Kathy

Summer Layout Fest Entries-Marilyn Healey

 

Scalloped Flower Tutorial

Hi Everyone,

As promised, here is the tutorial for the cute scalloped flowers.  These are really easy to make and are a great addition to a card, layout or altered project. 

First, you need to gather your supplies.  You'll need patterned paper (I LOVE using Bo Bunny's Dot paper, because you can use both sides and it's a nice weight for this project), scallop punch, hole punch, crimper, brads, glossy accents and glitter or microbeads.

 

Step One

I start with decorating my brad so that it is ready when I need it.  If you want, you can skip this step and use a plain brad or an already decorated or jewel brad. 

For this project, I covered the head of the brad with glossy accents and dipped it into my microbeads.  You can do this with glitter as well.

 

Put the brad aside to dry.  Make sure it is completely dry before you use it or your glitter will come off when handled.

Step 2

Cut 5 scalloped circles from your paper.  (you can do another number, I just find that this is a good number to give you enough dimension without being hard to work with)

 

Step 3

To make the flower "puff up" more, you need to distress the paper.  I run the flowers through my crimper multiple times to break down the fibers in the paper.  Once they're softened, I crumple them up before I flatten them out.

 

Here's what they look like when I'm finished

Step 4

To finish the flower, stack the scalloped circles on top of each other.  You can alternate the sides of the paper as I did, or have all of one side facing up.  Once they are aligned, punch a hole in the middle of the circles.

Insert the brad through all of the flowers.  Next, crumple up each layer individually to give the flower volume.

 

To complete the flower, flatten some of the middle layers back out.

 

There!  You now have a fun embellishment to add to your project.  I use a pop dot or a strong glue (such as Zip Dry)  to attach to my projects. 

I hope to see some of these flowers in the gallery soon!

Gift Bag Tutorial

    Hi Everyone, following is the tutorial I put together to create the basic gift bag which can be embellished in any number of ways to suit your needs.  I'd love to see any that you've created, so please be sure to post them to the gallery.

    First, you'll need to gather your supplies.  To create the bag you will need :

    One piece of cardstock 6" x 7.5"

    Strip of cardstock 1" x 10" (alternately you can use ribbon)

    Trimmer

    Scoring tool

    edge punch

    embellishments

    Strong adhesive and glue dots

 Step 1

On the 6" side of the cardstock, score at 1" and 5".  Turn the cardstock and on the 7.5" side score at 3" and 4.5".

 

Step 2 

Cut the 1" sections on the sides to the intersecting score line

Step 3

Apply adhesive to  the back (good side) of the center tabs.

  
 
 
 Step 4

Fold up one side and adhere to the tabs on both sides.

Step 5

Apply adhesive to the outer edge of the remaining flaps (wrong side).  Fold sides up and adhere to other side and tab.  Press firmly to make sure the bond is strong.

  

This is your basic bag shape.

Step 6
 
For the handle, punch both sides of your 10" strip with the edge punch.  Attach the handle to the outer sides of the box with adhesive, then with a brad to secure.

  

 The box is now ready to be embellished anyway you want to suit your needs.  For my box, I used the Sizzix Top Note die to cut two labels.  I adhered these to the box and trimmed the bottom of them to be flush with the bottom of the box.  I faux stitched the edges of the labels with a white gel pen and cut flowers from Jillibean Soup's Egg drop line and and cut, embossed and sanded flowers from Core'dinations White Wash line.  A few buttons, and voila, a cute little gift bag for candies, gift cards, hand made note cards, anything you like!

 

Fan-Fold Flowers

Hi Everyone!

If you're anything like me, this little bit of nice weather has given me a case of spring fever.  I'm already thinking about what to plant in my garden, and what flowers I want around the house.  However, being that I'm in New England, I know that we still are in for more frosty nights, so I had to be happy with making paper flowers.  I decided to share this with you in my tutorial for fan-folded flowers.  These are easy to make and make a great addition to a card, altered piece or layout.  They also work perfectly with our challenge this month to use home made embellishments on your pages.

For supplies, you will need 12" cardstock, a trimmer, an edge punch, a good glue (Zip-Dry worked for me) a scoring blade or Score-it tool and a small circle punch.

 

First, you'll need to cut strips of your paper.  The final size of your flower will be about twice as wide as your strip, so plan accordingly. 

 

Next, punch one edge of your strip using your border punch.  You can experiment with different kinds of punches to get different effects.
 
After you have punched your edge you'll need to score your strip in between each of the "bumps"using your scoring blade or Score-It tool.  When the entire strip is scored, you will then fold the strip like a fan.

 
Now you're ready to make your flower.  Glue the ends of the strip together.  Let them dry a few minutes.  Once dry, manipulate the flower, turning the folds so they lie flat, forming the flower.  Take your time doing this, it's not hard, it just takes a little patience.

  
 
 To hold it all in place, punch a small circle from the paper using your circle punch and glue it to the bottom of the flower.  You will need to hold it in place for a minute or so.

 
 
 Once you have your flowers put together, you can embellish them further by adding "centers" to your flowers.  You can use brads, buttons, seed beeds, whatever helps make your project sparkle!  For my St. Patricks Day Card, I embellished my flower centers with rhinestone brads.

I hope you find this fun, and I'd love to see what you make with these fun flowers.  Make sure that you post you creations in our gallery so we can all see!  I'll be back soon with some more March creations!

Kathy