Flower tutorial

Flower Tutorial

Hello everyone.  I hope you are all fine and dandy.  I have been very busy doing crafty stuff.  Experimenting really.  So don't go expecting professional craftiness in this blog..........it does't exist.  What does exist is me, playing with paper, die cutters, glue and pens and stuff like that.

So to get you in the mood:

Right then....back to the job in hand!

I fancied making my own paper flowers and had a look around the internet.  So this is what I have come up with.

First of all you need:

Die cutting machine or large scalloped scissors
Dies
White good quality paper (I used 120 gsm)
double sided paper
permanent markers
Small plain brads
water to spray 

So here are pictures of my preparation:

The blue dies are for roses and the scalloped dies for flowers.  The blue dies are Marianne Dies and the brown ones are spellbinders.

I used my cuttlebug on this occasion but you should use whatever die cutting machine you have.  If you don't own a die cutting machine then using a scalloped scissors will achieve good results for the flowers, but I am not sure about the roses.

I cut strips of white copy paper (120 gsm) to cut out the flower die 8 times. When using the smaller die, I only cut out 6 flowers.

So this is what you end up with:

As you can see I used white paper for the large flower, and double-sided paper for the rest of the flowers.  This double sided paper is a new set from Craft creations, and I am very excited about it because it is really versatile.  You can have it spotty on one side and contrasting colour on the other side (as seen in the photo above). It also comes in a variety of colours.......not just pink!

We will start with the flowers and do the roses last.

So, we have the basis to start making flowers now.

Gather up the flowers in their size and use a pricking tool  (Kathleen..behave!) She knows exactly who she is and what I am talking about. I used the one in the photo above, and this is what it looks like:

The next thing that happens is quite fun.  

We now edge each flower with a colour of your choice............it has to be a permanent marker as the flower is going to get wet, You will see with the smaller one the effect of using a non-permanent pen.  I used a whispers permanent red pen on the large flower.

You don't have to be precise..........as long as the edges are coloured and contrast the paper.  If you look closely at the photographs you will see I was not careful and I was generous with the edging.

Something to think about as you get older:

Okay then...............................  Back to craftiness:

Here are all my flower heads edged.  The small flower heads were edged with a non permanent deep pink pen.

Time to get wet now:

In the picture you can see my little plastic spray bottle, which I filled with tap water.  Each flower-head is to be sprayed and made very damp...............and then

You just scrunch each one up as tight as you can............there's nothing more fun than colouring, wetting and scrunching bits of paper.  Almost immediately, while they are all still damp you now open each flower head up.

So now you have damp, creased roundish bits of paper.  I said this was fun to do didn't I?

We are now progressing very well, if I may say so!!!?

Okay, I know, the flowers haven't been scrunched or dampened in the photo above, but I just wanted to check that you were paying attention!!  If you look closely you will see I have put a brad with each set.  Just a tiny plain brad will do, because it is not going to be seen when the flower is finished.

It looks quite nice just like that, doesn't it?   Stick the brad through the centre of every same sized flower head, just like the picture above.  Turn it over and flatter the pointy bits (I told you not to expect anything professional here!)  You will see the pointy bits when you turn it over and you separate them bending them flat against the back of the flower.

Now it is time to start more scrunching......I know the photo is out of focus..........I took so many of them and none of them were right, so I have used the best of the worst of them!  You pull the first flower head up and squidge it al together as in the photo above.  Then you add the next flower head to it and do the same all the way until you have scrunched them all.

So now you see it is all completely scrunched up.  The magic happens shortly..................


Abra---ca---dabra........well, it's not magic really its just opening up the whole flower!

Here I am doing the same with the smaller flower heads: 

As you can see from the picture, the smaller on is a lot more pink than when it started out.  This is because I didn't use permanent ink and so the colour ran into the paper.  It doesn't spoil it, but you have to be careful if you don't want it to run into the paper, so that is why I suggest you use a permanent pen.

Here are the two flowers together:

They are both lovely, and when i have used them, I will show you the end product.


Now for a quick break!

Right then, it's time for the roses.

As you can see in the picture I use a tweezers and tacky glue!

The photographs are blurred, and I am really sorry about that.  I tried so many different ways and angles, and rooms.....so you get what I could do!!!!!

I took the outside edge of the cut rose die and curled it so that the dark colour was on the inside.

Once it is all curled you find there is a piece left that is almost a circle...........

You then take the rose off the tweezer (now, some people roll it up with their fingers, and others use a quilling tool......)  So you see there are lots of ways of ding this.  Allow the rose to uncurl in your fingers until you are happy with the size and width.  Press the centre so that the base is fairly even.  Turn it over and put copious amounts of glue in the bottom centre........

I know that people say to be careful with the amount of the glue used but I am really generous with it.  What happens next is this:

grasp the large bottom bit and wrap it around the flower, pressing quite firmly for a few seconds.  Tacky glue is great because it does not take long to become stuck to itself!!!

I hope that this tutorial has been clear enough for you.  The results of the flowers and roses are here:

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today.................I have loved putting this together, even thoughI am not a professional crafter. 

Enjoy playing with your flowers, getting wet and scrunching.

and finally:

See you again very soon.

Love and blessings

Annie xxx