Simply Shaded Floral Bouquet

Making flowers from paper is all the rage, and these deeply hued flowers from Craftwell are fun to make. Simply shaded with inks to make them appear more realistic, the paper floral bouquet is a crowd pleaser!




Materials:

• Foam balls (1’ round or pear shape)
• Flower stems (previously made)
• Stringing beads
• Ink pads: red, orange, green
• Blotting sponge
• White colored pencil
• Floral tape
• Floral wire
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• 1/16” paper/brad hole punch
• Yellow cardstock
• Green cardstock
• eCraft Cutting Machine
• eCraftshop Design Software
• Patterns from eCraftcentral.com (noted in instructions) 

Instructions:

1. Collect eCraftcentral.com Images: ‘5 Petal Rose’, ‘4 Petal Rose’, ‘Rose Leaf’, ‘Dahlia Petals’.
    
2. Rose clusters are made by cutting two ‘5 Petal Rose’ at 4” and one ‘4 Petal Rose’ at 3”.
    
3. Once images have been cut, punch a hole in the center of each flower.
    
4. Ink the full perimeter of each petal1/4” towards the center, using orange ink. Repeat with red ink, 1/8” towards the center.
    
5. Coat hot glue around foam ball, wrapping the ‘4 Petal Rose’ to secure in place.
    
6. Once cool, glue base of bud and wrap the ‘5 Petal Rose’ to secure in place.
    
7. Curl petal tips to desired shape on all ‘5 Petal Rose’ edges.
    
8. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with ‘5 Petal Rose’ to create outer layer.
    
9. Insert wire end of stem through hole at the base of the bud and into the foam ball.
    
10. Dahlia Clusters are made by cutting ‘Dahlia Petals’ in the following increments: 4.5”, 4”, 3”, 2.5”, 2.25”, 2”, and 1.75”.
     
11. Once images have been cut, punch two holes in the center of each flower, the width of your bead.
     
12. Ink the tips of each petal 1/4” towards the center, using orange ink. Apply orange ink to the center of each ‘Dahlia Petals’ flower, stopping once the petals begin to branch off.
     
13. Slide bead onto floral wire, creatinga ‘U’ shape and resting the bead in the curve of the ‘U’.
     
14. Take the two open ends of the wire and thread them both through the top of the flower cluster, heading down through the background, and out the underside of the background layer.
     
15. Place the two open ends of the wire against the stem top, wrapping in place with floral tape.
     
16. Using the floral tape, wrap the stem of the ‘Rose Leaf’ to the stem of the Dahlia, starting an inch below the top of the stem. Be sure to cover and wrap the floral wire in the process, securing the flower to the stem.
     
17. Curl petals of the background layer and second to last layer downward. Curl all top layers of petals upward towards bead. Curling without ripping is best accomplished by using your nail or straight edge.