Shabby Chic Flowers Galore.............

Found a tutorial for making these type of flowers on You Tube so thought I would have a play. The YouTube videos show the flowers being cut out of material on the Cricut but as I don't have one of those I used two flower dies I have for the BigShot (The dies I used were Sizzix Flower A - 38-0724 and Sizzix Flower B 38-0722). You could also cut the flower shapes by hand as they can be cut quite roughly - nothing needs to be exact as they are shrunk and shrivelled up anyway.

All you need is some cheap synthetic material - I have tested it on cheap organza and cheap lining material and both worked very well.

These were the flower shapes I used - the largest one is about 10cm wide and the smallest about 8cm wide. For each flower I cut between 4 and 6 of each size (with the organza I cut 6 of each size - making 12 pieces for each flower and with the lining material I cut 4 of each size - making 8 pieces for each flower.)

I used one extra large brad for each flower (I sell these brads in the Scrapz shop - www.scrapz.co.uk - pack of 10 for 40p - here )

I stuck some diamante on top of each brad so that the flower centre would look pretty - the next lot I do I will try glueing and sprinkling the brad with a toning colour glitter or maybe colouring the brad head with alcohol inks.

Next stack the layers of material together - all big ones at the bottom, followed by all the small ones - punch a hole in the centre and pop the brad through.

Fold the ends of the brad out so that you have something to hold with the pliers when you heat. A smaller brad might work but would be a bit more awkward.

Next you just start applying heat using your heat gun (the kind you use for embossing powders). Keep moving the heat gun over the surface so that you don't get too much heat in one place - the organza starts to shrivel quite quickly, whereas the lining material takes a little bit longer.

After I have heated it I separate all the layers by hand (some can melt together a little bit) and see if anywhere has been missed and needs anymore heat. The more you heat them the smaller they get but be careful you don't overdo it or the material melts and starts to look burnt. As you can see from the pics below it is easy to get a bit carried away and make loads lol.

I don't quite know what I am going to do with them all yet however they look fabulous on a card (that you are hand giving rather than posting) - they would also look good on a scrapbook page if you don't mind it being a bit bulky. My daughter came over yesterday (with my grandson who is 4 months old and absolutely adorable so I am still on a baby cuddle high at the moment!) - when she saw them she thought they would make lovely hair accessories or brooches or attached to handbags.

Thanks for looking.

x Karen