Making Kits

Hi Everyone

I'm featuring another Making Kit today - this one is another flower and the kit is called Paper Roses. These flowers are very pretty and look amazing in groups. They look complicated to make but in fact are relatively easy. The first Rose seems a bit fiddly but very quickly you find your own way of building the layers. Here is a look at a finished single Paper Rose

                   

These particular Roses are made using a Paperartsy die and stamp set but I have cut out the basic petal shapes with a pair of scissors and had great success. Each Rose in a Making Kit will have enough petals to build 5 Roses. You could make yourself a template to make more (if you feel inclined). The Paperartsy set has co ordinating stamps which give the lovely grunge look to the roses, it also includes a couple of leaf stamps. The leaves are also included in the Making Kit.

Here are a couple of images to show how the flowers are constructed.

                

You need 3 petals per flower. Use the leaves as a base for the flower, make an incision in one flower petal ie a snip with scissors into the centre. On the next petal, remove one section (keep the removed bit). With the remaining petal, remove two parts of the petal. You will be left with 5 pieces. With strong glue fold over the petals as above (bottom left image) the 2 smaller sections of the petals are rolled and the smaller one glued into the centre of the next size up. There is a great YouTube video showing how the Rose is constructed, although the video shows different materials being used you can see the process and adapt to using paper. http://youtu.be/zCp0888695o

Once folded, the glued petals now have a pointed end. This needs to be trimmed across and trimmed again in the opposite direction (see image bottom right). After trimming you can press the petal down on a flat surface to build the flower. Encourage the petals to roll backwards, this gives a more realistic Rose look. Glue all the petals together in order of size, finally glueing onto the leaves.

There are lots of possible variations in this kit, each flower will be slightly different and you will find a favourite way of developing your flower. Here is a quick look at some roses I made using a template and cutting out with scissors. The flowers are not stamped and have a very different look.

                   

I hope you feel inspired to have a go.

Thanks for reading.