The frugal bears' guide to flower making

Hello there, it's The Podgemeister here with you today, do you ever admire the handmade embellishments for sale in craft shops, but realise that to afford as many as you want you'd have to sell your left and right paw? Well I've been searching the Internet for ideas to make your own, and found some fab video tutorials for flowers. Most of the tutorials originated from the 'how to' Tim Holtz video for grunge type roses, and after watching a few of them, ( all except the original TH one which wouldn't work for me), I decided I just had to have a play.

I didn't have the suggested dies with which to make my flowers, but decided to ex'bear'iment with what I did have. First up was this flower die, which we had bought and stashed on the bookcase!



I cut some double sided patterned paper to cover the larger, 6 petal flower, and some green card to cover the leaves - waste not want not!


Whew, this die cutting requires some furry muscle you know.


I then dusted the cobwebs from the George Cricut cartridge,


and selected Flower 2, and the shadow blackout option, with the size set to 2 1/2"


As you see, my Sizzix cut flower has 6 petals, and the Cricut flower has 5.


To make the rose, take one of the flowers and cut one petal off


With your next flower, cut 2 petals off, reserve these.


With your remaining flower, find the centre, and snip a cross into it.



Now you can begin to make your flower into a rose shape, take the flower with 4 petals and glue one petal on top of another, to make a cone shaped three petal flower, like so....


Repeat this step with the 3 peal flower, making it into two petals....


Fold the leftover two petals into a cone shape, and glue together. Now you should have 3 shapes like this...


Now you need to roll back your petals. I used a rather large paint brush for this step.


Snip a little piece off the bottom of the largest flower


Add a blob of glue to the centre, and press your second smallest flower as far into the first flower as you can. Ooh, be careful if using a hot glue gun, as you may get burnt paws when you press the flower down.


Add another blob of glue, and then press down your small cone flower, as far as it will go.


There, one lovely rose shape. To make it lay flat, you will need to snip a little from the bottom of the rose.


Repeat all of the above steps for your Sizzix flower


Cut


Snip


Two snips


Glue, burn paw, cry....


Squidge petal 6 on top of petal 5..


Admire your shapes, or sigh if they've gone awry.


etc ad nauseum.....zzzzzz, oh! Finished.


Now you need a project to use them on. Utilise any flourish or leaf dies to enhance your design.





Oops, I went a little flower making mad!


Here's the beginnings of a card, or a canvas, I haven't decided which yet. If you do make these, and decide to use them on a card, you will need a larger or box type envelope, as obviously they do sit a way above the card. I'm thinking of asking Wilbear to buy us a recessed box frame so we can use one on a scrapbook lay out.



With love from the bears.