3D Layered Flower Tutorial

This is a tutorial for the flowers I created for my cards on the OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop.  To keep my post from getting too long I thought I would do a separate post for the photo how to tutorial so those who wanted to see how I made them could look & those who didn't wouldn't have to scroll thru so many photos.

Here's the finished card showing the layered dimensional flower

Ok now I'll show you how I made them.

Step 1 - Gather Supplies:  Watercolor Paper, Stamp that can easily be cut apart once stamped (I used Ippity Stamp's Now & Always kit which I sell here); Watercolors (I used the cake style artist quality ones); Paintbrush; Waterproof Black Ink (I used Palette Hybrid Ink); Scissors or craft knife.

Step 2 - Stamp your image.   My stamp has 4 different sections so I will stamp it 5 times (in case of error you have a spare... I learned from experience)

Step 3 - Cut out your layers. I like to use micro tip scissors for the best detail.  But, you could also use a craft knife.  It is ok to cut outside the line leaving extra white since we are watercoloring and it is a casual technique.

These are the different types of watercolors that can be used that I had on hand.  Watercolor crayons (might be too think for this stamped image); watercolor pencils & water brush ( would work well for this since you could get in small places); watercolor paint in tubes (this would work well but I was being lazy not wanting to get out a pallet)

and finally the artist quality cake watercolors (which I chose to use for this project).  A fine round brush is helpful to keep control and still get good coverage.

Note:  You'll see I'm no expert on watercolor painting I just do my own thing.

Step 4 - Painting the layers.  I find it best to wet the paper lightly first then layer the color on in stages.  I start with lighter coverage and build intensity of color coverage as I go.  You can use a paper towel in between to blog & "erase" mistakes.

You can either paint choose to paint the next smaller layer in or leave it white.  The reason I paint it is because when the layers are assembled with dimensional foam adhesive it looks better.

Notice  I didn't do all the shading with different colors on this example.   The thing I like about watercolors is you don't have to be neat.  You'll see it will come together nice even when it looks like this lol.

Step 5 - Shape Petals.  To add interest & more depth I curled the petals by putting my index finger in center of each petal then squeezed it with the index finger and thumb on other hand.  Pinching & working it until I  get the desired curling.  This is best done while the paper is still damp.

Step 6 - Adhesive.  I added foam adhesive squares to the back of each layer making sure I only put it toward the center of each layer.  This allows the petals freedom to move & curl further.

Here's the finished flower ready to go on any project.

The coloring could be done with Copic markers, craft makers, colored pencils (blended with gamsol or left natural).  But I like that watercolors are translucent so the stamped lines show thru.

Here is another card where I did not cut the layers apart but just painted the stamped image whole.  The shading with different colors helped to give it depth.  I stamped the leaves on canvas fabric for interest.

So I hope this gives you some ideas of different things you can do with your stamps.