Peony flower Tutorial

Here is a fun and easy flower tutorial to make a peony flower. No difficult techniques or fancy tools/products required!



What you'll need to create this flower is:

-- white cardstock (the cheap stuff from Michael's is just fine!)
-- chalk ink color of choice (I used pink)
-- 6 scallop hearts using a punch or die (your choice of size - depending on the flower size you want to achieve). My punch is 2.5 inches = 3.5 inch flower on done!
-- 2 scallop circles using a punch or die (about half or 2/3 of the size of the heart size you use - mine is 1.5 inches). You could alternatively use a small flower punch.
-- water mister
-- brad (you will not see it so don't use a decorative one)
-- tweezers
-- paper piercer or anything to poke a small hole through 8 paper layers

STEP 1 - Ink your hearts and circles (or flowers) - you do not need to blend the ink.



STEP 2 - Cut a slit a every second circle scallop "valley". You may end up with odd number as I have so for the last one cut in the middle of one of the "mountains". Skip this step if using a flower punch.



STEP 3 - Water mist all of the hearts and circles and stack 4 hearts like this:



STEP 4 - Add 2 more hearts but place them a little closer to the middle than the first 4.



STEP 5 - Add your 2 circles to the pile and mist a little more



STEP 6 - Poke a hole with your paper piercer, secure the brad in the middle and start scrunching the circles toward the centre in to a tight paper wad - for nice creasing.



STEP 7 - Do the same with one heart at a time and give the entire thing a good tight squeeze. Let it sit like that for a few minutes. If your flower is very wet, you may need to let it sit for a while. You want the petals to be barely damp so that when you open it up, they curl back well instead of flatten out.



STEP 8 - Carefully pull back the hearts tips a bit and shape curved down like this:



STEP 9 - Using your tweezers, twist/shape the centre as desired. Let it dry overnight or speed things up with a heat tool until completely hardened.



DONE! That's it. No complicated tool or techniques!

Here is a variation from a past project, using only the large hearts with patterned paper and a bunch of berries instead of the circles. This worked better for a Fall layout about my boys.