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!









Vintage, it is:)

Well, I decided I just couldn't let this vintag-y thing go, so I decided to give it another shot and try...again, lol...to make a vintag-y card.

I ACTUALLY didn't EVEN distress the edges of my paper!  AND, I made my FIRST (of many, I'm sure) 5 x 5 card!...well, I actually think I DID make one other 5 x 5 card (with an Easter theme last year) so, officially this is my second.

I'm sure you're all going to laugh, but the thing I like about sqare cards is that they are like "little" scrapbook pages:)  I was thinking I could probably whip out one of my sketch books and use it as inspiration for a card...kinda one of those "I shoulda had a V8" moments...like I said, you're probably laughing right now because I didn't realize that....sometimes my frugal scrappin' mind has to circle around ideas for a while before they sink in (kinda like the way the plane circles around the Philadelphia airport every time I go there)...round and round it goes, when it stops, nobody knows...

O.k., on to my card...I kinda repeated Gloria's challenge over at 365 Cards, using a hat pin (or 2, hee hee) and I have to say, I like this card MUCH better than the 1st...now I LOVE my T!m stuff, but sometimes a girl has to branch out, ya know?

I'm stickin' with my "scraps" challenge though...I used a piece of SEI paper, a piece of Cosmo Cricket paper, and other stuff from my stash to make this AWESOMELY inspiring card:)

I love the papers on this card.  The reason they feel vintag-y to me is that I can see the wallpaper in my grandmother's home now....from when I was little...maybe not as bright, but definitely with the same patterns.

I've seen "rolled" roses recently but have never tried to make one myself.  My frugal scrappin' partner, Karen, is using this technique in our upcoming frugal scrappin' class in December, so I thought I better give it a try...now I can't tell you how I made it (although I'm sure most of you have done these already), but if you want to learn, come on over to our Frugal Scrappin' class on December 9th at Ever After Scrapbooks and we'll show ya.

And in the true fashion I just learned from Melody and Gloria, I've finished the inside of the card.  Thanks to you both for being such an inspiration to me!

Hmmmmm.... I wonder if I can replace my 365 card entry from day 267 with this one...awwwww, I'll just let it be:)

enJOY:)

Studio L3 Challenge:)

I went to the Carson Stamp Show yesterday with my dear friend, Karen and we met some great ladies that are members of a yahoo group called "All Things Tim".  Actually, I believe one of the ladies created the group.  They were very sweet and told me to e-mail them for an invitation to join the group....Thank you, Ladies...I've sent my e-mail and am anxiouxly awaiting your reply:)

Anyway, while I was cruisin' around, I also found this site called Studio L3 where there is an ongoing challenge to use T!m's new "A Compendium of Curiosities" book to complete challenges.  Today's challenge is to use T!m's shabby chic technique...one of OH SO MANY awesome techniques found in his book.

I decided to play along and have completed my project for this challenge:

For detailed instructions on how to do the technique, check out page 49 of the book.  I chose to use the following:

Plain grungeboard for the "bird cage".  I used an espresso paint dabber, then T!m's notepaper stamp with embossing ink.  I used terra cotta embossing powder and once dry went back over with a pool paint dabber.  Then I ran it through my big shot, using T!m's scallop alterations die.  You know me....being the frugal scrapper and all, I just HAD to use the negative cut from the die for the bottom of my "cage".

I covered my grunge page with a snow cap paint dabber, used some of my favorite T!m stamps (frame and floral) with some embossing ink and clear embossing powder.  Over top, I used my citrus paint dabber (and a little pool here and there).

I used sepia archival ink on the bird and branch.  I added one of T!m's mettal keyholes and scraps from my "bird cage" roof to close in the sides.  Once this was done, I spritzed my "new" favorite mist (a mix of water and "pearl" perfect pearls) which gave my cage a nice shiny appearance (hard to see in the picture).

Again, in my typical fashion, I used the key sample from my newly opened hardware findings die, first covering it with my pool paint dabber, then pressing it randomly into embossing ink.  I then added some terra cotta embossing powder to make the key look rusted.

I added a couple of buttons from my stash and a stamped phrase...it's all perspective...is the bird really in the cage or are we?

I had fun playing along...now to go post to the challenge:)

EnJOY:)

Lori McCausland, FSE

I'm just a girl in a mixed media world...