We are up to week 5 in making another page for our Mini Album in Monday Morning Mini Madness over at Swirlydoos. This weeks tutorial is on making a Water Fall page..Come join the fun and get an album done while learning new techniques!!

Can I tell you how much I loved working with this last SWIRLYDOOS kit...Antique Linen for November. The papers are just divine!! I always think Krissy out does herself every month, and out comes another masterpiece kit. This is one of my faves. I used 2 pieces of the paper and the rest of my scraps from the kit. I quilled, Glimmer Misted, punched, wrote, used texture rub ons, and added the Paper bag flower from my tutorial at Swirlydoos. Everything on this LO is from the kit except for the brad, that was from a previous kit. The Photo was edited in Photoshop CS4, it is my DD when she was about 9 months old. I added fairy wings and a little fairy sparkle magic at her fingertips. TFL...

Another Swirlydoos Design Team LO I did with the gorgeous Antique Linen November main kit. The paper, flowers, lace, stamps. The only thing from my stash is the Journey die cut. I made my own word paper using the cream cardstock from the kits add on card stock, opened up Microsoft word, using the French Script font, started writing sweet words of love, chose a font color the same color brown as in the blue TPC paper and printed it on the card stock. It worked out wonderfully, I also used a little Glimmer Mist in blue to mask a soft flourish then inked the whole LO. I also made my own tiny letter stickers and inked all around before placing them on the lO. I used my Cricut Expression for the first time creating the brown flourishes at the bottom of the LO...The smaller leaves are Sizzix cut with the beautiful leaf green card stock from the add on. Just a side note, I absolutely adore seeing what everyone is creating with Swirlydoos kits...Beautiful work all around!! TFL... The photo is from a wedding I shot a few months ago.

Paper Bag Flower Tutorial

There is a new tutorial over at SWIRLYDOOS...It is for a flower made from paper bags. Though you could use mulberry paper, coffee filters, or just your favorite paper. The paper that Krissy wraps our scrapbook kit in before she places it in the packaging box is a wonderful slightly shiny thinner paper bag. Not rough like a grocery bag. I love it and have even made great ruffles with this paper. Glimmer Mist works so well on coffee filters. The colors are amazing!! So go check out the Paper Bag Flowers, and try your own. Hit me up if you do, I would love to see what you came up with!!

~~~Supplies~~~
1. Any die that will give you a flower petal, or you can hand cut your own. For the illustrated flowers I used the small petal and flower center from the Sizzix Poinsettia Die.
2. Glue
3. Glimmer Mist
4. Something for the center of the flower, brads, jewel centers, small flowers, small cardstock
roses, rhinestones, or buttons.
5. Coffee filters, paper bags, (or any double sided paper. mulberry paper and cardstock may
be used)

Glimmer mist the whole coffee filter or paper bag and die cut or hand cut the petals. For one flower you will need 15 petals.
While the petals are still very slightly damp, twist the petals, then slightly unravel. You should have ripples in the petal. If the paper is still to wet, you will not get the wrinkle ripples, if the paper is bone dry, the paper may rip. Very very slightly damp works best. Then just grabbing the top tip of the petal, twist it so that the petals has a slight overlay towards the tip.
For the bottom layer, glue 8 petals together as shown with the folded tip on the outside of the flower. The next layer will have the remaining 7 petals. I used 2 smaller flowers for the middle. You can use a small flower punch like the Retro or Daisy punch for the middle, but this is just optional to add more dimension. If you will be using an alternative center, the smaller flowers are not necessary Now glue the 7 petal flower on top of the 8 petal flower. You can now twist the tips a little further to your liking. You can further distress it by inking the edges of the petals, by lightly brushing over the whole flower.
To finish your flower, you can use a variety of embellishments for the center. In Illustration 4, I used a small flower and a brad, in 5, I used a small coffee filter rose using Manda's cardstock tutorial over at Swirlydoos. In the last photo I used the pretty pearl metal centers from the Antique Linen Kit.




Note: Leaves can be done with the same petal you use for the flowers. Crease in the middle and ink the crease, Ink the sides and curl under and crunch slightly to get a real leaf look as in this illustration.

Antique Linen

These pages were created with Swirlydoos November kit Antique Linen. It is one of the most beautiful kits yet!! But I think that about every kit from Swirlydoos. I have been busy with a couple of tutorials, so I only managed to get 4 LO's done for reveal day, but will squeeze out a few more. Tomorrow is Monday Morning Mini Madness!!! Another page creation will be posted in the morning!! Break out those alcohol inks!!! We're gonna get a little crazy!!