Handmade Flowers with Art Philosophy

Mandy over at the Cupcake Craftroom sent me an email asking me to do a tutorial on how I make paper flowers. Well, I had to confess that I sort of cheat!! Cricut came out with a cartridge that is exclusive to Close To My Heart and they have 6 different flowers. Here is what I put together. I hope that you find it useful. If you happen to like the cartridge - please contact Debi Squires, my consultant to order your cartridge. It has 700 images all for the serious card maker!! I want to give a big shout out to Debi for taking the photos for me! Thanks Debi, you're the best.

I begin with cutting the flowers from my new Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (exclusive to Close To My Heart). However if you do not have a Cricut the flower on the top row on the left can be cut with a plain pair of scissors. To do this all you need is to cut the paper in a spiral manner.

The photo on the left are the cuts I made and the photo on the right are the flowers that I created. I used the beautiful “Charlotte” paper pack.

Step 1: I daubed the edge of the flower with vineyard berry to give the flower a more vintage look.

Step 2: I bent back the edges of the paper so that it will flare out. The larger the cut, the bigger the flare.

Step 3: I used a pair of tweezers to begin rolling the flower. When you roll you’ll roll so the pattern of the paper is the inside of the flower.
Step 4: Use your favorite glue to adhere it to the base of the flower. Hold down and allow the flower uncoil. I use my judgment on the coil based on how tight or loose I want the flower to look.

Step 1: For this flower I used the end of small paint brush to bend back each petal. There are two options with this particular flower. You can bend back each petal or when you’re done rolling the flower it can be smashed down to a beautiful flat flower vs. a larger 3D flower.

Step 2: I used the end of the paint brush to begin rolling - the smaller the tip the smaller the flower.

Step 3: You can also select to just hand roll the flower, it works just as well. The tightness or looseness of the flower depends on you.
Step 4: Again, use your favorite glue to adhere it to the base of the flower.

Sorry for no photos here…when I place the flower on the card I think about wanting it straight up or at some kind of diagonal. I generally use Glue Dots to adhere them down. Depending on the angle of the flower this is where I place the adhesive and I tuck it in and hold it down. There is also another product I used called Liquid Glass and I can put a big dollop on the card and place all the flowers together and it adheres quickly.

Making flowers are simple. When I made my first set of flowers I hated them!! Then I practiced and tried different ways of rolling, cutting, and gluing. Then this month Art Philosophy came out and now I have 6 more flowers to play with.

I hope you’ll give making flowers a try.