Trio of scrunched flowers card

I have made a card and video using some flowers I have made using the scrunching method, which makes them textural and quite strong.

I use coloured photocopy paper for these, just 80gsm weight, you could use a slightly heavier paper, but I wouldn't go any higher than about 100 - 120gsm otherwise I think it would be difficult to get the folds and volume. I think even 120gsm might be pushing it. 

So what you do is cut out some die cuts, or punch out some flower shapes, and really it doesn't matter which you use, or even what shape the petals are.  The end result will vary depending on what shape you use, and the more petals there are in the flower shape, the more work it will be, so a good one to start off with is a 5 or 6 petal flower.  Generally I would use two sizes and I cut 2 of the outside petals and two smaller petals.  If you flower punch or die has narrow petals you may need to do one or two more of each layer. 

Then I lay them out on a paper towel and spritz them with a little water, turn them over and spritz them again, you want them damp but not sopping. Then wrap each petal over the barrel of a pencil or pen, or even a handle of a paintbrush (not too thin) and then holding the petal over the shape of the pencil/pen, you take your fingernail and push the outside edges of the petal towards the middle, mostly it will concertina, but it may scrunch as well, that is OK, and press so it keeps its scrunched shape. Once you go around all the petals, put the flower aside and do it for the rest.  Allow them to dry, and then if you want, you can pull the petal out a bit, so it isn't so tight.  Turn them over so the curved shape is facing down, and I shape them a little with a ball embossing tool, to shape the middle of the flower a little, this also helps to turn the flower up a little at the ends of the petals.  Then it is simply a matter of glueing the petals one by one on top of each other, working from the biggest and then the smallest, alternating the petals so that it fills in the gaps between the petals.  Then you can stick something into the centre like a flatback pearl or an embellishment of some kind as your flower centre. 

With my card I made two flowers with the same die cut pieces and the yellow one I wanted it a bit smaller, so I used the two smallest die cuts from the other flowers and then used a smaller die I had for the two petals at the centre, this changed the look of it a little, but not too much.  Just experiment with different shapes of die cuts and punches that you might have and you will get some very cool results.  You can also colour the centres it you want more colour to your flowers, especially if you are doing white ones, but I felt I didn't need to do that with this card, as I wanted some pastel but pure colours for it. 

Now to the card, I made a card base 5" x 7" out of 'Hazel' Bazzil card, and then cut out a doily die cut out of Mauve card.  I glued the doily onto a piece of white linen card and then cut this out with a stitched rectangle die leaving a little bit of a white space on the right hand side, so in essence it is half a doily but it has the stitched border all the way around, and put that onto my card base with some fun foam to give a bit of dimension. 

Then I just glued my trio of flowers on top of the doily at the edge, tucked some leaves, which I had cut out with a couple of different dies out of scraps in a couple of different shades of green. Finally I popped a few Pretty Pink Posh clear sequins in the 4mm around the arrangement for a bit of sparkle.  

Please check out the video if you would like to see the flowers and card being made



The supplies I used to make this card

Card base Bazzil 'Hazel' 5" x 7"
A piece of white card and mauve card
scraps of yellow blue and pink photocopy paper
Simon Says stitched rectangles dies
Kaisercraft Doily die
Spellbinders foliage die set
Sue Wilson delicate fronds die set
Cheery Lynn floral dies for blue and pink flowers
Cheery Lynn Cherry Blossom die for centre of yellow flower
halfback pearls in pink yellow and blue for centre of flowers
Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue
Quilled precision tip applicator bottle
3M scotch foam tape
Joy Crafts Banner die set
Paper Xtra sentiment stamp set
pretty pink posh sparkling clear sequins 4mm
Scissors
Ebosser

I hope you have a go at making these flowers, the possibilities of colours and looks are endless.  You can sponge them with colour, you can put any embelishments into the centres of them and depending on what punch or die you use, you will get a different effect
I would love to see some of your flowers if you make some!

Happy card making everyone