were so I covered the entire front of the slab and all of the bark on the sides with the stain. I did this twice just to make sure it was white washed and softened.

As you can see from this angle it is so much softer and lighter and I felt like it was perfect that way. 

Cut out many of the die cuts from Distress Watercolor Cardstock. I left them in place and then watercolored them with Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Pine Needles, and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks and a Water-brush.

Once I was finished watercoloring the pieces, I edged them all with Antique Linen Distress Ink and then I attached them together.

I cut multiples of all of the pieces except the large flower. 

I only cut one of these to make sure it was a focal point.

I placed the leaves in different positions on both sides of the big flower so that they weren't mirrored. I didn't want them to be completely symmetrical, just slightly similar.

For the letters, I cut them all several times from black cardstock and layered them so they would stand out from the background. Then I made some music note paper by stamping the music from Music and Advert stamp set in Hickory Smoke archival ink, and then colored the rest of the paper with Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke Distress Stain. Then I cut the final top layer of the letters out of it.

You can see some of the music notes here on the letters.

I think the Stretch upper case and lower case dies are a fabulous alphabet. I'm going to use it on many projects in the future!

To finish this piece, I added a few more leaves and cut apart the smaller round leaves and buds to just put a few on each side, then added a retired Fold-up Bow to the center. The Fold-up Bow is retired, but Tim did say it will be making a comeback soon, so keep your eyes peeled if you didn’t get it the first time it was released.

I hope you like this decor piece. It is a wonderful reminder when our souls get fearful and agitated to stop and be still.

Tami

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