I love cacti, and have become obsessed with the idea of creating a living wall opposite our kitchen window so we have something nicer than a brick wall to look at, but man are they pricey even the diy version, and as wer'e not great at remembering to water what we plant, I thought I'd have a go at making a paper version I can't kill instead!

I've just used one die - one of the new Fresh Cut Florals from Concord and 9th, this one, No 3, can make flowers or lots and lots of cacti!   I raided my card scraps box and pulled out lots of shades of greens and teals and just had a fun afternoon cutting and curling and stacking the dies to make lots of cacti.

To create the wall I just bought a cheap standard photo frame from Tesco (6x4 inch) - you don't need a box frame for this as it would be too deep, the idea is that the cacti are just proud of the frame edge.   So I just added a piece of teal paper into the frame and then stuck all my cacti to the outside of the glass.  Starting with the largest cacti.

To get different sized cacti you just use the omit one size of the die cuts so do some with 5, some with 4 and some with 3 layers - even just using the tiny die to get baby cacti.   For my large one I just increased the number of layers of each size to get a "fuller" cacti.  So there are 4 layers of each size rather than the standard 2 that makes the normal ones.  I did a two tone version for this one as I love the cacti that looks like this (no idea what it's called) but I started with sage card and then ink blended tattered rose and worn lipstick oxide on the tips.

From that point on it's just a case as placing all the cacti into the frame and tucking in some smaller ones around the bigger ones until it's all full.

I've also been obsessed with wall hanging circular metal planters I keep seeing on home decorating shows - mostly as they seem to be in teal!   So I made my own mini version of one of those too from something you'd normally chuck in the bin....

All you need for one of these is an empty parcel tape roll, a couple of round die cuts to match the size and some paper.

Wrap the outside of the roll with a strip of paper.  Die cut two circles of matching paper with a circle die the same size as the roll  (I used Hero Arts Circle Infinity Dies but any circular die with lots of nesting sizes will work). Take the next size down die and cut that from the middle of one circle - this will give you a frame to cover the front of the roll so it matched the outside.  Cut the other one in half across the centre, this will be the front and back of the planter and hold your "soil".   Glue them in place.   I used some scrunched brown crepe paper for my soil and just glued it in place on the bottom and glued the cacti on top.

Hope that's inspired you to do some paper gardening of your own.

NEWS FROM THE STORE

As you know, we got our massive Altenew delivery - catching us up on the last 3 months - the restocks are done but adding the "new" products takes longer and I've still not finished it.  Hope to have it done by the end of the day but don't hold me to it, as the sun is shining and I do need a few hours off a week!

Nothing else is expected this week but as its the first week of a new month, we will be getting emails from our brands to order this months releases which we should be more on top of now we're more caught up.  That will include Lawn Fawn Christmas which I can't tell you anything about yet, other than it will be in September this year not August as it usually is.

We do know that Concord and 9th will be releasing the full colour collection to retailers this month - so if that's on your wish list - keep an eye out as the few sets we were allowed this month sold out in minutes!

Check back next week for more details as by then we should know more of what's due when.

Thanks

Tara