Hi All! I am so excited about today's post on the Fancy Pants Designs blog. I am always looking for various ways to stretch my products whether they are new to my stash or have been hanging around for way too long. So, when I learned that we were going to start doing a blog post dedicated to that very concept, I jumped on the chance to play along. Today we are going to get creative with the printed filter embellishments from our Summer's End line that debuted this past July.

I decided to create one layout with a more traditional usage of the filters and one layout that tries something a little bit different.

First up, a simple use of the filters.



In this layout I used the filters as mat pieces both behind the photo as well as layered with the coordinating design embellishment die cut pieces. Some filter pieces I left as they were, while with others, I layered buttons, die cuts, and stitching.



In my second layout, I wanted to create these little poms poms to hang from a banner.



The filter embellishment paper is nice and thin, which makes it easy to fold and manipulate. To make each pom pom, first choose which filter patterns you want to use. Then you will punch out 6 circles of the same size. For my pom poms, I used two different patterns, but you could also punch all 6 from a single pattern.





**note - to use punches with the filter papers, it's best to lay them on top of a piece of cardstock and punch through both the filter and cardstock together.**

Then you will take each circle and fold it in half.



Take one corner of the half-circle and fold it up to the middle of the arc, like this.

Flip the folded piece over and fold in the opposite corner so that you end up with a cone shape.





Here's what it looks like from the top of the cone.



After you have all six circles folded, adhere them to a punched circle (slightly smaller than the original size of each of the "petals" is best).





Decorate with buttons or brads in the center of the pom pom.



Once I finished all my pom poms, I decided to string them across my layout like a banner. I'm loving the variation on the banner concept this gave me!



The pom poms could be clustered, made with various sizes, or even created in a scalloped fashion by using a scalloped circle punch/die for the "petals." The possibilities are endless, as are the many ways you can create with Fancy Pants filter embellishments. I hope this has inspired you to go try something new with your filters today!

-Allison Landy