Sweet Rose Tutorial

I posted this tutorial a while ago on my personal blog (http://simplypaperandcreativity.blogspot.com) and received a lot of great feedback so I thought it would be nice to share it here too.

I adore the look of all the cabbage roses people make with six petal flower punches but I find them too bulky for a scrapbook album and they get easily crushed... so I decided to take inspiration from the Prima tea roses and create my own with an extra layer (and for about a tenth of the price, LOL!). These are a little more durable in an album too.

You will need 3 two-inch punched flowers and 4 one-inch flowers. Any flower punch or die with separated petals will do. I used my retro flower punches (by EK Success). Ink for the edges, water to mist, glue, a foam mouse pad, three sizes of pen thickness with rounded ends (or paintbrushes) and glitter glue to polish off (if desired). If you want your flowers to look exactly like the Prima tea roses, then only use two large flowers. I like a more ruffled look.

Step 1: Ink all your flower edges, lightly water mist (or glimmer mist) them all and press the centers into the foam mat with a rounded pen end. Here is a close-up of a few. If you over wet them, they will rip in the next step.

Step 2: Cup the large ones around the end of your sharpie thickness item and roll against the side. Use the smallest sized pen for the smaller flowers. They should all look like this and now you let them dry 100% before moving on.

Step 3: Once all dry, roll a small flower between your thumb and index to create the bud center. Slightly open the 3 larger flowers and one small one. Glue the small ones into each other (opened one at the bottom) and set aside. Do the same with the large ones and remember to off-set the petals. Let glue dry completely before moving on.

Step 4: Once dry, gently fold back the petals of the large flower and then press the large glued flower into the mat with the mid sized pen to ensure the "cup" shape.

Step 5: Glue the center flower and arrange petals if necessary. Also, the center can be used as a flower on its own like you would a baby Prima rose (just add a green star punch to the bottom for the leaves). You can add another punched flower layer to the bottom for more fullness too.

Step 6: Once the glue dries, pinch each large petal to give it a realistic look. Some people may just prefer the perfect look above though.

Step 7: This part is optional depending on your project style... add glitter glue to the large petal edges for a dewey polished look and add leaves to the bottom. I just used a daisy flower punch and inked and pinched the ends. Martha Stewart makes a really nice rose leaf punch too.

That's it, you're done! Here is a close-up of the finished 2-inch diameter rose... the same size as a Prima tea rose!

To prove this works with any punch, here is the flower I just made beside two others I did with my Marvy brand 3 petal pansy punch (3 inch) and my McGill heart clover punch (2.5 inch). I used a pre-made rose for the pink center and my simple flower tutorial for the white center to better match the flower styles. Experiment and have fun with any die or punch you have. I bet some of you with the Tim Holtz tattered flower dies will end up with flowers looking like Prima sugarplum roses. And if you used 8-petal daisy punches/dies, you'd get a peony style flower.


I have many more flower tutorials posted on my blog - in the right sidebar for quick links. Some are easier and some are more difficult to make than this rose tutorial. I also have a few new easy flower tutorials in the works - so stay tuned!