Sunday 31 March 2013

Flower tutorial



    Hello everyone! Hope you are all having an amazing Easter - The Easter Bunny visited our garden this year and left some eggs in the snow....the kids were thrilled that the Easter Bunny still came along despite the weather being bitterly cold....




      I am still recovering from a nasty flu bug - so haven't done any craft projects. Today however I did need to tidy up the craft cupboard and while I was sat there sorting stuff out (and the kids were occupied with chocolate) I decided to see if I could do the flower tutorial that I got a lot of requests for....I did manage to do it but I really apologise for the quality of the photos...my camera isn't wonderful at the best of times and trying to take pictures and make flowers at the same time was a bit too much for my poor fuddled head at the moment....some of the photos are too blurry and of course the lighting in my art cupboard isn't great......

    Anyway, enough of my poor excuses....lets see if this is helpful at all.......


Here are the items I used -

Peeled Paint DI
Forest Moss DI
Antique Linen DI & DS
Scattered Straw DI
Wild Honey DI
Tattered Rose DI
Shaded Lilac DI

Scissors
Glossy Accents Glue
Flower Punch
Brads
Flower and Leaf Diecuts


  

       Most people know the Tim Holtz Rose technique and I doubt mine differs in any way - but here is how I made them anyway...


Three flowers edged in Antique Linen


Cut one segment from one, two segments from the second and three from the third

 Glue the flower together in a cone shape

   I hold them together with pegs while they dry. I use the extra segment of three petals rolled up to make the centre of the rose



Then glue them all together, roll the edges of the petals back - and you have a rose.



Select two flower shapes, one larger than the other, and shade the edges with a pastel colour - Here I have used Tattered Rose.


 Make sure you cover both sides


Place a pencil point inside the flower and squash the petals against the pencil. Do this several times, you should be able to break down the structure of the card so that it becomes soft and flexible. Keep rotating the flower and squashing the petals.


You can see here I have gone a bit to far and torn the card slightly, but that won't matter when it is all glued together. So don't be afraid to really squash the card. Although it doesn't look it, the card flower here is very soft and flexible and easier to mould to shape.



  When both flower shapes are done, glue the smaller inside the larger and bend the petals backwards slightly and arrange how you want them.



 Very simple flower here...cut a length of card - about 4-5 inches depending on how large you want the flower to be. Shade it both sides with any colour you want - Here I have used Shaded Lilac.


 Cut into the paper in strips of about 1cm deep...cut as close as you can to each strand. It doesn't have to be very exact as the flower will fan out and you won't notice the different width strands....However, it is worth just taking your time to cut as narrow strands as you can as this gives a much better effect.


      Stick a strip of double sided sticky tape along the fringe

 ......and roll it up as tightly as you can...It is fiddly but an easy way to start the rolling is to use a thin pin or needle and roll that up and the remove the pin and keep rolling. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the finished flower by itself - but there is a photo of it in the group of flowers at the end of the tutorial and you can also see it on my Any Eggscuse for Chocolate post


Select three sizes of flowers and squiggle some stains on the mat. I used Milled Lavender here. You want to really drench the flowers so give them a good bath here!


  Keep swishing them in the stain



I keep drying them with the heat dryer and then dabbing up any excess


Cover some card with a contrasting colour - Here I have chosen Scattered Straw. Cover both sides of the card. You don't have to be too neat here, just smoosh some ink over it...



Using a small flower punch, cut out several small flowers. I use normally about 7-8


Poke a small hole in the flowers


Push a brad into the centre - Mini brads are best but I didn't have any this time so had to use a normal sized one. Keep adding the flowers but overlap them so they form a multi-layered effect





When you have enough, secure the brad


Add a drop of glue onto the brad


And fold over 3 - 4 petals so that the brad can't be seen


Then push up all the petals so that they no longer lie flat.


     Place the end of a pencil in the centre of the flower and squash the petals against the pencil.



Glue the three flowers together


 Glue the yellow flower centre into the centre of the flower shapes......

Now how about some leaves?


   Give the leaves a really good DS bath in Antique Linen


Allow them to dry (or heat gun them) but when they are still very slightly damp apply some Forest Moss and Peeled Paint DI's to the mat and spritz with water...


Cover the leaves with a light coating of Peeled Paint....you don't have to be too neat with this. Ivy leaves rarely have neat markings in real life and all are different. Just follow the leaf shape and leave a small edging of the Antique Linen.

Apply for a second time working your way inwards...so leave a wider edge this time, focusing on the center of the leaf


Now dab the Forest Moss over the stems and just at the top of the leaf




Take two flowers shapes and cover with Wild Honey DI


Cut a small strip of card and cover both sides with Wild Honey DI. Cut very fine strands about 0.5 -1 cm deep. 

Use the pencil as described before and push the petals into a cup shape against the end of the pencil.


Roll up the fringed card


Cover the two flower shapes with glossy accents glue and leave to dry


Glue the fringed petals into the center of the flower




And here is the finished arrangement. I dabbed the flowers with a bit of Walnut Stain as I wanted them to look a bit more shabby and grungy (I have plans for them that involve a tag with some grungy paper and rusty wire!)



     I hope that this inspires you to make your own flowers....If you do follow the tutorial I would love to know so please leave a comment!

         Thanks so much for being here and reading this tutorial!

           

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Any Eggscuse For Chocolate



     Welcome back - Hope everybody is managing to keep warm in this unseasonal weather...I have a feeling the Easter Bunny will need scarf and mittens this year to hide the goodies in the garden - The kids will if they are going out there to find them!

    This is the first time I have ever made a special gift container for those chocolate goodies - Lets just hope I can keep my mitts off them till Easter! ;o)

     Frilly and Funkie have set as the Easter challenge - Easter/Spring Gifts - but not a basket. Well, first thing is to decide what to put them in....

    I considered making a box, putting them in a jar, a bag...all ideas went running through my head. Then I noticed the book box I had been wanting to use for a while...I considered trying to make it into something at Christmas time but I didn't have the confidence to tackle it and I put it away. I was determined now to make something with it...



 





















First I separated the box into six compartments with balsa wood. I painted the entire box, except for the lid with Vintage Lace Fresco Paint.

   To decorate the lid of the box, I painted around the edge with French Roast Fresco paint, added a thin layer of crackle glaze and then sponged Vintage Lace fresco Paint over the top. I then painted the rest of the lid with a brush.


    I dabbed the edges with Walnut Stain DI to make it look vintage shabby chic.

  I made the centre decoration with a piece of corrugated cardboard half covered with Melange Tissue paper.



I covered it all with a watered down layer of Vintage Lace Fresco Paint. When dry I dabbed with a bit of Walnut Stain DI and spritzed with some of my homemade distress ink glimmer sprays in Bundled Sage, Weathered Wood and Tattered Rose.



I then glued another piece of card that had been covered with the same tissue and paint and also spritzed with some glimmer sprays.

   I got some white lace and dabbed with Antique Linen DS and spritzed with the same three colours of glimmer spray to coordinate with the corrugated card.



   I stuck this onto the book box and arranged some handmade flowers and leaves around it.



     I made all the flowers with the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower garland die cuts.The roses, well they were made the usual way. The leaves were my usual Distress inked and stained and then covered in Crackle Glaze...The other flowers were inspired by the tutorials done by the amazingly talented Lisa Nazario-Gregory




















 I didn't make any exact copies of these flowers - mainly because I didn't have all the punches, diecuts, inks etc...and anyway it was a lot of fun selecting parts that I could make and adapting them to make my own flowers. I also used the wonderful tutorial by Almo to make the pale blue flowers and the centers for the buttercup style flowers...



      I had to adapt it slightly as I just cut a strip of paper, inked it and cut very, very fine strands and then rolled the paper up....it made a gorgeous flower and the perfect flower center. I really recommend checking out both blogs for great flower making inspiration and before you know it there will be bouquets of flowers all over your creations! Perhaps I should do a flower tutorial as well?!!!








































Thank you so much for being here...thank you so much to all my new followers for joining me on this crafty journey...and thank you to anyone who considers my work worthy of adding a comment...each comment is very special me to me and I am very grateful.....

        Have a SUPER Easter!!!



I am entering this into the following challenges -

Frilly and Funkie - Easter/Spring gifts - but not in a basket
Eclectic Paperie - Corrugated Card
Try it on Tuesday  - Use recycled products - Corrugated Card + Tissue paper
Tando creative  - Flowers
Fab 'n' Funky  - Boxed in