handmade flowers

paper towell & glimmer mist flowers - oh my!

These flowers are so pretty, soft and delicate and you will get different results, depending on the texture of your paper towell. I warn you, you will never shop for paper towell in the same way again! haha

In this workshop I will show you how to make two different style flowers so go fetch the following materials and equipment and lets get started:

 

paper towell

glimmer mist spray (I used bubblegum pink, jack o lantern & pearl)

scrap piece of thin chipboard

scrap pieces of cotton fabric

a few buttons

embroidery thread

scissors

1"circle punch

glue stick

double sided tape

old newspapers

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Glimmer Mist (GM) is very messy and the colour will dye whatever it touches, so lay down a few sheets of newspaper and place your paper towell on top. Shake the GM until all the colour at the bottom of the bottle is dissolved and then spray a few squirts over the towell.

Repeat the process using the other GM colour. - Note that the colours are a lot stronger when wet, but will soften considerably as it dries.

You can speed up the drying process with a hair dryer if you can't wait. Once the paper towell is dry it will separate (if it is 2 or more ply). Put the other sheet aside for now, or you can use it to make more flowers, or even on your next scrapbook project - yay!
 
 

Cut the paper towell into four strips, 3 fattish strips and one narrower as shown. Put one of the fat strips aside, we will use that to make another flower later. 

TECHNIQUE ONE - SINGLE LAYER FLOWER

Grab the 3 strips and lay them on top of each other, with one long edge matched up. Cut a thck fringe along one edge as shown. Note: you can hold the strips together with paper strips to stop them moving about too much if you prefer.

Punch a 1" circle from thin chipboard and cover it with gluestick glue. Take one of the wider strips and start sticking it to the chipboard, working your way around the edge and pinching the paper towell as you go.

 

Once you've attached this first layer, dab glue in the centre of the flower and add another fat layer, using the same technique as above.

Repeat with the third (final) layer of the flower, the slightly narrower one. Once it's finished, don't be afraid to snip the petals into shape if your flower stack is looking a bit messy.

Glue a scrap of fabric to a piece of thin chipboard and hand cut a circle shape from it, approx.1.5" wide. You can draw or trace it on first if you don't feel confident to just cut it freehand. Once you have the circle cut out, use your fingernails to rough up the edges of the fabric.

Use double sided tape to attach the circle to the centre of the flower. Tie some embroidery thread through a button and tape it to the top of the circle to complete your flower. Aww, pretty!

I finished my flower off with a final spritz of pearl GM to really up that shine factor.

Awww, pretty!

 Here's some other samples I made using this technique. Click on pics to enlarge image.

 
 
  
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TECHNIQUE TWO - SINGLE LAYER FLOWER

Use the same technique as shown in the fabric flowers workshop, to cut petals from the remaining strip of paper towell.

Punch a 1" circle from thin chipboard and cover it with glue as before. Then use the same "pinch and stick" technique as above, working around the chipboard circle, to attach the paper to the base.

 

It should look like this once it's all stuckdown.

Finish off the centre of the flower as before. Cover a couple of scraps of chipboard with two different fabrics, cut a larger and a smaller circle from the chipboard and add a threaded button on top.

 

After spritzing with pearl GM and drying off this flower, I used it to embellish a small gift card.

Once again, here's a couple of extra samples. Click on the images to get a closer look.

 

Fabric Flowers

   

Gather your supplies:

1 strip of cotton fabric approximately 2" wide x 8" long
1 contrasting patterned fabric scrap (note: small pattern designs work best)
a scrap of thin chipboard
1 button
embroidery thread
glue stick
double sided tape
1" circle punch
scissors

Fold the long strip of fabric in half. Then fold it in half again.

Snip the folded edges but DON"T CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH.

Snip between the edges to create two sections (once again NOT ALL the way through). Cut petal shapes from these two sections, cutting through all layers of fabric at once - as shown below. If you feel daunted by cutting the petal shapes, fold the fabric wrong side out and draw the shape on (in pencil) before you cut.

Step four. Punch a 1" circle from the scrap of chipboard and add double sided tape to the back of the fabric.

Step five. Remove the backing from the double sided tape and gather and pinch along the bottom edge of the fabric, as you stick it to the punched circle.

Continue working this way all around the circle. If you find you have more fabric than your flower can handle, simply cut one off (an odd number of petals will look better anyway).

Here's what it should look like at this stage.

To create the centre of the flower, apply glue to the scrap of chipboard and cover it with the other piece of fabric.

I like to just free hand cut a circle for the centre because I like the wonkiness, but if you don't, you could trace a circle (approx 2") on to the back of the chipboard before you cut it out.

Once you've cut it out, use your fingernails to rough up the edges.

Attach the circle to the centre of your flower.

Tie a piece of embroidery thread through a button and attach it to the top of the flower. Note: double sided tape works best for both these steps.

Finally if like me, you prefer things to look a little shabby, rough up the edges of the petals with your fingernails and you're done. Easy!

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Here's a couple of other flowers I made using this technique.

I cheated with this one and just stuck a circle shaped sticker in the centre. 

With this flower I used a fabric centre with a sticker in the middle.

Have Fun! :)

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