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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tutorial Tuesday!

As promised, here is a tutorial for fancy little paper roses.  It looks like there's a lot of steps, but there really isn't, I've just taken lots of photos to explain how it works. 
You can use any six-petalled flower punch for this, (I like Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die), but for this example, I have sketched out a six petalled flower and hand cut it with scissors, to show how they can look without any special tools. 

First of all, sketch your flower onto a piece of paper to use as a template.  I was using scrap, so i just used an offcut of the paper I was making the rose out of.  Paper that's printed on both sides works beautifully, however single sided paper is fine too. 

Layer up 3 pieces of paper that you will be making the rose from, and cut out your flower shape on the 3 sheets.  You can cut these individually, but layering them saves loads of time! (Or if you have a punch, go ahead and use that!)
Fold each flower into six segments, to find the centre. 
Taking the first flower, cut a slit between two petals, to the centre. 
Take the second flower, and remove 1 segment of the flower, reserving the cut segment.

Taking the third flower, remove 2 segments of the flower, reserving the cut segment. 
Using your favourite glue, Take the first flower, and glue on the underside of one segment closest to the slit.  Glue the other segment to it, to make a shallow, cup shaped 5 petal flower. 
Repeat this for the other 2 flowers. 

Take the single segment that you cut out before.  Using a skewer or the like, roll the little petal into a cone shape add a dab of glue, and then roll the two-petal segment around it.  This forms the centre of the rose. 

add a dab of glue, and then roll the two-petal segment around it. 
This fills out the centre of the rose a bit more. 
Snip the base off of each of your cupped flowers, allowing enough room for the centre segment to fit neatly inside. 

You're almost done!  Now, take the centre cone, and the three petalled cup shaped flower.  Add a dab of glue to the side of the cone, and insert through the hole in the flower.  Add another dab of glue, and slide on the next sized flower... and you guessed it, add another dab of glue, and slide on the final flower. 

Then simply curl the petals either between your fingers, or use a small paintbrush handle or stylus to curve the petals as you like. 

If you wish, you can also ink the petals, which will add a bit more definition. 

 And there you have it.  A beautiful, handmade rose, that you can make to suit any project!  
x Rita 




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