Paper Flowers Tutorial

I have had quite a few requests asking how I made the flower in my previous post. Now I don't claim to have invented this, there are tons of tutorials out in blog land showing how to make paper flowers! but here is mine for my followers. x

I made my flowers with the following Stampin' Up! punches.

Boho Blossoms Extra Large

5-Petal Flower Extra large

Fancy Flower Extra Large

I used Pink Pirouette card stock and punched THREE of each of the 5-Petal Flower and the Fancy Flower.  Then I punched THREE of the pointy star shape from the Boho Blossom punch (Note: you can punch these from the little scraps of card left over from punching the other shapes)

Take the three smaller shapes and layer on top of each other but each one slightly off centre from the one below.  With a paper piercer make a hole in the centre and pop a brad through. Layer the 3 x 5-petal punched shapes, again off centre make a hole and place the brad through these.  Do the same with the 3 x Fancy flower shapes.  Open the brad at the back to secure the layers together.  They should look like this.

Now comes to the fun bit.  Spray the flower with water then start to scrunch up each layer towards the centre of the flower.  I found using my paper piercer to lift each petal made the task a lot easier.

Continue scrunching up each layer.  You will notice as you lift each layer there will be sone dry patches left on the card underneath.  Spray some more water on these areas to make it easier to scrunch the layers.

Continue scrunching up the petals until it looks like this.  (Note the more tightly you scrunch the better your flower will look)

Now we start to unfold each petal.  Take care as your card is now very wet and quite fragile.  I found it best to fold each layer one by one and I used my piercing tool to tease each petal.

When you get to the centre, you can either tease the petals quite flat or leave them quite scrunched.  Continue teasing your layers into the shape you like.

Leave your flowers to dry (I left mine overnight) and once dry they will be quite sturdy.  I finished mine off with a Stampin' Up! Basic Pearl in the centre of the flower.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and will have a go at making your own.  

They are so easy to make. 

                                

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For anyone wishing to purchase the three punches to enable to make flowers just like mine, I am offering a special package until the end of the month (31st May 2011)

1 x Boho Blossoms Punch

1 x 5-Petal Flower Punch

1 x Fancy Flower Punch

1 x Pack of A4 card stock  (20 sheets 2 each in 10 colours) You choose which colour collection

Buy for £57 delivered to your door and receive a pack of Basic Pearls (worth £4.50) FREE.

Please email me if you wish to take advantage of this bundle offer.

Floating Snowflake Xmas Bauble

As promised, here is the tutorial for the Floating Snowflake Xmas Bauble, that I demoed at the training event. Here is the bauble finished.

You will need the following Supplies:

Clear Glass bauble
Stampin' Up! Icicle Rub-ons
SU Medium Window Sheets
Felt tip pen (Not permanent as you need to be able to remove from window sheet)
Scissors

Firstly, take a Medium window sheet and using the felt tip pen draw a circle the required size.  My baubles where 6cm and I found that the inner of my Stampin' Up! mini glue dots was just the right size (approx 5cm)

After drawing your circle, you will need to draw a little tab, like in the photo below. (Sorry about the inky fingers in these photo's, I did the inking tutorial first LOL)

By adding this tab you have now drawn a bauble outline on the window sheet. Cut out the bauble and you will be left with the shape with black lines left from the felt tip pen.

Take a soft cloth or some Kitchen Roll and clean off the felt tip from around the edges of your shape. (This is why we must not use permanent marker)
You will then have a clear bauble shaped piece of window sheet.

Next, choose which rub-on you wish to use and rub-on to the centre of window sheet shape. As you can see mine isn't very central..LOL

Now is the time to place the snowflake into the bauble. Gently roll up the window sheet and place through the top of the glass bauble, making sure the little tab is at the top and the last to enter the bauble. As the sheet drops into the bauble it will un-ravel and become flat inside.

The little tab becomes an anchor, as it just pokes up into the neck of the bauble, and this keeps the window sheet upright inside the bauble. Replace the top onto the glass bauble making sure the little metal prongs sit either side of the window sheet. You now have a beautiful bauble that has a snowflake that floats inside.

Again, I do hope you have enjoyed my tutorial, and will enjoy making your own versions.

A note of warning:  If you wish to make this decoration using the Stampin' Up Icicle Rub-ons, please note these are in the mini catalogue Item no 116804.  The pack contains two sheets, 1 each in Silver and Whisper White and priced £7.50.  Items in the mini-catalogue are available until 30th September, so be sure to order yours before this date as there is no guarantee they will be available in the new 2010/11 catalogue.   If you would like more details, please contact me.

Handmade Glitter Xmas Baubles

My demonstration at the Peterborough Training was Glitter Xmas baubles. I have had such fantastic feedback from those who attended, I thought I might try and do a tutorial for you all.

Here are the baubles.  This one is glittered with a snowflake rub-on

And this one has a snowflake floating inside a clear glass bauble.

I think we will make the glitter Bauble first.

You will need:

Clear Glass bauble (I had difficulty in finding mine a couple of weeks ago, but now there are many more available)
Stampin' Up! ink refill in your choice of colour (I used Not quite Navy)
Stampin' Glitter - I used the Turquoise colour from the Fine Cosmo set
Small spoon - I found a medicine spoon was quite good.
Stampin' Up! Icicle Rub-Ons

First take the top off the glass bauble, this comes out easily, by squeezing the two little wires together and pulling. Next drop about 15 drops of ink into the bottom of the bauble.

Start to swirl the ink around the inside of the bauble. Now I found the best way was to let the ink pool into one area, then rotate the bauble very slowly, making sure all the ink covers.

Gradually the ink will cover the inside of the bauble. If you need more ink, add a few more drops. When you get to near the neck of the bauble, have a couple of sheets of kitchen roll handy and be careful.  You will be getting to the stage where your bauble is nearly upside down, to get the coverage you require, which means excess ink will drop out.  (I know from experience LOL)

Once your bauble is covered evenly inside by the ink, tip it upside down for about 5 to 10 minutes to allow the excess ink drain out.  I found a polystyrene tray that had some pears in from the supermaket a great holder.  I put kitchen roll in the try then tipped the bauble upside down on it.  The kitchen roll mopped up the ink and could be disposed of easily. This is important, because if you leave alot of excess ink inside, you will end up with leakages while being stored, until all the ink has dried up.

Once the ink has drained, then we can glitter.  I found it easier to position the bauble upright in the tray
and I also found it easier by making myself a little paper funnel.

Add glitter to the inside of the bauble, you don't need too much, as you can see from the photograph above, approx half a teaspoon is enough.  Place a pad of Kitchen roll over the opening of the bauble and shake the glitter all around the inside.  Take a look at your bauble turning it around to check that all places are glittered, if not just add a tiny bit more glitter and shake again.  Once complete your bauble will end up looking like this

Then you can decorate your bauble. I choose to use, the Stampin' Up! Icicle rub-ons, but you can let you imagination run away with you and decorate how you wish.

I found the easiest way to use the rub-ons was to do each, arm (not sure if this is the correct word to use LOL) of the snowflake in turn.  Because the bauble is round you have to rub the snowflake on carefully.

Here is the completed bauble

Here is a bauble in a different colourway. I used Perfect Plum reinker with the Orchid colour glitter.

I do hope you have enjoyed my tutorial, and it would be great to see any baubles you create. Leave a link in the comment box and I will pop over to have a look.

Tomorrow, I will share with you the tutorial to make the floating snowflake bauble.

Scallop Circle Flower Tutorial

Well, I have been toying with doing a tutorial on my blog for a while, so I have finally taken the plunge and done it. Hope it is OK and fairly easy to follow.
Today I am going to show you how to make some flowers to decorate your card using the Scallop Circle Punch.

For each flower you will need a scallop circle punched from designer paper or card stock. I used Rose Red Designer Paper. A circle of card stock or DP to co-ordinate with the Scallop Circle you have just punched out using the ½” circle punch and a 5-Petal Flower punched out in a Green card stock for leaves. (I used Old Olive)



Take the Scallop Circle of Designer Paper and snip towards the centre of the shape. This is to create the petals of the flower. Do not go right into the centre as the petals will fall off!!

Next with a sponge ink the edges of the ½” circles with ink to highlight the edges. My circles are in Regal Rose card stock, so I used Rose Red Ink as a contrast.

With the 5-Petal Flower punch green card, snip into the middle of the shape making each snip meet to make leaf shapes.

Then sponge the edges with ink. I used Olive Green card stock and Olive Green Ink.

Assemble the flower by gluing a circle into the middle of each flower and lifting each petal to create a flower. Assemble a card and attach flowers using dimensionals, and arrange leaves around the flowers gluing into place

This card was for my lovely new down line, Alex, who is having an Open House day tomorrow. I would have dearly loved to be there to support her, but unfortunately I have something on and unable to go, so I sent this card to her to wish her loads of luck and to let her know I will be thinking of her.

Hope you enjoyed my very first tutorial, please do leave a comment and let me know what you think, it's great to see who stops bye during their blog reading journeys..

Bye for now

Carole x