Tonic Studios | Tutorial: How to make 3D flowers with the Tonic Beautiful Bloom dies

I promised on Facebook that I would share a tutorial on how I made the bunch of realistic 3D flowers with Tonic Studios Beautiful Blooms dies I shared earlier. 

So here it is. I have made it very detailed so hopefully it all be clear. This is just a way to create them, you can modify any step, simplify them change the colours... Have fun!

For the whole bunch I used:

Beautiful Blooms - Sunburst Gazania 1288E - USA | UK

Beautiful Blooms - Gerbera Daisy 1287E - USA | UK (the one on the very left)

Beautiful Blooms - Apple Blossom 1290E - USA | UK

Beautiful Blooms - Magnolia Flora 1289E - USA | UK

Beautiful Blooms - Woodland Aster 1285E - USA | UK (red central one)

I also used Beautiful Blooms - Sweet Melia 1286E - USA | UK - for some of the leaves.

I die cut six large Magnolia Flora 1289E - USA | UK - flowers and 3 small ones using 120gsm textured paper. You can also use thin card  - 220 GSM or there about. The texture is completely optional.

Using Fossilised Amber (or any yellow) Distress Ink and foam on an applicator I coloured all the flowers.

Then, leaving a couple completely yellow, I coloured some over with a bit of Spiced Marmalade - or any orange. 

Finally on the last two I added Festive Berries - or any red distress inks.

The idea is to get an array of different shades that all coordinate.

Then I folded them individually in to quarters and then I trimmed the very centre that becomes a pointy. That it will create a hole in the centre as well as one realistic folds on the paper.

On the second lightest colour flower I made a cut between the petals. Then I put glue on one and layer the next one after the cut over it.

Using the lightest flower, I trimmed one full petal and glued the petals either side.

I put a blip of hot glue and thread the flower through a pipe cleaner..

Then I threaded the other glued flower and secured in place with glue.

For the other flowers, I just scrunches them to create shape on the petals.

Then one by one I attached through the pipe cleaner. Just make sure to push each layer to each other as much as possible.

I applied the smaller flower in the centre. Then. I rolled a the small flower for the centre and make the centre of the flower. (You can make like little stamen by cutting the small petals in a small fringe cuts as in the original Magnolia. )

The main flower is finished, but of course you can add more layers, or make it more shapely by making some more cuts and layers.

Using a green florist tape, I covered the stem. You can also use green washi tape.

For the leaves, I die cut them using them from different sets. This particular one I am using for the tutorial is from Apple Blossom 1290E - USA | UK.

I coloured it using a Crushed Olive - or any light or medium green distress ink that you have.

Using the Distress Stain in a darker shade of green - I used Peeled Paint but others will work too - I gently dabb ink in some places to create  some darker areas.

Trim the frilly bits on one end of a pipe cleaner, about 1 inch or so.

Using the Distress Stain I coloured the trimmed end of the pipe cleaner.

I glued it to the back of the leave using hot glue. You can put the wire almost up to the very top of the leave for maximum malleability.

Then I covered the rest of the pipe cleaner using florists wax tape. Twisting and turning a little bit all through.

And here it is the flower and leave. Every time it will be slightly different, and I love that about making paper flowers!

I wanted to add an extra, and I took my Nuvo Crystal Drops - Morning Dew 677N - USA | UK  - and added a couple of drops.

And that creates a dew effect.

So that is how this bunch of flowers was created. Mixing and matching distress colours, timing a few petals - or not -, scrunching layers of petals - or not - its easy! Give it a try.

New blog post for Sizzix: how to keep track of all your flower dies

Today i am sharing an idea on how to keep track of my flower dies that helps me crafting better by finding new ways to combine flower dies from different sets.

Click here for the full step by step tutorial and the a card created using this method.

By the way, those on the photo are my new Intricate Flowers 2, a new set of dies for Sizzix EU.

Loads of different things you can do with this set, and also the matching (but perfectly stand alone as well) Flower cards.

Intricate flowers: 3D

To celebrate that the Fresh Moments dies that I designed for Sizzix EU are arriving to the shops around, I thought I would a series of tutorials and projects featuring the collection in the next few weeks in three blogs that I post - Sizzix EU, Tubo and of course this very one.

Today I am going to show a quick and easy way of making 3D flower using the Intricate Flower dies.

To begin with, I die cut several flowers out of Coffee filters and coloured them in using Dylusions sprays, one of my most favourite ways to add vibrant colour.

(Be sure to go to the Sizzix blog for a further tutorial on how to get the flowers with this colours using the Dylusions and coffee filters. Plus, there is a mini tutorial on how to make a flower garland.)

I took one of the flowers and folded in half and then I made it to roll into a bud.

I did the same with about five of them and hold them together. I turned them upside down and trin the botton off of all of them. This may seem stupid but it is important for this quick and easy way of making 3D flowers.

Place a flower on a heat resistant mat and place a blob of hot glue in the centre. Place the the bud created before in the centre and add more layers bellow (I think I added 2 more) and it is ready to be used.
Now I used to make them with tissue paper and it took forever, with this quick way I can assemble them in 2 minutes.

I just made this simple card to incorporate the flower, but as you can imagine there are hundreds of more inventive ways to use them.

Over at the Sizzix blog...

How to make 3D flowers using the Framelit set of Flowers, like the one above.

Click here for the tutorial over at the Sizzix blog.

Yesterday's demo

Yesterday, and Saturday too, I demonstrated at the Crafts U Love Birthday Demo Weekend. I had a fantastic time using some of my favorite dies creating flowers and butterflies (Revolution dies).
The papers are from Crate paper, Little Sprout and Lillian Collections.


You can find all the products at Crafts U Love.

More flowers

This is part two of two of the flowers I made for last week demo at Crafts U Love using just the circle nestabilities, Wisteria papers and some extras.

Yesterday I got to spend the day crafting at a trade event organized by Delish Designs UK with my friend Julie. I had a fantastic time just crafting without the pressure of being the person in charge. The Delish stuff is gorgeous and Debbie the tutor was fabulous. If you ever get the chance to do one of their retreats I think you should try them.

Nestabilities

Yesterday I was demonstrating the circle Nestabilities at Crafts U Love.
If you have followed this blog for a while you will know that I am a great admirer of many paper crafters, one of which is Jane Gill. Jane does the most wonderful flowers using punches by Woodware.
Well, Jane inspired me to create flowers out of circle nestabilities using in particular the scalloped edged ones but setting myself the challenge of only using dies from the circular shapes.
Once I started there was no stopping me and tried all sorts of different combinations with different colours, sizes...

And these are the different flowers I came up with:


They may not be up Jane's standards but I was pretty pleased for my usual quick and easy self!

The backgroung is just a rectangle of white foam board cover with Wisteria (Basic Grey) papers so that I could display the flowers with pearl pins.

By the way you can get all the nestabilities here at Crafts U Love as well as the lovely Wisteria papers here.