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!









Frugal Scrapper Tips 'n Techniques #3

Whew, I can't believe it's already Wednesday again! I hope you all had a great week!

This week, I have decided to share a technique I have been doing for a while. When I have shared it with friends it has been popular, so I thought I should post it as a Frugal Scrapper Tips 'n Techniques post.

I started this technique by dusting off some of my old tools and supplies that hadn't been used in a while...my tag punch and my eyelets.

I found I was making alot of mini scrapbooks and wanted to add tabs to the pages for added interest.

I started by buying self adhesive tabs and while I liked them, I knew there had to be a way to make them myself. I first considerd purchasing a file tab punch, but my frugalness got in the way...then I thought...hey, I could make "tabs" with my old faithful tag punch and eyelets!

Not only are these tabs really easy to make but the eyelets make great fastners (as I found that sometimes the adhesive tabs come loose after lots of handling). These tabs are definitely NOT going anywhere, lol.

On these tabs, I added some letter stamps (also dusted off from my stash of old tools). I really like how they turned out:)

If you don't have an old tag punch, a tag diecut would work just as well. If you want to be REALLY frugal, I'm sure you could also make your own tag (or "tab") with just cardstock scraps and scissors, too:)

Enjoy:)

Lori McCausland

Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire:)

Trash and My Stash Paper Flowers

As most of you know, I've been obsessed with making my own paper flowers lately. Since I haven't seen these flowers on-line anywhere, I thought I'd share the instructions with you:)


The supplies shown above (along with some "junk mail" trash) were used to make some awesome paper flowers that I used in a layout (shown at the end of this post).

These flowers were made as follows:

• Punch 6-8 circles using scrap paper from your stash
• Fold the circles into a "cone" shape as shown below
• Distress the folded edges and rounded top of circle (these are your petals)
• Apply stickles (or some other glitter glue)...in addition to adding the glitter, the glue adds substance to the paper that helps to mold the petals
• Once petals are molded, place on paper, spacing as desired
• Add a button or another circle punch to the center

For this flower, I also used a flower technique I found on Leah Fung's blog. She has alot of great ideas, so feel free to visit her here: http://www.leahfung.typepad.com/


This is the layout I completed using the flower I made. Notice I also made a smaller one for the top of the page. I just took each circle I punched, cut it in half and folded the edges back to make a rounded triangle. The rest of the instructions are the same as above.

Enjoy:)

Lori McCausland, Frugal Scrapper Extraordinaire