better than onions...

Hello my wonderful friends! 

How about a tutorial to get our Tuesday going?  Last week I shared a LO using these flowers...

They are absolutely beautiful, and so easy to make!

So, let's get started!

what you need:

tissue paper

flower dies

water mister

stamin (centers for flowers found in cake decorating isles)

hot glue

water based ink (like Distress)

 Step 1: cut folded tissue paper into strips that fit your die cut machine. Tissue paper is thin, so you can take it right out of the package and cut it while it's all folded up. This makes things not only faster, but easier!

 Step 2: Keep your tissue paper folded, and die cut your flowers. I'm using Spellbinders "Rose Creations" dies in the 3 smallest sizes.  Each die will now have a whole bunch of flowers all in one cut!

Step 3: remove the paper from the dies and crumple the whole stack. 

After they are crumpled it is nice and easy to separate the layers... kinda like peeling an onion, only you don't cry near as much! LOL. If you have really thin tissue paper and it is being stubborn, you can dampen your finger tips very slightly, and it will help.

 Step 4: The stamen you get for making flowers for cakes are double ended. Since we don't need both ends finished, just cut them in half... they'll go twice as far this way!

 Step 5: Layer your flower how you like, and thread the stamen through the center.

Use a little bit of glue on both the top side, and the underside of the flower to keep the layers from shifting. Hot glue works really well for this!

 Step 5: Rub your water based ink pad on a non porous surface (like a nonstick craft sheet, piece of glass, or acrylic). 

 Step 6: Mist your flower. Getting the perfect amount of water takes a little practice, however, a general rule to keep in mind is that the more water you put on, the more your ink will wick (spread).  Play around with it to decide how much water you like. 

 Step 7: GENTLY touch the tips of the flower to the ink and twirl. (this part kind of reminds me of those crime shows when they are dusting for prints. lol...) Holding the flower at different angles while twirling will help get different petals. The idea is to only let the tips of the petals touch the ink, and let the ink wick up the petals for a very natural blended look.

Step 8:If you want the ink to blend a little more, you can spritz on more water... if you want to add a little shine, spritz on some shimmer spray.  

Step 9: Allow to dry. You can use a heat gun to speed the process, just be careful not to heat the glue too much, or it will remelt. 

Enjoy!

~Kassi