Dogwood Flower Tutorial

Hello again fellow scrappers & bloggers. I have a brief tutorial today that's been hanging around in 'draft' mode in my blog for months. I've known how to make these dogwood flowers for a while now & have never gotten around to posting a tutorial...well, here it is!

They're really easy to do. All you need is a balloon punch (I'm using the balloon punch by Martha Stewart), a marker, a 1/4 inch hole puncher, 1/2 inch glue dots, Stickles, 1/2 inch circle punch, a mouse pad, shaping tool & any kind of sun punch for the center of the flower. I'm using sun punches in 2 different sizes by the Punch Bunch. If you do not have a sun punch you can also use floral sprays/stems if you have them.

Start off by punching 4 balloons. These balloons will be your petals.

With the 1/4 inch hole puncher make a half moon punch in the top center of each petal.

With your marker outline the edges of the half moons for each petal.

Next you're going to shape each petal. Use the bottom side of any mouse pad for support. In a circular motion start moving around the flower with your shaping tool while applying some pressure in order to cup the flower. You can use the eraser side of a pencil for this if you don't have a specific tool for shaping. The tool I'm using came with a paper crafting tool kit made by the Punch Bunch.

Once your petals are shaped, take the 1/2 inch circle & place a glue dot on it. Then start placing your petals on the circle.

Here's your flower with all four petals adhered to the circle. Now to make the center.

You'll be using 4 sun punches in total for the center. Two large & two small suns.

For all 4 suns snip in between one sun ray all the way to the center of the sun.

With a pair of tweezers take one end of the sun & start rolling it towards you. Roll it all around until you reach the other end.

This is what your suns should look like after you've rolled all four.

Proceed to adhere the suns to the center of your flower. If you do not have glue with a fine tip, you can use a toothpick to place a small dot of glue to adhere each layer. I used my tweezers to place each layer since they're very small.

The rest of how you decorate your flower is up to you. I tend to use Star Dust Stickles around the half moons & dots of Lime Green Stickles to further decorate the center of the flower.

You can also add veins to them with an embossing pen--the finishing touches is really up to you.

Here are a variety of dogwood flowers in all colors. You can use solid colors or pattern--it's all up to you. You can also leave the flowers with or without leaves.

Hope you all enjoyed this tutorial.

Till my next post...

Curled Frame Tutorial

I've seen several scrappers do layouts where they roll pieces of paper on thier layouts. I recently tried this technique out myself with my 'My Boys' layout.

This tutorial shows how to make the curled frame I used in this layout. As always, I'm sure this has been done before since there are just so many talented scrappers out there. I'm simply showing my take on this curled frame.

Here are the supplies you'll need. A paper cutter--I use the finger cutter by Fiskars. I've had several paper cutters & this has been the best one for me by far. I use my finger to guide the point of the knife so I have really good control of where I'm cutting. Some cardstock or patterned paper. If using patterned paper--it's most likely best if you use double-sided paper so that when you curl the paper it doesn't display in a plain white color. This of course, is all based on preference. If you want it to be white, then that's alright too! A cutting mat. A ruler, pencil & a paintbrush. I use the handle of the paintbrush to curl my paper--but you can use a pencil too. Ok, let's get started!

I did the curled frame on the 'My Boys' layout with a 5"x5" picture. I liked how the frame looked with a square picture--but you can use this technique with any size--however, make sure you calculate the measurements correctly based on the size you choose. For this example I'm going to make the frame for a 5"x5" picture.

Your frame needs to be at least 1" inch larger than your photo. So this frame is 6"x6". Turn your paper to what will be the back of the frame. Measure 1" inch in from the edge of each border & make a mark with your pencil. I used a black marker in my example so that you can see the marks I make. I make my marks by simply drawing a small line. Then connect all your marks by drawing straight across all 4 sides. In other words, you're creating a 4" square inside your 6" square.

Decide which will be the sides of your frame. With your paper cutter cut along the lines you just made on both sides of your frame. You're cutting into the inner square only--so do not cut all the way to the actual edge of the paper.

Here I'm showing how I cut the sides of the inner square.

Next we need to mark the center of the inner frame. We already know that we have a 4" inch inner frame. So you're going to take your ruler & from the top edge of the inner frame measure 2" inches in since that would be the center of your 4" inch frame.
With your pencil make your mark.

Next you're going to draw a line straight across the center of your inner square based off the mark you made in the previous step.

Now for the slits that you will roll to make your curled frame. In order for the slits to be evenly spaced--starting from one of the sides of the inner frame I measured 1/2 an inch in & made my mark. From that first mark I measured another 1/2 an inch & made a second mark. Keep going until you go all the way across to the other side of the inner square. With this particular frame, you'll end up with 8 strips. The screen shot shows where I've placed my marks & drawn my lines.

Next, you take your paper cutter & you cut along the line marking the center of your inner square & then you cut along the lines for each strip. Whatever you do...do not cut into the top or bottom of the inner frame or else your strips will simply come off! My red arrows in this screen shot is showing what I refer to when I say the 'top' & bottom of the inner frame.

This is what your frame should look like after you're done with all your cutting.

The rest is all about the curling. Turn your frame to the front side & start curling each strip. You decide how much you want to curl each strip based on your picture. If there are areas of your picture that are blocked by the frame...simply cut more into the top of the strip in order to make them longer--therefore allowing you to curl them in more.

As for the outer edge of the frame itself that's also up to you. You can distress & then ink the border of the frame like I did in the 'My Boys' layout or you can add ribbon around, stamp around it...you can add pearls or brads around or simply leave it as is. The choice is yours.

Here's a picture of my finished curled frame.

Hope some of you will find this tutorial useful.

Till my next post...