"Dogwood Elegance" Flower Tutorial for Scraps of Elegance ~April Guest Designer~

As promised, here is the tutorial for the flower I created for Scraps Of Elegance as part of my Design Team projects for April. To be honest, the flowers I did with card stock, (the ones on my layout) came out better then the ones I made for the tutorial . I used water color paper for the tutorial. I guess it is your preference. I love water color paper to create flowers when you are blending colors on them. Either way, these Dogwoods are beautiful on your cards and layouts. Give them a try. And head on over to Scraps Of Elegance Blog to check out the projects and kits that are sure to inspire you. April has "Possibility". Bo Bunny and Carta Bella with lots of goodies to create your projects. And stay tuned for an Off The Page project I did with just 2 pieces of Carta Bella papers in the kit. I am just loving all of the spring colors. Lavender, yellow, blue..oh my...

                                                           Dogwood Elegance
                                                                 Product List
*Polymer Clay such as Premo, Sculpy or Fimo.
*silicone mold for a small cabochon (link will be provided)
*Card stock or watercolor paper in white or off white
*Ink in a color and in brown
*scissors
*ink applicator
*adhesive of your choice
*non stick craft mat
*stylus and mat (you can use a mouse pad) I used the one from Mcgill, but Sizzix has a wonderful all      in one kit that I just purchased CLICK HERE. I just picked it up at Hobby Lobby for 9.99 then       40%  off...no kidding!!

1.  Cut strips of your card stock. Depending on what size flower you want, for example, to make a 2 3/4 inch flower, I cut a 2 3/4 long x 1 1/4 wide lengths. You need 2 pieces per flower.

2. Fold your strip in half length wise. I free hand cut out my petals. But for illustration purposes, I outlined what you need to cut. You dont have to be exact as petals in nature are slightly irregular, but cut them close. Notice the narrow part of the flower is on the fold of the paper.

3. When you open the folded cut flower, you should have what looks like this. I'm wondering if a couple of hearts joined at the points would have the same effect.

4. Using your sponge ink applicator, press into your ink pad, rub it onto your non stick craft mat, then rub into the middle of your flower pieces.

5. Using the tip of your ink pad rub some of the brown ink into the little cut out dips on the tips of your petals.

6. Using your stylus on your mat (I have seen the bottom of a sharpie marker used with a mouse pad), in a circular motion, till your flower petals are "cupped".

7.  Then with the smaller part of the stylus, put some grooved lines in the petal starting at the center out to the edge of the outer petal.

 8. Adhere one of the flower pieces on top of the other crosswise to form your flower.

9. Now onto making the middles I created. Pull off a piece of polymer clay and roll it into a ball large enough to fit into the mold. I use The Mold Muse molds on Etsy. They are wonderful and I have all kinds of shapes and sizes.

 10. Place the ball into the mold and press down on it firmly to pack it into all of the little crevices. If some of the clay is bulging out, just pull off a bit and pat it down again so that you have a flat even bottom.

 11. Very carefully, release the cabochon flowers out of the mold. It takes a little practise, but the beauty is if you squash your flower, or it gets pulled and warped when taking it out, Just roll up the clay and push it in the mold again. It is VERY forgiving. You want to handle the flower as little as possible and get it into the oven. Follow the package directions. Mine were placed on a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet and baked in a 275 degree oven for 15 minutes. Once the cabochons have cooled, you can ink them lightly.

 Just adhere the cabochons to the middle of your flowers. As you can see in the picture, The other flower has little balls that I rolled up and baked and just adhered in a cluster to the middle. They are a slight tear drop shape.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. If you create this flower, I would love to see what you have done. This one was pretty simple. I hope you give it a try.