How to Make your own Paper Flowers Tutorial

The economy has hit all of us pretty hard! But crafters are a hardy lot, so we are endlessly in search of a way to get our 'creativity fix'. However, when it is hard to makes ends meet, how can we indulge ourselves in our passion for stamping, scrapping, and papercrafts? Well we simply have to recycle and reuse whatever we already have on hand!

Most of us would love to have an endless supply of Primas, paper, or silk flower for embellishment on hand, but few of us have a supply like the one on the left. But with everyone watching their bank balances dwindle, now is the perfect time to take the few supplies you already have on hand -like the ones pictured below- and create your own free or inexpensive faux Primas! With your scraps of paper, cardstock, mulberry paper, or ribbon, the sky is the limit on what you can create!

        You will need to have the following things on hand to get started: Punches (different brands/sizes, types are fine, so long as they work properly and make a nice clean cut. (Hint: If your punches are dull, try folding several layers of aluminum foil over and punching through it. If they are stiff, try several folded layers of waxed paper in the same way!) Scraps: Any sort of pretty designer paper, cardstock, mulberry paper, or stiffly starched wide ribbon will work. Water: Bottled, tap, whatever works...your flowers aren't 'pick-y'! :p Markers: Water- based, or whatever, but if you use the Alcohol-based ones (Copic/Prismas), you will need to have a blender pen or a small amount of Vodka on hand (to help blend and spread the ink and ease your nerves if need be). Glue/tape/adhesive- whatever you like to use. Time and Patience: I am usually out of this or have very little left, so be sure to do the first few steps in front of the television, or while listening to a great audiobook!  

Optional stuff: Brads, buttons, or whatever you wanna use for the flower centers. Microfine glitter, Twinkling H2Os, Pearl-ex, Re-inkers, Glimmer Mist, those cool Tim Holtz Distress and Alcohol Inks you bought when the economy wasn't in the toilet... or whatever...!

Anyways, this is actually VERY Easy! I'm just a motormouth, so I have to say everything in as many words as possible! :p Just hang in here and let's get started!

Step one: Punch out flowers using whatever punches you have on hand, or that you borrowed from your friends. (Hint: Next time you are at a crop and have downtime, see who else has a flower punch that you don't have and punch out a bunch of your scraps to use later as needed!) This is the tedious part, best done in front of the television, or while using other diversions. This is also a great job for kids who are driving you nuts because they wanna 'help'. They either punch a few, get bored, or disappear. It's a win-win situation! :p

Step two: Punch a tiny hole in the centers of all your punched out flowers. This helps you to attach them later. It also keeps you from being extra frustrated wilst trying to punch a neat little hole and NOT RIP a wet or finished flower. Trust me...do this and DON'T ask me how I know it is a bad thing to forget this step! Ahem...pay no attention to the missing holes in some of the pix below! :p

Step three: Give your flowers a nice little bath! Everyone knows flowers need water, and these are no exception! Carefully remove them from the water and lightly blot with a tissue until they are only slightly damp. Begin shaping the petals, or go to the next step, and shape them afterwards. Either way will work, as long as they are damp while you shape them.

Now you can make a whole lot of these in as many colors or patterns as you want and set them aside to dry. They will dry in whatever shape you molded them into and create great dimension in your work. They will also be quite unique and very different than the ones you will find in your local stamp/scrap/craft shop. Because you are using your own scraps, you can also easily match them to your cards, scrapbook layouts, projects, or decor. (Hint: The colors may bleed together if you don't wait & make sure they are dry before using them!) Simply put a brad through them once they are thoroughly dry, using as many as you want and affix to your project with your adhesive.

...but remember I mentioned you can skip the shaping and do something else first? Well here's Step four:

Take your water-based markers and color your flowers, either in shades, solidly, or as you can see above, in a 'vein-like' pattern. You can wet them down again, if you want to fade the color or leach the color(s) to show slight tonal differences too -before shaping them and setting them to dry. If you are using ALCOHOL-BASED Markers, color as desired and spritz, dab, or dip into Vodka, or touch up with your corresponding blender pen to achieve a similar effect. Then you can shape them and set them to dry. Once they are dry, you can stack them as I mentioned above to create as much or as little dimension and color coordination as you want.

However, if you are like me, you can continue to play and personalize these in several other ways. I pulled out my Twinkling H2O's, my Pearl Ex, and my Glimmer Mist, and made these bright, sparkly, glimmery faux Primas and you can too! 

Optional Step five: Wet a small paintbrush as add a tiny amount of the water to your Pearl Ex, lightly brush on the wet, unshaped flower. You can add as little or as much color as you want, since the drier the pot of 'paste' gets, the more concentrated the color is.

On my second flower, I used the same color Pearl Ex and then added a layers of Iridescent Gold and Oyster Twinkling H2O's. I used my Iridescent green Copic marker and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist for the final flower layer. I shaped them & dried them well.

After stacking and affixing them with a brad, I think they turned out well! Rather interesting and nothing like I've ever seen in a store either! Despite this flower being a bit glimmery, I plan to use this on a neutral card background. The card  I made this and several other flowers for will be featured this weekend on my blog, so be sure to keep an eye out for it! So here they are, all the flowers I featured in this tutorial, Hope to see you this weekend, where you will see many more featured on my cards!

I had to add just one more picture. I do think this flower is my favorite! Think you can plan a card around it? If so, be sure to leave a comment, and a DIRECT LINK to your blog or a picture of your card in your SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS Gallery! A random winner will be chosen to win a BLOG CANDY SURPRISE PACKAGE from me! All comments must contain working, direct links, and be posted under THIS POST  by Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at midnight EST to qualify!

You may use flowers, DP, or anything you want but you are limited to ONLY using shades of purple, yellow, & green! You MUST use a stamped (digi, cling, rubber, clear) image as the focal point! One card per entrant please, and only newly made cards are eligible. 

Good Luck! And thanks for reading my FIRST EVER tutorial!