Step by Step Paper Flowers and a Bloomin' Giveaway!

Well as promised this is the step by step guide to making the paper flowers some of you saw on my desk last week. It's a bit long so you may want to grab a cuppa and get comfortable. So let's go!

You will need some fairly light weight card some punched or die cut flowers, water mister, distress inks of choice, a 'pokey tool', tweezers and some tiny brads. Each of the flowers I've made have 8 layers. For this tutorial I've used the 'middle sized' flower from Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. You will also need a craft mat and a cutting mat, or similar surfaces.

Take eight flowers and use a blending tool to colour each one on both sides. Spray with water and leave for a couple of minutes so that the water absorbs into the card.

Then squash each flower shape between your fingers to form a sort of conical shape. slightly screwing each one up

Be careful not to rip the petals as the card will be fairly damp. Leave them for a couple of minutes for the creases to set. 

Now get your brads, pokey tool, tweezers and cutting mat at the ready. Gently open each flower shape and place one on top of the other rotating each layer so that they are not all in a uniform stack.

Using your pokey tool, make a hole through the middle of the layers, watch your fingers! hold the flowers together and secure with a small brad.

Now, using your tweezers, gather up the top layer of petals, and squeeze them together quite tightly. Repeat with each layer until you have what looks a bit like a flower bud.

At this stage, I like to mist the flower bud with a little water and gently dab across the edges of the petals with a little distress ink. once you get the hang of this you can experiment with the colours you use.

Finally, place your flower bud on your craft sheet and gently open each layer starting from the bottom and working your way up each layer. Leave the centre more tightly closed and the brad will not be visible. There you have it, a gorgeous vintage style flower. Leave it to dry thoroughly before using.

Hope you've enjoyed my first step by step, by way of a reward for those that have made it to the end of this post, leave a comment letting me know what you think and I will have a random draw on Sunday to win a selection of the flowers I have made. Thanks 'pinkaboo6691' whose video on youtube got me started and to my lovely son Max for his help with the photos x