Shabby Chic Flower Tutorial

As promised, here's how I made the flowers I've been showing on here recently. 

I've used the thickish handmade "Lokta" paper to make these, but it's worth trying different papers too as they'll all give different effects.  As you can see, I've managed to acquire quite a lot of this stuff - it's lovely for covering books and boxes - especially when I make boxes for special cards as it not only looks opulent with all the paper's knobbly texture , but it also makes for a really sturdy box.

Anyway, on to the flower project....

You'll need

a piece of paper - about A5 will be enough

Glue

Scissors

Stickles Glitter Glue - I like Crystal Ice Stickles

Circle punch (abt 5cms) or cut by hand

There are a lot of photos, so I'll add them in small view - you can click on them for a larger version

1. Cut heart shapes, either using a multi sized die, or just freehand with scissors.

You'll need at least three sets of different sizes,  I prefer to use four sizes of hearts but I think it really depends on what sort of paper you're using

For the 1st and 2nd sets you need to cut 8 hearts

for the 3rd and 4th sets cut 4 hearts in each size

Use a dot of glue to stick the points of the hearts together in pairs - this photo shows all the hearts at that stage, the ruler will give you an idea of sizes I've used

2.  Now put a dot of glue in the middle of one pair of hearts and add the second set of the same size as shown here.  Repeat for all the sets of hearts ending up with something like this

3. I've made a few of these flowers now, and find you get a nicer result by making a base piece.

For this, cut/punch a 5cm circle, fold it in half, and half again then cut as in pic 2 below.  When you open it out you should have something like picture 3 shows.  Set this aside for later. 

4. Now build up all the layers from the largest at the bottom, toi the little ones at the very top, add a little dot of glue at the centre of each floret between each of the layers.  Allow to dry for a few minutes

5.  When the layers are firmly stuck together, take the flower and start to crumple it all up into a ball.  Roll it between your hands as though you were making a meatball!  The crumplier, the better. 

When you uncrumple it you'll have something like on the second photo - if you think it needs a few more wrinkles just crumple it up again till you're happy with the effect.

6.  Next apply some Stickles to the edges of the petals, or wherever you think will look good.  You can use your fingers to move the glitter about a bit.  Leave it to dry thoroughly

Punch or cut a circle of card and stick this to one side of the base section you made earlier.

7. For the flower centre you can use a large brad, or a button, or you could make something like those I've done here

The first is made with  Card Candy. which are domed circles just perfect for flower centres, or to use as faux brads etc .  I wanted to cover this one with black Stickles so I used a beaded pin with a bit of blutack on to secure it on top of the bead while I applied the Stickles - it's a bit easier to do it that way rather than when the Card Candy is stuck to the flower - I always end up with the Stickles getting onto the flower petals when I do that.

8.  Once the flower is dry, apply glue to the punched circle on the base piece and stick the two sections together.

Make a hole through all the layers for attaching a brad, or just glue the Card Candy, button or jewel to the middle of the flower and leave it all to dry for a while.

You can do some extra "tweaking" to get a better shape - but try to get your fingers in between the flower and the base layer when you do this.

The finished flower

Here's another idea for the flower centre

*Punch two or three 1.5cm circles from card and stick them all together to get a firm base

*Apply a thick layer of Glossy Accents all over the card circle

*Drop beads of a single colour, or mixed colours to match your project into the GA, trying to cover the whole circle

*Apply more GA over the top of the beads then leave to dry thoroughly before adhering to your flower.

There you go, all done - I warned you there was a lot of photos, but often pictures help more than words!

I hope you'll have a go at making one of these flowers and will come back and let me know how you got on

Happy Crafting