Handmade Flowers From Net & Paper Hearts!

I have been experimenting with net fabric lately. It is a versatile resource and can be used to make flowers, ruffles and more on your layouts. In addition, it comes in many colors, is very inexpensive, it is available at lots of craft stores and relatively easy to work with. Today I have a simple flower to share with you that can be made almost any size you wish because it is merely paper hearts and circles of net fabric. Here is my layout, Inner Beauty, with some of these easy flowers .



The picture here is of my niece. She recently visited me and we had a great time catching up. I don't get to see her often because we live so far apart, so I took lots of pictures to remember our time together.

The flowers on my layout are composed of two circles cut of two different colors of net. One circle is 2 and one half inches in diameter and cut from rose color net. The second circle is 2 inches in diameter and cut from a shimmery burgundy net. The two circles are slightly different in size so that the layers of my net petals are uneven in the finished flower. With this flower you don't have to be so precise when cutting out your circles. We are going to bunch the net together, so if your circle is not exactly round it is not going to be noticeable.

Place your larger circle on top of the smaller circle and then fold your edges up while holding onto the center. We want to make a little bunch of petals. The larger circle was placed on top and it should become the center of your bunched flower. The petals should stick up a little farther than the smaller circle. Here is a picture of my bunched petals.



When you have a pleasing bunched shape hold the petals in one hand and put a few stitches with a needle and thread to hold your petals together. I did 3 or 4 stitches on each flower. Here is what my petals look like after the stitching.



The base of the flower is just a paper heart. You can use a heart shaped punch or cut out hearts with a digital craft cutter such as a Cricut or Silhouette. I happen to have a Silhouette. With my flowers I distressed the edges of the heart a bit before I attached my petals. When my distress ink was dry, I turned over my heart and used a 3/8 inch glue dot to attach my net petals to the heart.



Now you get to stop and evaluate if you want to make any adjustments. I held my flower up and looked for any net that was sticking out too far or lopsided. I then trimmed away little pieces of net to improve the shape.



I drew some stems and leaves by hand on my green paper. Then cut these out and glued them to my layout. I attached the flowers to the layout with more glue dots. I put a glue dot on the point of each heart and on the sides as well. The paper heart is going to flex a little and take on a rounded look when you attach the flower to the layout. I added some green Stickles to my flower to give them a little more interest and shine. Hope your enjoy these.