Peony Tutorial

On May 8th, I posted a card with a large flower on my blog and have had so many people request I do a tutorial for this flower. Here is the link to the other flower. The dies used to create this flower are the Spellbinders "Peony" dies. I have used some other new products from Joan's Gardens. The white doily was cut with the "Italian Flourish" doily die; the white flower sprig and the green leaf flourishes are the new Marianne Creatables that Joan now carries. The butterflies are also part of the doily die collection and these mini butterflies come in a set of three. Joan carries three different sizes of these beautiful butterflies. The pink flowers were created with the "Small Blossom" punch. The banner along the bottom of the card was created with the Martha Stewart "Deco Shells" border punch. The sentiment is from JustRite "Elegant Frames". All pieces were arranged and attached as shown with "Art Glitter" Designer Adhesive.  All products used on this card can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

Below is a tutorial on how I created the large flower:

Use Spellbinders Peony Nestabilities.  Cut four or five of each of the four smallest flowers.  Every flower you create will be a little different depending on how many petals of each size you wish to use,.

Cut toward center of each flower to create separate petals.  When you do this it allows the flower to shape and look more realistic.

For my flower, I sponged pink ink on the edges, both front and back, to give it a two toned effect.

Using the black mat and tool from the "Flower Tool Kit", each flower was shaped.  You can get full direction on how to do this in the "Paper Bouquet" book that Joan sells.

For the very center of this flower three "Small Sun" stamens were cut between each point, shaped and glued together.

When I create flowers from punches I always punch a lot of extra pieces so I know I have enough to create what I want and then save the extra pieces for other flowers at a later date.  You can experiment with getting the look you want by stacking the flowers together, before gluing, just to see how many of each flower (petal layer) to want to use for the finished flower.  You can get so many different looks with the same punched/die cut pieces by changing the number of layers, the type of stamen, and the shaping of the petals. I'm sure you know this by now, but I really love creating flowers with die cuts  and/or punches. 

I have been sick for the past three days and hope I have explained this well enough for you to create some of your own beautiful flowers. As you know when you don't feel well, things don't always come out the way they should.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  I always love to read your comments so hope to hear from you.