***Le Fleur Tutorial***

Here is another lost tutorial.

***Product List***
Paper of your choice
Any glossy medium for paper. I used Ranger crackle medium
Scissors
Ink
Glue(not shown, I use Alenes quick drying tacky glue)
Stamen I found in the bridal section of Michaels
Alcohol ink


2. Cut out petals any size and shape, and tear 3 sizes of circles for the middle. Notch the bottom of the petals and ink the edges of petals and circles. Shape circles so the edges flair upward like a saucer.

3. Fold and crease petals wrong sides together, bring one notched bottom over the other and glue, scrunching the petal slightly. ink the creased middle.
4. Glue stamen ( I inked with alcohol ink) to larger circle, when dry, stack and glue the circles with smallest on top. Looks like a "Lollypop Flower".
5. Glue petals together to form a flower and glue Lollypop flower to middle. Let dry.
6. Coat the whole flower generously with glossy medium.

7. While the flower is still wet, crunch up the petals and lift the circles to give the flower lots of texture. let dry completely.

8. I also made leaves using the same technique and placed them in a cluster along with some other flower punches.
And this is the LO, I used the flowers on.

***Anatomy Of A Beautiful Envelope Tutorial***

When Swirlydoos was hacked last year, a lot of tutorials were gone...Vanished in Cyber Space, but with the help of wonderful scrappers who saved the tutorials and my obsession with not deleting emails I have sent...Some tutorials have been saved. So here is one of them as I had an email asking if I still had the tutorial..Here you go...Thanks for requesting this one. I had long forgotten about it...This was my take on Prima packaging for their stamps.


*** Supply list ***
Card stock of your choice
ink pads
various stamps,(words, decorative borders, themes)
2 large eyelets
small 1/2 inch circle punch
7 inch piece of floss or fine jute
small scrap of cardstock
scissors
glue
2.) Cut a piece of the card stock 10" by 8 1/2". Then cut a 2 1/2 inch strip off of the top of the cardstock. Take the 2 1/2 strip and bring the ends together without creasing the piece and slightly round the corners. When you open the strip you will have 2 perfectly round and even corners. See how I curved mine a little, I didnt want the curves flush with the sides of the body of the envelope. Now distress ink the edges of both pieces.
3.) Using your stamps decorate the flap (top) of your envelope. I used a word stamp. on one end, an image on the other end and smaler stamps that fill in the empty spaces. I used a couple of colors for the smaller stamps. Those colors will coordinate with the papers I will be using on a LO that I will use the envelope on. Then use your border stamps to edge the bottom piece and I used some flourishes for the corners. Use your creative imagination. I think embossing all of your images would be beautiful also. Carefully see the placement of the eyelets. Place the small circle you punched behind the eylet before you set it. If you will be placing a photo over the bottom part of the envelope then you do not have to set the bottom eyelet as it will cause bulk.
4.) This is a closeup of how your faux closure will look. Take the string and lifting the circle carefully, glue one end of the string behind it. When dry, tie in a figure 8 fashion. Do this step after your flap is glued to the bottom.

5.) Glue your faux flap over the bottom piece of cardstock. I only glued the very top and left the edges alone to give it that authentic look. Now tie your closure..You are done. Use it on a LO. Think about the decorative possibilities...I hope you enjoy making your own Beautiful Envelope Embellie!!

It goes great used on a background as seen in one of my past LO's.

FAUX SCRABBLE LETTERS TUTORIAL

This is just a quick way to make some faux scrabble letters. if you print it out letter size without fitting to page on your printer, each tile is 1 inch. You could also print out on a 5 x 7 card stock and get a smaller letter. Either way, these are so cute!! I created these when I couldn't find my tiny scrabble letters when I was making my Configurations box. I wanted to spell the word "SEW". This is what I came up with. Here are the files for the letters. I print the letters on heavy weight card stock.




~~~Product List~~~

Chip Board or Grunge board
Glossy Accents or Glossy medium like Mod Podge
Brayer
Glue
Foam paint brush
Black Ink
small paint brush
Ruler
paper cutter or craft knife


Cut the Strips of tiles apart lengthwise.

Cut your chip board the same width as the strips of scrabble tiles. They should be 1 inch.


Spread some glue on the back of the strips of letters and spread evenly to the edges using a foam brush.

Place the strip of letters over the chip board and use a brayer to flatten completely letting any air bubbles out. If you don't have a brayer, you can use a bone folder to do the same.

Once the strip is dry, cut the letters apart and ink the edges.
Using a small paint brush, paint on the glossy accents evenly onto each tile.
You can use Pop Dots to pop the letters off the page as I did in the top picture and really give them dimension. The letters are really cute and would look great on your guy pages!! I used them in my configurations box, just created a little pop up stand in back of each letter here. I hope you use these in your projects. I would love to see what you do!!
You can use Pop Dots to pop the letters off the page and really give them dimension. The letters are really cute and would look great on your guy pages!! I hope you use these in your projects.

***Fantasy Daisies Tutorial***

Product List: Cardstock Tim Holtz Tattered flowers Die Foam Ink Applicator Quilling tool small daisy punch McGill starburst punch Stylus tool set or small ball stylus chalk or distress ink McGill foam pad or mousepad (not shown) Step 1.) *Die cut 2 of the daisy shaped Tim Holtz flowers *2 of the starburst puches *1 small daisy punch * Cut a 3 inch strip 1/8 inch wide piece of cardstock the same color as the starburst Step 2.) Using your smallest stylus, make ridged lines along the underside, down the length of each petal on the flowers. Be careful not to press very hard as you will tear the paper. 3 lines on each petal is all you need. Step 3.) Using your foam applicator, load a small amount of ink onto the foam and brush the topside middle of the flower extending out slightly towards the petals, but use a very light touch as to only ink the ridges on the petals. Use the same color as the starburst shape you punched out. Step 4.) Layer your 2 daisy flowers together staggering petals. Layer your 2 starburst punches staggering them as well. Use your quilling tool to roll the card stock strip tightly and glue the end. Adhere the rolled up strip to the small daisy punch. Step 5.) Now layer the flower from bottom to top... Large flower on bottom, starburst on top of that and lastly your small daisy with rolled strip on top of starburst layers.

Fairy Cosmos Flower

This month at Swirlydoos there were 2 Spotlight Kits. One was the beautiful Blossomwood Dreams that I put together, and the other gorgeous kit has all of the Fairy Flora papers from Prima and a ton of beautiful embellies. The paper is so beautiful that it inspired me to do another flower tutorial. Visiting my parents last weekend was so much fun as I got together with my brothers and the families. But the real fun was when I dragged them to AC MOORE..A store that I do not have where I live. I printed out 10 40% off coupons, handed one coupon and money to each of my family members, and one after another we went through the line to make our purchases!!! 6 of us...Me, my husband, my dad, my mom, my brother and future sister in law...I saved a whole lot!!! And they all thought I was nuts!! But I did get some awesome punches for more flower making. So here is the first of many that are Swirlydooing in my head!! I call this one "Fairy Cosmos Flower".

***Product List***
McGill Punch Floriano or a 5 petal flower punch
McGill Starburst punch
McGill Sun Punch
Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die
Quick dry glue
Glimmer Mist or water mister bottle
Ink
small skewer or thin handles paintbrush
scissors
Cardstock for flower
Cardstock for stamen


Punch out 2 flower pieces. I also punched 2 larger flowers using my Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers punch as I will show a larger flower as well.
Punch out 4 stars and 2 starburst.


Ink each flower and snip the smaller flowers between the petals, but not to the center.
Mist the flowers with Glimmer mist for sparkle or just plain water. Do not soak, just a fine spray to dampen.
Slightly wrinkle each petal and using the thin handle of a paint brush or skewer, curl back parts of the tips of the petals randomly. Air dry or use a heat gun.
Glue both small flowers and large flower layers together staggering petals.

Glue the starburst punch stamen together staggering the pieces. Using the thin handled paintbrush or skewer, scrunch the sun punched pieces around the handle to form tight cup shaped pieces. Cut the bottom from one of star shaped punches,

Stack and glue the cupped sun punches onto one another, and the piece you cut the bottom off of, glue in the middle. Glue the cluster onto the starburst piece. Scrunch the middle slightly to ruffle the pieces.
Stack and glue the smaller flower over the larger one and top with your stamen cluster.

Here is a cluster with the large flower and 2 smaller flowers. Ready to be placed on a LO.
I hope you enjoy making these. I would love to see them when you are done. Link it to your post.

Swirly Sweetheart Daisy

I have gotten a lot of feedback for the previous flower tutorial I did, and the biggest question is "What if I don't have that punch"?. Well here is another version, closer to the Prima Eliza flower. I just used my scallop circle punch and cut between the scallops for the large flower and my medium Retro punch to make the rose flower middles. So many possibilities for these flowers. You could use anything for the centers. Bottons would be cute, and you could use the tiny roses if you didn't want to make your own.

Product list

*Scallop Circle punch. 2 inch is a good size
*Medium Retro Flower punch
*Tulip Puffy Paint
*Heat gun
*tweezers (long handle) optional
*Thin handle paint brush or skewer
*ink pad (coordinate color with card stock color used for
flower center)
*Cardstock in 2 colors, one light for flower, the other your
choice color for flower center color.
*adhesive of your choice
*Spray bottle with water (mini misters are wonderful)



Punch 2 scalloped circles.



Using your ink, soflty rub some onto the center of each flower (you may want to use an ink blender, I used the Tim Holtz foam one)

Using scissors cut between each scallop as shown, be careful not to cut to deeply towards the middle.

Very lightly mist your flowers with water and curl them around the end of your paintbrush handle to distress them . You can speed dry them with your heat gun or let them air dry.



Open up the 2 flowers. Set aside.



With your small flower punch, punch out 5 flowers.



Using the thin end of your paint brush or skewer, curl the petals of 2 of the blooms from the side of the petal inwards. Curl the other 3 blooms from the tips of the petals inward.



Place a small amount of glue at the base of each side curled petal and shape then onto each other to get a tight bud as shown. The glue will help the bud stay closed.
Place that closed bud onto the other side curled bloom and fold it onto the closed bud. This is your closed center.







Place glue at the base and the middles of the remaining blooms and place the center bud in the middle of the blooms remembering to stagger the petals. Hold in place for a minute if you are using quick dry glue.





Glue the 2 layers together staggering petals then add the rose to the middle.



Apply the Tulip Puffy paint to the tips of the petals as shown.

When the paint is dry, using constant motion, heat the paint and watch it puff up. Be careful not to burn either the paint or paper.




I had a lot of feed back from my last tutorial.
Here are some variations of the flower. I used the same center as in the previous flower tutorial. Mix and match...You can also lightly ink the edges of the petals.