Wisteria Bloom Tutorial... Just for Mandy :)

This may take some time... but Mandy from UK-Scrappers (she also has a brilliant blog here ) wrote me the most lovely message at UKS saying a tutorial for the wisteria blooms I made might be a good idea.

So, here are the blooms we're talking about:

For this tutorial, I won't be spraying the papers with Cosmic Shimmer Mists, as the glare from the shimmer will make it too difficult to see - it was bad enough trying to take photographs with the sun shining so brightly through the window. I'll do the tutorial for one bloom - please bear in mind you'll need about 10-15 of these. I used pale purple lightweight paper, which I glimmer-misted and left to dry (a heat tool for drying is fine too).

To make the bottom part of the bloom you'll need a five-petal flower shape - a small one. These measured about one inch across - and as you may start to guess, this is the fiddly part...

Fold up the bottom two petals so the bloom is almost in half. The 'X' shows the petal which you will need to glue to the main flower part. For the remaining four petals, fold themtogether and give them a little pinch. Where the white shows on this part, you'll have glimmer-misted/inked/painted your bloom.

Next you'll need a cocktail stick.

Roll the four bottom petals outwards and, starting with the inner petals, glue them together. Try not to get glue on the back petal, as when this is glued to the other part of the flower, you need a little space. When all four petals are stuck to each other, set this piece aside... the fiddly bit is now over! *lol*

For the next part of the wisteria flower, you'll need to cut out a rough, fat-looking kidney bean shape from your paper. Use whatever you have handy (rounded end of pencil or pen, small spoon, etc) to shape this into a sort of flattened cup shape - I do this in my hand.

When you do this part, the white side will be glimmer misted, and this is the side that needs to be on the inside of the 'cup' - I've used the coloured side to show the bloom here (sorry). Use a yellow pen/ink/paint to colour a small part of the bloom at the bottom. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, huh?!

Turn over the 'cup'. The 'X' marked here is on the reverse of where you just painted it yellow on the other side.

Now glue the 'X' marks together. The four rolled petals should sit nicely on the yellow part of the wisteria bloom. Now you'll need to punch or cut out a six-petalled flower in green paper - not rounded petals, but more spear-shaped.

Cut one of these flowers in half, and then stick it to the wisteria as shown below - so that two petals stick out each side at he bottom of the bloom, and one is almost hidden by the four rolled petals.

Et, Voila! You now have a wisteria flower.

Of course, there are a couple more componenets to making the whole wisteria spray - so the next tutorial for that will be ready soon.

Flowery Fun... again

These roses and flowers appeared on my 'WOYWW' post, as I made them on Wednesday and couldn't be bothered to put them away! I seem to have a terrible habit lately, of making paper flowers with no layout to place them on - bit of a waste really!

These roses are absolutely gorgeous in real life - the photo does them no justice at all... a bit fiddly to make, but well worth it I think. I made them using a new set of dies I bought from the Pickwells Craft Club on Tuesday night... Spellbinders roses. I'm loving these! I'll certainly be making a LOT more of these roses ~ even though the amount of cosmic shimmers I use and spray around the dining room is horrendous! lol

I put pearls in the middle of the flowers - but they're not stuck down yet... I haven't decided what I'm going to put in the middle. Maybe I'll leave it with nothing until I use them, and then match up with whatever layout they happen to end up on. The smaller flowers are more peony-like than roses... a lot easier to do than the bigger roses.

Flowery Fun

I just love making paper flowers - especially when I can spray my cosmic shimmers with abandon! Well, that's what hubby says I do - apparently there are traces of pearly, shimmery spray on the dining table, chairs, chair cushions, floor (it's wood and can be cleaned.... where's the problem? lol), door, door handle, his newspapers, coffee cups.... and other various items that have passed through the dining room whilst I'm using it as a scrap-haven.

These were simple flowers made in my usual style, but using green inks and mostly sage-green and brown papers. I did use a dark burgundy paper on two of the flowers, as I liked the contrast...

Now I have to complete a layout that matches them.

Flowers...

I do have several photographs that I desperately want to scrapbook, but my mojo is somewhat deflated right now... so, instead, I decided to use up the last few scraps of paper I had put by to make some paper flowers. I only had a few bits of paper left over... but enough to make 5 flowers in all...

I always spray the 'raw' petals with a mixture of water and gum arabic (usually found in the watercolour/acrylic painting section of your local hobby/craft shop). After drying them a little, I manipulate or scrunch the petals, and then heat set them with my heat gun. The added gum makes the petals harden a little bit, and the finished flowers keep their shape beautifully.

The blue ones I spritzed with some cosmic shimmer, and the reverse of the red ones are daubed with a water and re-inker mix (tattered rose).

Lastly... yep, more flowers :)

I finished the centres of the last flowers last night, deciding to make some mini-scrunchy-roses for the centres. I think these look a little like fancy dog roses...

I used the 'Flower W/Centres' sizzix die in my faithful little sidekick, and inked up five layers for each bloom - bottom two layers in 'Antique Linen', then two layers in 'Weathered Wood', and the top layer in 'Tattered Rose'. Then I scrunched 'em all up, followed by a careful unravelling of them all. Not really a good idea for people with rheumatoid arthritis *lol*

Next step was to twist each petal of every bloom very carefully (I use long-nosed tweezers), as the inking had made the petals slightly damp-ish, and then I set Razzer onto them... drying them all throroughly.

From here, it's just a matter of layering them up and then making the little scrunchy-roses for the centres. These were made by inking up old book paper (I used the Ranger Distress Ink again in 'Antique Linen'), and punching out 1.5cm flower shapes. Layering up five flowers to make one rose, and scrunching up each layer over a small brad used to hold the flowers in place, followed by a blast from Razzer - I tend to use the heat gun on these little blighters until I can smell burning - I like this tatty aged look it can give.

Wait for the roses to cool, and then loosen them a little with your fingertips (or any tool you like to use). Last job with these mini-menaces *lol* is to just ink up the edges to match the colour scheme you'll be using them with. I chose 'Weathered Wood' for the centres of my dog roses.

I really liked the soft colours on these, and am looking forward to creating a layout for them to appear on soon :)

Roses (yes, more paper flowers)

These are more of the flowers I made yesterday - the glue is still wet, as you may notice in the photographs... but I never claimed to be a patient person :) I wanted a damask-like rose to use on a scrapbook page, so it had to be flat enough to use on a layout, but still look 'flouncy' enough too.

I used two dies (Sizzix Flower Layers, die #1 - Flower w/centre, and die Flower Layer #3), cut them from the pages of a book I use specifucally to tear up, and Cosmic Shimmers 'Plum Pudding' and Vibrant Violet'.

I used two of each flower to make the rose. First, the bottom (larger) flowers were die cut, spritzed, then scrunched up and carefully unfolded.  Then I used a cocktail stick to roll up the edges before blasting them with Razzer.

I used the Plum Pudding Cosmic shimmer for these bottom two layers, and a mix of the Plum Pudding and Vibrant Violet for the next two layers of the smaller flower. The smaller flowers weren't scrunched, but had the same process of a cocktail stick used to curl the petals on them, and dried with a heat gun.

Next it was simply a matter of layering them up. I always use Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive - just my personal preference when sticking paper to paper... I think it has excellent hold, and it does dry clear as well as being photo safe and acid free.  Each layer was slightly off-set to the one below, making a nice layered effect.

I made my own tiny roses for the centres - using a six-petal round flower punch - each flower measured 1.5cms, and three layers were used, plus a 2-petal cut-off for the centre of each rose. Tutorials for these paper roses are widely found through the internet - youtube has many examples.  I also made some mini-scrunchy-roses using the same 1.5cm punch, and decided that when I make these Damask-like roses again, I'd definitely prefer the scrunchy centres, as they fit the look much better. All the mini-roses were coloured with the Plum Pudding Cosmic Shimmer Spray.

Well that's about it... though I do have one more type of flower to finish which I will blog whenever I decide what the centres will be :)

Just one more little extra thing though... this was layered up using leftover flowers, and I loved the colour combination using the Plum Pudding mixed with Vibrant Violet, and another flower that had been spritzed with Mango Blaze but had also managed to pick up a little Lava Red from some paper. Anyway, I loved the final flower (5 layers), with an added centre of the scrunchy rose.





Paper Flowers (again... sorry!)

This evening I decided that Hubby could have the remote control for the television, and I would leave him in peace whilst I made some paper flowers. I had bought a Charles Dickens book for only £1 (thank you, poundland... even though I don't get boxes of freebies through the door *lol*), and really liked the font and spacing of the type, and used pages from this to make all the flowers.

I have to admit that under normal circumstances I could never advocate ripping pages out of a book - but this one really was bought just for that purpose. Anyway, I used a flower die and my sidekick to get the basic flower shape, and then covered a whole lot of them in Red Lava Cosmic Shimmer. Note to self for future reference... use latex gloves!

I patted the flowers dry with paper towels and next took one flower, twisted each petal with long-nosed tweezers (same as I make my other flowers) and dried it thoroughly with Razzer (my heat gun). Same goes for all the rest of the flowers, until I had quite a pile... and still no idea exactly how I would make these poinsettia blooms - I was just enjoying the mess I was making :)

I used just three flowers to make one poinsettia, placing them slightly off-centre to each other - so that each layer was NOT directly above any other.

Now I had to decide what to put in the middle. I spritzed a page of the book with Cosmic Shimmer "Mango Blaze" and dried it thoroughly and then punched out some wee ickle mini-mini flowers. I pushed the petals of these little flowers up over a cocktail stick (so they looked like little tiny cups) and then glued three of these to the centre of each flower. Hey, Presto! poinsettia-like flowers.

I think I'll be using these to make a Christmas wreath rather than on a scrapbook layout - but then I guess I'd have to make a lot of other things - mistletoe, holly, ivy and Christmas Roses... *lol*

I did make other flowers this evening - but they need their centres added to finish them, and I haven't decided exactly what to use yet.

Keeping Mummy Awake

This layout is made with a photograph that is nearly sixteen years old - of my youngest daughter and I when she was just a few weeks old, taken my my darling husband at around eleven o'clock at night.

I used papers from two pads I have from My Minds Eye, and also used some of the flowers that I have been making recently. I wanted to use a doily in a layout - don't ask me why... I think I must have just thought that it might look pretty, but chances are I won't be using them again (forty-nine paper doilies to get rid of then *lol*). Of course there's stitching - and Perfect Pearls to add little extra details. The cut out roses and butterflies are all from one sheet of Papermania's Henbury Lane collection, and for the butterflies I added little antenna with just a couple of stitches. The photograph has been distressed with a paint that I used mixing water colours (crimson and white) with some pearly children's paint I bought very cheaply at Tesco.  All the edging of the background papers and thephoto matting has also been 'tarted up' with the paint. I have a 'thing' about corners lately, and so I tried adding something a little different to the layout with a turned corner (decorated with the paint I had made) and torn surround. All the litle roses were touched up with the paint also, just to give them a little glitz.

Even MORE Flowers!

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself...

these flowers are so quick and easy to make and I think they look really amazing, so I made some more in blue this time. Much the same as before, only with just three layers and the glimmer mist I made had some white watercolour paint added, as well as the blue, to knock it back a bit. I have to add here too, that these photographs don't really do justice to how these flowers look.

Bearing in mind that the 6x6 Laura Ashley papers cost me less than £2, and I've made 12 flowers so far with about half the papers, I think this is a really inexpensive way to creat something quite stunning - I'm planning scrapbook layouts now - can't wait to start matching up layouts with those gorgeous colours. My mojo is jiving!

More Flowers!

I just couldn't wait to post a photo or two of the flowers I'd made this evening - in fact, so impatient was I that if you look closely, you'll see the glue is still wet on them! I used the Laura Ashley papers again - some of them are 'felted' - but this time I painted the white backs and used the pattern side upward facing - though I still used water colour paint on the front too. I tried leaving the centrewithout the rose, and instead put some white stamens in the centre - it did look nice, but I preferred the effect the roses gave.

I made five of the reddish brown design in all, and used so little of the paper - four layers to each bloom, so only one 6x6 sheet for each flower. A small admission here... at the moment I think I am preferring making these flowers than I am to creating a scrapbook page for them! BUT I do want to use them on a layout, so I'm pretty sure I'll be scrapping before the Bank Holiday is finished with.

I also made some small pink flowers using four-petal blooms. These were made in the same way, using the dampened paper technique and twisting the paper to make the folds before setting it with a heat gun. The paper used was softer - almost like a handmade or mulberry paper, and I'm not sure if the shape will hold as well as the larger flowers I made. The colouring was inked onto the edges of the petals instead of using watercolour, and then sprayed with water to allow the ink to run.The stamens are simple pushed through a hole made with a cocktail stick, and then hot-glued down with a small circle of card stock to hold it in place. Hope you like them... I know I do :)

Well, that's me finished for the night... Happy Crafting!

Another Flower Tutorial...

Yes, another flower tutorial. Really, most paper flowers used in scrapbooking are made in the same way – we just change petal shapes, or petal numbers and such things tomake different flowers. One of my bargains today was a 6x6 Laura Ashley paper pad (Love Song), and I used some of this paper to make my flowers. First, quarter your 6x6 sheet to make four 3x3 paper squares. Take one of the smaller squares and fold it in half and then into thirds – making a 1/6th pie shape (well, if it was a circle, it would be a pie shape – but I'm guessing you ladies know exactly what I mean).

Now cut out your petal shape. Do this again to two others of the squares (or do the same to all four, if you like), making each subsequent flower shape slightly smaller than the previous one – but not too much of a difference.

Unfold your petals to show your flower shapes- it doesn't matter if any look a bit wonky – in fact, all the better! Now spray the flowers with glimmer mist or something similar (I used a mixture of water, mica powder, gum arabic and crimson water paint). Next you'll need some paint – I use block water colour paint – and using the glimmer mist as a watering down agent, paint the edges of each petal – you don't have to be an expert artist for this, just dab on a bit of colour and then blend it a bit towards the middle. Dry with a heat gun – but still leave damp.

Take a pair of long tweezers or a hairclip – something you can hold each petal with and twist carefully. If a petal tears, don't get worried as this can add to the effect and look quite pretty... but try and be a little careful as you don't want lots of tears. Now dry your flowers with a heat gun. It's easiest to hold the gun steady into the centre of the flower and dry this part first as the petals will curl up slightly and make a slight cup shape. Dry the flowers well. The heat gun will set the colour and also make the paper slightly brittle so it will hold it's shape really well.

Now all you have to do is layer up your blooms – largest as the base, working up to the smallest. I have done these with 7 layers, and they look amazing! Just remember to set each layer on top of the other with the petals NOT directly above each other – off set the petals to the space between the petals of the lower bloom.

If using just three or four layers, it's nice to have something sparkly in the middle – a fancy brad, button – or I use a small rose. I used to make these tiny roses, but it's much easier (and almost as cheap) to buy them ready made. If you spray them a little and water colour the edges of the petals, they will 'loosen' as you dry them with a heat gun and open up a bit – this look is just my personal preference for the centre of the flower I made. Now it's up to you... stickle it, glitter it, emboss the edges – anything to make the flower 'yours' – and then stick it to something pretty!

Happy Crafting!

More Flowers

Well, I'm just getting over some sort of bug - me, not the computer *lol* - and after being laid up for twenty-four hours, I'm sat back in the dining room crafting again. I'm making another birdcage that basically has a back to it, is reinforced with semi-circles inside, and will be used on my next layout with a butterfly tucked inside (I hope!).

Now for the flowers:
I made these using tissue paper I had leftover from a shoe delivery (wedding shoes...yay!!! No, not MY wedding, but my middle daughters' wedding day *lol*). I don't know what it is about tissue paper, exactly... but I love it – crinkly soft and waiting to be moulded into anything my imagination comes up with – well, that's if Hubby doesn't get hold of it first for model aeroplane wings or just the bin. Anyways... I started off punching several layers of the tissue paper with an old punch I have that's just about ready for the scrapheap (1) – and I mean the rubbish bin by that phrase, not anything to do with scrapbooking :). Several times the punch just jammed, and I had to stand on the darn thing just to punch a few circles! It doesn't really matter if the edges are a bit rough though – and hand cutting them would have probably been a lot easier (and quicker too)! After cutting/punching out the circles, I laid them out one layer deep on a silicon baking mat, allowing five circles for each flower and a couple extra just in case of mistakes. I spritzed the circles with water – please don't be silly and forget that you're working near a computer when spraying water around willy-nilly (just like I did). Next is the fun part... protect the work surface around the area you're working on – this could get seriously messy! I splattered and daubed, misted and spritzed, sprayed and covered each circle with anything I thought would look pretty – Glimmer Mist, MoonGlow, Shimmer Spritz – and then set Razzer onto them. Razzer is my heat gun (2). You only need to dry them to the point where the inks are looking dry – hopefully the actual tissue will still be a little damp, if not then spray them lightly with water.. Pick up a damp circle and fold it in half – inky patterned side outward facing. Fold in half again so you have a quarter-circle 'pie-piece'. Take the curved outer edge and fold it up – just crease it together so as you're making a petal shape, and then hold this part with tweezers and dry each petal with a Razzer (or any other heat tool of any particular name you have handy). The petals needed to be damp because as they are quickly dried with the heat gun, the paper becomes a little brittle, and will hold the shape really well when it's dry (3). Put the finished petals to one side and punch out small shapes – either circles or flower shapes are best – to glue your petals onto (4). I've tried using a large flower shape to give an extra dimension to the finished bloom, but it just doesn't look right if you're using a lot of glimmer sort of inks – it does look good if you're using plainer papers though, and if you are using large flower shapes for a base, it's best to use double-sided papers that are very thin. Back to the petals and punched out shape for the base... I used a Glimmer Mist on the punched flower bases, but it's not really necessary. Glue five petals onto the base shape in a flower shape (obviously!) and allow to dry (5). Pierce through the centre with a piercing tool, and push through a brad for the flower centre. I then push the finished flower into the palm of my hand or onto my foam mat, so that it has a little curve to it – a nice shape. This is why, when using a large flower shaped base, it's best to use double sided papers, as the bottom will show a little – especially if you curl up the edges a bit which looks nice. I have found that these flowers are quite robust – they hold their shape well, and aren't flimsy at all.

Well, that's it... Now I guess I should try and think up a layout on which I can use the birdcage and flowers – It could be a long day *lol*

Happy Crafting!

By the way, if you hadn't guessed by now, I am totally fed up with Blogger and the new way to compose posts - HTML phobics like myself can't compose a post properly with pictures any longer. Bah!

Dreamer

My youngest daughter, Beth - she's 16 this year... how time has flown! I hated these papers when I got them - but then realised that they matched perfectly the colours of Beth's dress in this gorgeous picture of her (and then decided I really liked them after all). The papers are all Jenny Bowlin - "Tangerine Bookprint" "Love Song" and "Flight". I used a mixture of Ranger inks - Faded Jeans and Antique Linen to distress and ink the edges of the pages. The flowers were all made from scraps of the papers I used, and the butterflies are all punched from leftover papers using 3 punches I had bought for 99p each :) Then I used Gold Pearl Liquid Pearls to dollop around on everything *lol* The only thing I'm a bit unhappy with is the large butterflies - the silicone gel left grease marks coming through the papers :(

Nonna's Love...

I've had this LO in mind for a while, and finally managed to get it done (in between making gift boxes and sewing pockets into craft bags)... "Nonna" is what my granddaughter calls me - we make a joke that I'm the nanny who says "No!"... hence "Nonna". In all honesty, it's because she's only a year old and can't say much at all, and "Nonna" is easier than "Grannie" - thank goodness! The journalling reads: "Nonna may hold your hand for a little while, but your heart she will hold forever". I started off with plain papers again and used a white gel pen to create the background. The plain black card is a core'dinations plain black sheet, sanded and distressed almost to holes! The sequins are all hand sewn onto the LO, and the gems are cut-offs and leftover "bling". The flowers I made myself using scraps from the rest of the LO, and the two backgrounds are machine-sewn together using white cotton thread.