Peony Flower Tutorial!

Happy Friday, blog peeps!  As promised, I have the tutorial on what I'm calling the Peony Flower that I created on this post.  I really love how this flower looks!  I've seen many renditions of it now, using different flower dies (scallop circle, flower layers, etc), but the flowers I'll be using today are from the Stampin'Up!Blossom Party Bigz die.  Here's a look at the flower pieces:

Aren't those flowers fun? Ready to get started?  Here's what you'll need: 

{Supplies}:

*4 large blossom die cuts and 1 small flower die cut on Whisper White cardstock {or any color cardstock}

*spray bottle filled with water and a small towel (to absorb the water spray!)

*paper piercing tool and mat

*brad

*2 ink pads - I used Melon Mambo and Pretty in Pink {basically 2 colors, one lighter than the other}

1.  Spray the flowers with water until they are moist.

2.  Scrunch up each of the flowers into a little ball.

3.  Gently open up the large flowers, then place them directly onto the Pretty In Pink ink pad.

You'll see that the ink will absorb on the creased parts of your flower, creating a "veiny and mottled" appearance:

5.  For the center small flower, place that direcly onto the Melon Mambo ink pad:

6.  Once all your flowers have been dipped (face down) in the ink pads, stack them up and create a hole in the center with your paper piercing tool.

 

7.  Secure your flower with a small brad.  It's starting to come together!  You can stop at this stage if you want your flower to look more like a dahlia. 

8.  If you want to keep going, take that pretty flower and spray lightly with the water bottle just to moisten it up a little.  Then, scrunch it back up into a ball - so it sorta looks like a clam at this point.

9.  Now for the big reveal - slowly uncrumple the petals and and scrunch as you go.  You'll get a flower that looks like this.

Viola!!! You've now created a beautiful peony flower!  It may be a little damp, so set aside and let dry.  You'll see that the petals will hold the nice and scrunched shape. Too fun! Enjoy!!!

Thanks for coming by!