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Friday 19 April 2013

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.

9 comments:

  1. who needs expensive embellishments eh?
    They are top notch flowers Podgy, well done. Hope the paws are healing up now after all that nasty hot glue.
    have a snack to help you recover

    Gill x

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  2. Beautiful flowers, Podgy and a top notch tutorial too... I LOVE the look of the flowers against the white brick wall, can't wait to see how that develops. And I'm loving the snazzy pajama suit too... Hope your paws are feeling better!
    Alison x

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  3. Ooooooh - totally cool. Those are amazing :-) Thank you for the TuT :-D
    Hugz
    IKE xxxxxxxxxxx

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  4. Podgy did you know you can make these more glitzy or grunge too. Grunge ink the edges of the petals before cutting, glitzy either put a small amount of glue on each edge of the petal (once flower has been made) sprinkle with glitter or dap the edges with stickles. You can also spray with clear glimmer mist for a little sparkle x

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    Replies
    1. I like the grungey ink idea, I shall try that with the next lot, thank you.

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  5. Hello Podgy
    Thank you for sharing your lovely flowers. They are great. Its always satisfying when you manage to make something equally as good for less expense! I'm going to have a go.
    Happy WOYWW
    Lynda B #31

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  6. Podgemeister. Tee hee. that made me chuckle! Thank you very much for the tutorial - very easy for simpleton crafters like me to understand and what a gorgeous result! I think I may go on a flower making rampage too!!

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  7. They are superb flowers. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What pretty flowers such lovely papers and with the flourish it all looks great together
    Ria

    ReplyDelete

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