Flower Power.....Day 1....Tattered Florals

Here we are....day 1 of my Flower Power tutorials. This first flower is made using the Tattered Florals die designed by Tim Holtz. I know this die is out of stock on our website at the moment, there is huge demand for this die but we do have it on back order and you are able to pre-order one. I still wanted to post this tutorial as I know many of you already have it....so here goes!!!! I cut a set of flowers in my Big Shot from a sheet of Aluminium. You could of course use some of our coloured metal if you wish.

This little flower is made from either the smallest flower or the next size up. You will need a mat set (one foam and one acrylic), a ball & cup tool, a pointy tool and a couple of embossing wheels.

Leaning on the foam mat, use the ball & cup tool to emboss a crater in the centre of the flower.

Flip the flower over and now leaning on the acrylic mat, use the cup end of the tool to refine the ball.

I'm now using a very skinny embossing wheel (this one comes in the Basic Set from Ten Seconds Studio). Starting very close to the ball in the centre of the flower, simply emboss a series of straight lines working out towards the edges of the flower.

To add a finishing touch, I've used the diagonal wheel (Wheel Set C) to edge the petals of the flower. Now this is quite important....when I'm edging something, I'm not leaning on my soft mat as this would deeply emboss it. I'm actually leaning on a wad of scrap paper, this way, it flattens down the edges at the same time as adding a pattern.

Moving on to the daisy style flower, I used my pointy tool (from the Basic Set) to draw a scribbly, scribbly design on the petals and for this I am leaning on a foam mat.

Flip the flower over and still leaning on the foam mat, use a paper stump to gently emboss the centre of the flower, it will create a nice dome shape and you may find that the petals start to rise up in the air....don't worry, you can always bend them back if they get in your way.


To add texture to the centre of the flower, I used my pointy tool to adds lots of dots (fondly known as the dotty, dotty technique!) for this, you still need to be on the foam mat and still working from the back.

For the largest flower, I used an embossing wheel (wheel set D) that looks a bit like a perforating tool. Again, leaning on the foam mat and starting in the centre of the flower, emboss lots of lines working out towards the edges of the flower.

Now comes the painting part. I like to use Rangers black paint dabber for this. Simply add a layer of black paint to each flower and after about 30 seconds, take a paper towel and remove the excess paint. You will now have an antique look to your flowers which is an attractive look in it's own right but you could of course pretty them up too!!!

I used Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks to color my flowers. I used Stream and Purple Twilight.

Finally, you can layer them up in all sorts of combinations and shape the petals as the metal is soft , this one just uses the two largest flowers. Now, because these flowers do not have card on the back, gluing the layers together can be a bit tricky. I used silicone glue for these but you could also use hot melt glue........but please BE CAREFUL......the metal gets HOT!!!!

I think you'll agree, these would make a fab embellishment for your art. Stop by tomorrow for day 2 when I'll be making flowers using Paperartsy dies.

Have a creative day, Lin