Paper Flowers.....and Happy Birthday Karen!

Can I get a Hip Hop???? It's another fun filled day of Unity and {ippity} goodness! Love Thursdays!!! So, let's get down to business. I've got a fun tutorial for you today, (oh, it's Lisa Henke, here-waving HI!!!). I know there are all kinds of flower tutorials out there, but most focus on flat flowers, ones to use on your cards. Today I thought I'd share how to make a life-like, 3-D flower to maybe use in a paper flower bouquet.

Before I get started, I wanted to tell Karen one more time.....Happy Birthday girl! Enjoy your day and all the cupcake love we sent your way!

I'm sure there are many ways to go about this, but I'm all about quick and easy and still making it look GREAT! You can make these any size, but I like them to be on the bigger side, to give it a more real appearance.

Here's what you need:


any flower die (s)-there are many on the market and most have 2, 3, or 4 flowers on the 1 die. I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flower die.
cardstock and/or designer paper of choice
stamps-{ippity} of course!
wooden pick-I used a shish kabob skewer and painted it green
scissors
strong adhesive-I used scor-tape
hole punch
foam dimensionals
green paint or ink

Before starting, remember.... cut and stamp first....assemble last.

1. start by cutting a number of paper flowers out of cardstock or designer paper with your die. I like to mix and match. Plus it allows me to customize my flower designs by stamping on some of them.


2. stamp Dots for Sure on two of the cardstock flowers. Punch holes in the center (make sure you find a hole punch similar in size to your skewer circumference.
   
3. to give your flowers a life-like appearance, curve or roll the edges of each of the petals. I like to do one flower up, and another flower down (you'll see why, when I stack them together).



4. take a strip of green cs about 1 inch in width (length isn't as important, because you can trim shorter as needed) and cut slits all the way across like faux grass.


5. paint skewer green for the stem.



6. attach foam dimensionals on the backside your flower layers (you can make your flower with any number of layers, I did mine with 3 layers-1 small and 2 of the same size flowers).



7. create a stemen for your flower by rolling your green slitted cs around the skewer. When you have a nice width when rolled up, snip and make sure it will fit through the hole of your flowers.




8. Begin layering your flowers, starting with your smaller petals and then moving up to your bigger petals. If you are layering two flowers of the same size, use one with petals curving up, layered with petals curving down.




9. After you have your flower assembled, add your skewer-use adhesive if needed.

Here you go! The finished product!

I added a few felt, hand cut leaves that I attached with scor-tape and a bit of twine.

Hope you feel inspired to make a whole garden of paper flowers. The looks great in any vase! Have fun and enjoy the day! Join us in the Unity Forum for more Hip Hop fun! Off you go to the Unity blog.