Flower Tutorial... my take on the monthly challenge.

I had a great time doing Teresa's challenge for Everything Scrapp'n.  She really inspired me and I started playing around with products to make some interesting flowers that had that high end look for just pennies.  So in addition to sharing my layout I am sharing a tutorial how I made the flowers today.

Ok so the challenge was to:
use 3 flowers on a layout (either homemade or altered to make them your own)
use some blue - that will remind us of Spring rains that nourishes the soil
include some yellow or gold - to represent the warm Spring sunshine

This challenge really brought out the best in me so I hope you will enter a project for your chance to win a tin of some of my favorite Prima flowers (love the newsprint).

First I'll share my finished project....  "Love at First Sight" is a layout about our new home

The journaling reads "From the moment I saw the listing on FMLS I knew this was the house for us.  After a long search that started at Thanksgiving I could see God's plan and all the stress and lost houses was worth it.  We have lots of different living spaces & bedrooms to spread out in the 3300 sq ft.  Even a sunroom with built in storage perfect for scrapbooking made my heart flutter.  Andrew has a separate suite & is closer to work.  We love it!"

Titlework - I like to mix up fonts when creating my titles.  It adds interest and no one notices when I don't have a certain letter in the main font. (Yep it happened no "s" in the chipboard so I used the fabric Thicker to spell out "first")

A cluster of embellishments at the bottom weights the page & draws the eye around the layout.  All the details on the page reinforce the themes of home & love.  The calendar was perfect to circle the date of the closing when the dream became a reality.

Close-up of the flowers I made.  Dont' you love all the details in Webster's Pages papers?  Even the backs are gorgeous.

Supplies:  Paper (Webster's Pages - Grow Dreams, Webster's Pages - Plant & Nurture, Webster's Pages - Violette Wings, & Webster's Pages - Wishes Come True; Spray Paint (Tattered Angels - Glimmer Mist Olive Vine & Tattered Angels - Glimmer Mist Raven); Chipboard Buttons (Jenni Bowlin - Photographer's Mark); Journaling Spot (Jenni Bowlin - Memo Book Black);  Letters (American Crafts - Thickers Black & Jenni Bowlin - Tiny Alpha Black); Cardstock Embellishments (Jenni Bowlin - Die Cut 3x3 Calendar Cards &  Jenni Bowlin - Bingo Card Home); Metal Embellishments (Tim Holtz - Mini Paperclips, Tim Holtz - Trinket Pin, Making Memories - "Love", Doodlebug - Brad Black, Queen & Co - Mini Brad Purple, Adorn - "Think Big" Charm, Key - Misc Stash & Adorn - "Dream" charm); Thread (Coats & Clarks & Martha Stewart - Twine); Ink (Colorbox - Chestnut Roan Chalk); Tracing Paper (Canson - Tracing Paper) & Punch (McGill - Heart)

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Now for the Vellum Flower Tutorial. 

I was going to do a video but since I don't have a tripod I rely on one of my sons to hold the camera & none were around so still photos will have to do.

I love the Webster's Pages vellum but the pink wasn't the color I needed for these flowers so I started brainstorming how to get a similar look with other supplies. 

I have this tracing paper in my stash.  It was a $ dollar spot $ item at Michael's.  It works perfect for this technique

Many of the magazines have been showing flowers using heart punches so that inspired me in this tutorial.

I folded the tracing paper to keep it from jamming the large McGill heart punch (my clearance treasure which was only $2.22 at Hobby Lobby).   It also made quick work of punching the "petals" for the flowers.  (sorry for the sunshine shadow... lol)

I scattered the hearts in a shallow box to contain the overspray from Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists.  This box is what the upper tier of my Clip It Up Upper Tier came in - it's a keeper.

I used Olive Vine green for the base petals. 

After swirling your bottle to stir up the glimmer (don't shake or it will clog your sprayer).  I always do a test spray away from the items to see how much ink comes out of that particular bottle.  Spray lightly. 

Notice how the tracing paper curls as I sprayed them.  This is fine and they straighten out when dry & it will aid in getting color variations from the spray. 

Then I placed the hearts to be used for the top of the flower that I sprayed Raven purple.  Leaving the green hearts in the box allowed some of the overspray to add interest & depth to the colors.

Taking a paper towel to blot the excess ink.  Don't rub as this will muddy the color & you will lose the spray droplets that add texture & depth.

I then used the heat gun to finish drying the hearts.  They will scatter around slightly as the moisture evaporates and no longer adheres them to the box - but the box was high enough to keep them from flying around the room lol.  If this is a problem use a stylis or skewer to hold them in place while still keeping your hands away from the heat.

Crumble each heart up lightly.  Inking the edges & the creases with a bit of Chestnut Roan Colorbox chalk ink gives subtle definition.

un-crumble as you ink

Use a liquid adhesive like Beacon 3 in 1 to adhere the hearts to form your flower.  I just put a small amount of glue in the center and along the narrow edge of the heart leaving the upper part free to move & mold to add dimension.

Start arranging the hearts in s circle by slightly overlapping them. 

I used 5 as my base (odd number groupings look best).

and 3 hearts for the top layer.

Adding something to the center covers the overlaps and finishes the flower off.   Your imagination is the limit... Here simple large cream color buttons look great.

Adding purchased Prima flowers (these are the ones that are in the tin Heather is giving away for the prize) with a gemstone brad in the hole.

Finally I settled on the Jenni Bowlin chipboard buttons with a bit of twine knoted.

Thanks for visiting I'm the last stop on the blog hop.  I'm sure you want to start from the beginning.  Head over to the ES blog for all the details to enter the challenge and have a chance to win the Prima flowers and to see what the rest of the design team has been creating...