Frugal Scrapper's Homemade Flowers Tutorial

You know, I think I may have posted a similar tutorial once before, but since paper flowers are still REALLY popular, I'm going to post it again, espcially since this has a bit of a "twist".

First, we start with a scallop circle punch and a paper lunch bag.  I love working with a lunch bag for a few reasons:

• They are EXTREMELY economical
• They have a bit of a "waxiness or glossiness to them
• They are a great weight and texture for altering

Then, once the bag is cut apart and 6 scalloped circles are punched, we add some ink.  I inked 5 of the scalloped circles with distress ink in Barn Door and one scalloped circle was inked with distress ink in Peeled Paint.  Make sure to ink BOTH sides of the scalloped circles.

Next, we crumple them up.  You can't crumple them TOO MUCH, so have a blast:)

Now, we'll un-crumple them and layer the red pieces on top of each other and secure with a brad.

Now, crumple them back up toard the center, one later at a time, starting with the top layer.  Once you've crumpled them back up, you can "press all of the layers together so that the brad cannot be seen.

Then you can slowly open the layers back up again...just open slowly so that the layers are still a bit crumpled.  This takes practice, so if you open the layers too much,you can always crumple them together again and start the opening process again until you get the results you want.

Once your satisfied with the results, take the last scalloped circle (the one inked with Peeled Paint) and tear it right in half.  This is where your imagination and inter artist is going to have to get to work.  You will play with each half of these scalloped circles until you think they look like individual leaves.  I personally play with them until when I "pinch" each end and leave the middle wider, they look like leaves.

My end result is this:

If you want to, you can also add a little "glimmer" to them by spraying them with some sort of glimmer spray (I use my homemade glimmer spray, made by filling a mini mister with water and adding a scoop of perfect pearls)...shake and spray:)

These are the results below:

The difference is subtle and based on how concentrated your glimmer spray is.  The reason I LOVE my homemade glimmer spray is because, my color comes from the distress inks and the spray just adds a pearly glimmer, now added color.

The other advantage to doing this is that you can then use a heat tool to dry your flower which will stiffen it, similar to starching.  Now your flower will hold it's shape perfectly!

Another suggestion is to go back over the tips of your flower with a darker color of distress ink (like Fired Brick or Aged Mahogony) so you can add more depth to the petals.

Stickles can also be added by squirting stickles on your craft mat and tapping your finger in them.  Then gently blot you stickled finger over the flower to randomly add more sparkle.

EnJOY!