Doodlebug Cardstock Challenge - Paper Succulents

Hi everyone -I am here on my blog today with my take on the Cardstock Challenge that we were given as a design team. When I heard that Doodlebug was coming out with their own cardstock I was giddy! You mean I can get all the amazing colors that I love in Doodlebug's pattern papers in a cardstock?!? Sign me up!

So - I have a confession ... I was not born with a green thumb... in fact I think I was born with the exact opposite of a green thumb... I can't keep plants alive for anything!! Even the ones that they say are low maintenance. So when I was looking for a project to do for this challenge - I stumbled across these adorable paper succulent plants on the Silhouette site and I knew I had my project! I love the look of the real ones so I knew I needed to make these - and because they are made from cardstock- they will stay alive!  Let me show you what I did!

 So I picked up a few real succulents from my local greenhouse for inspiration ( I will be giving these away as gifts as soon as possible! Lol!) I thought the paper ones looked pretty realistic! And the cardstock that I used was the perfect shades of greens for different types of plants.

 This one below was more of a house plant looking cut file - but  I thought it was pretty close to the succulent on the right.

 To make the leaves stick up on this plant I adhered a thin piece of floral wire to the back of the cut out. Then you can bend the leaves to whatever angle you want to make it look a little more realistic. I also trimmed a few of the leaves down to make a few varying sizes.

 A few more close ups of the plants. I just put all of these in some terra cotta pots that I picked up at the craft store and then added some moss to the pot.

 

Here are the links to the files that I used. They are on the Silhouette Design store. There are also a few templates out there as well that I didn't use but if you do not own a Silhouette machine you could still make something similar. I just did a search for "paper succulents". 

-3D Succulent  (plant pictured just above)

-3D Succulent  ( plant with 2 in the pot)

-3D Wavy Houseplant ( tall dark green)

As you can see, and I echo my fellow design team friends- the textured cardstock really does cut so smooth and so easily! My 13 year old has figured out how to use my Silhouette and she always asks me if she can use my "good" cardstock to cut with - and even though its hard to share - I know that she will have no problems cutting any shape out that she wants with the Doodlebug Textured Cardstock. If you love to use your cutting machines as much as I do - go pick some of this awesome cardstock up! You will thank me later - I promise! ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a peek at my project today - and thank you for all your kind comments! It means so much! Happy crafting!