Paper Flower Wreath

The most enjoyable aspect of my recent visit to the Craft4Crafters show at Westpoint was visiting the Pink Frog Crafts and Card stand where I found a tiny plant pot filled with little paper snowdrops.  I was shown how to make these and took this photo as a momento in case I forget what they looked like.

However, these were not the only paper flowers that had been created by the demonstrator, she had made a lovely heart shaped wreath covered in lots of tiny handmade paper flowers.  They looked so beautiful that I wanted to try this for myself.

I was suprised to learn that the majority of the flowers made on the wreath came from one die.  It is available on their website and called a medium multiflower Rose Die (024).  I already owned this die but hadn't tried making anything other than roses and fuchsias with it. However, with this one die you can make roses, daises, fuchsias, aquilegia, poppies and sunflowers so it is really good value for money.  So all I needed to purchase was an additional die for making daffodils.  

With these two dies I made the majority of the flowers you see below in this wreath.

Here are some close ups:

The daisy is one of the easiest to make.  First cut out some flowers.  You need two for a daisy but of course you will make more than one.  Take your ball tool and run this around each flower to give it a curl.  Then take your pokey tool and fold each petal in turn over it to give it extra shape.  Now put a blob of glue in the centre of one and place the other on top slight offset.  Finish the centre using flower soft.

The daffodil couldn't be easier.  With the two cut petals first shape them with your ball tool and then place a dab of glue on one and sandwich together, offsetting them. 

With your pokey tool pierce the centre so that your sepal will push through.  

Take the final piece cut from the die and use your largest ball tool to shape it.  As you approach the shortest edge, force it to curl with the ball tool so that when you glue it in place it has an a larger surface edge to glue to the rest of the flower.  Now glue the seam together.  When dry apply glue around the narrow edge and hold in place until it grabs.  Your sepals should already be in place at this point!

The aquilegia was made using the MultiFlower Rose Die for the outer petal and a tonic die punch for the centre.  

I learned a very interesting tip at the show on how to pinch the edges of the outer flowers. First shape your flowers with the ball tool and then using your pokey tool hold it along the longer edge of a petal and wrap the petal around the pokey tool to crease it. 

Place a tiny amount of glue at the tip of the flower and hold this firmly with your round nose pliers.  Gently push the pliers toward the centre of the flower and this action creates the lovely pinched edges you see on the flower.

The Chrysanthemum was made using multiple layers which were shaped before gluing into place.

The pink carnation was made using the same die but I used scissors with a special edge to create the effect on the edge.

and finally the Gerbera Daisy.  I have a punch that I used to create the centre of this flower.

I had forgotten how much fun it is to sit and make paper flowers.  I think the best advise I can offer is to use your ball tool to shape your flowers and have handy your pokey tool and round nose pliers.  Glue with quick grab is helpful but not essential and flower soft makes great centres for your flowers.