Hexagons and Sunflowers.

In honor of the warm summer days we're having now in Central Oregon, I thought I'd try a fun little hexagon "quilted look" card. For some reason, I love hexagons!  And how does this card remind me of sunflowers you ask? Read further.......  

I used a bright golden yellow for the card base (A2 size). I then cut a piece of scrap cardstock approximately 5" x 3-3/4" to lay my hexagons on. I cut out 19 little 1 inch hexagon shapes using my Cricut cutting machine. There ARE hexagon punches out there so that would also be an easy way to do this.  In fact, a hexagon punch is definitely on my wish list!

I picked summery colors for my hexagons in about 6 different designs. I used double sided paper so only chose 3 colors and used both sides of the paper. Remind  you of sunflowers yet??

Here's a close-up of the cute little hexies all snuggled side by side. 

All I did was start adhering the hexagons on my piece of cardstock, starting at the center top, and working outward. I used fast drying glue but you could also use adhesive tape. Just let them hang over the edge on the sides and bottom, and when it's mostly covered except for little side areas, trim all the sides and use the little leftover pieces to fill in the side areas.  Very fast and easy! 

Another fun thing I did was to emboss the finished piece once all the hexagons were adhered and it had dried. I have one Cuttlebug embossing folder and no embossing machine!  A Cuttlebug machine is on my "wish list". So I got the bright idea to use my pasta machine (which I originally bought for flattening out polymer clay, and have never used for that!) to run the embossing folder through.  I had seen this done on You Tube somewhere.

 
I set my pasta machine so the folder would just barely run through, put my pieced paper in, and cranked it through (it was hard to crank but it worked with some elbow grease). And voila! a beautifully embossed piece!

My little sentiment is one I thought up and printed out from my computer onto some nice white cardstock. I trimmed it and matted it on black. I also used some black glitter paper for a strip down the right side and the little scroll that I cut out using my Cricut cutting machine. The hexagon covered piece of cardstock is matted with black cardstock measuring 5-1/4" x 4". I love the black with the sunny yellows and oranges..... so like summer and reminds me of sunflowers! 

From BeginningAGarden.com

On the inside, I glued a piece of white cardstock with a little leftover strip of hexagons that I had cut off to make the 5x3-3/4  piece fit better onto the black cardstock.

Give this technique a try. It's so fun! Since I love quilting with fabric, anything I can do to make my card looked quilted I really enjoy.  I thought of putting some little stitch marks around the hexagons but it might have been too busy looking.

I think some squares of pieced hexies would look great on a scrapbook page. Can you think of any other ways to use this technique?
 
And speaking of hexagons, I'm just about ready to post my tutorial for my awesome HEXAGON BOXES. Coming soon!