A FLOWER TUTORIAL

Hello everyone!  This is Janis, your blog hostess for today!!!  I am soo honored to be Scrap That!'s Guest Designer for June and beyond excited to create with Scrap That!'s June's Kit (I promise - - it's one divine must-have kit!!!).

Today I'm gonna share a tutorial on how to make some handmade blooms.  I have seen a lot of tutorials on these and I thought it would be cool to share my first take on making them here.  ;o)

Gather and prepare your supplies:

Patterned papers (I used Upsy Daisy's Bebe papers here!!!)

Brad (I used a green cord one from Upsy Daisy's Walk in the Park Brad Collection!!!)

Distress ink pads

Paper piercer

Mini mister with water

Craft mat

Flower dies (optional)
Heat gun (optional)

For the bigger handmade bloom, I ran some flower diecuts with my patterned papers - - 3 pieces for each size. If you must know, the dies I used were from Sizzix, but you can use any type of dies or punches of different sizes.  You can do freehand too, totally up to you!!! (Forgive the lighting of the photos though, as I did this during night time when the kids were sleeping!!!  LOL!!!)

Stack all the flower diecuts together, pierce in the middle, and hold them with a brad.

I brought out my craft mat at this point as things will get a little wet.  With your mini mister, lightly mist the layers with water and pull them to the center...

... until you reach the last layer.  Do not worry if they get crumpled in the process - - the more crumpled they get, the better they'll turn out!!!  ;o)

 

While the layers were still wet, I distressed the edges with distressed inks (I used Tattered Rose and Shabby Shutters on my petals). I don't know if it's just me but I find that the crumpled effect gets better if they are dried using a heat gun (either that or I'm just impatient to wait for them to dry up!!!  LOL!!!).

On the smaller blooms, I distresed the edges of the petals right away before misting them (unlike in the bigger bloom when I did this as a last step).  I stacked the layers and held them with a brad and crumpled away too!!!

Here are the finished handmade blooms.  Don't they look gorgeous? ;o)

Maybe you're wondering what's the difference between distressing the petals right away before misting and distressing them as a last step while the they are still wet.  It's not too obvious in this photo but the inks are more vivid or intense when applied as a last step rather than when they are watered down.  If you want to "soften" your distress inks when you applied them as a last step, you can use your mini mister and mist directly on your distressed petals with water.

Hope you like this flower tutorial - - I had major fun doing this!!! I don't have the links of the flower tutorials that inspired me to do this experiment - - but major thank you for the inspiration.  ;o)  

Stay tuned for another tutorial on Monday - - I've done a gift project where I used these blooms as embellishments!!!  Until then!!!

Have fun creating, 

janis