a flower tutorial

Here's a peek at the adorable flower we're going to end up with when we're finished:

Now let's get started. You'll need scalloped punches. I used a 1.75" scallop punch from Stampin' Up {love their new punch style} and a 3" scallop punch from Paper Shapers.

And now search for a book that you no longer love. As an alternative, visit your local thrift shop and get one there. You'll need 10 punched shapes for each flower.

Next you'll use your Fiskars 1/16" hole punch. When my bestest gal Patty gave this to me, I had no idea what I would do with a hole that small. Now I know that it's for brads. I wouldn't mind having one of the long reach handled models, too. I had to use my paper piercer to punch the brad hole in the 3" scallops. This would be a good time to use your least favorite brad colors as the brad will not be seen when we're finished.

Now we'll gather up each of the ten layers and scrunch them, one by one. Pay close to these technical terms, they're confusing.

After one scrunch:

After 5 layers are scrunched:

We're almost there!

Voila! Ta Da! Fertig!

The last four photos are of the 3" scallop. I lightly brushed each of the book pages with ink before punching the scallops. This is best done with one of your old, nearly dried out ink pads so that the page is not saturated. You'll want just a hint of color. It adds a vintage touch I think. The first photo in the post is without the ink-brushed pages.

Here's an updated Paper Flower Tutorial, if you want more detailed photos.