Have you seen the Paper Florist Dies yet? They’re what I refer to as a sleeper product, one that’s easily overlooked. This is because they’re a stand-alone item, and not linked to a specific stamp set. Even I missed it on page 165 of the Stampin’ Up! 2023/2024 Annual Catalogue the first few times I looked through it. The big thing for me about these dies is the versatility of mixing and matching the various shapes. Today’s project came about after I found a random 1” circle magnet on my desk.
FLORIST PETAL PIECES
The Paper Florist Dies are designed to fit through the Mini Stampin’ Cut and Emboss Machine. For this simple arrangement I needed five dies: the squarish quad flower, the single solid leaf, and the three tiny square dies. With the exception of the leaf die (which I sent through the machine three times), everything else I needed was achieved with one pass through the machine.
So for the flower petals I used Highland Heather Card. After die-cutting I added some Highland Heather ink to the ends of the petals with a Sponge Dauber. Then I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to layer each pair of four-petal shapes on top of each other, with the lower petals visible between the upper ones. Then I glued the smaller layered petals on top of the larger ones.
Next I turned my attention to the flower centre. First I used the two small identical dies to cut out a scrap of Lemon Lime Twist Card. Then I glued these two pieces on top of each other to create a piece with 8 long ‘arms’. As I thought about my finished project I decided it would be fun to coat the ends of each ‘arm’ with Gilded Leafing. So I put a little liquid glue just on the end of the 8 tips and set it aside so that the glue could start to dry.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Meanwhile I die-cut three of the solid single leaves from Parakeet Party Card. Using a Sponge Dauber I added a little Parakeet Party ink to the edges of the leaves. Then I glued the leaves to the back of the assembled petals.
Finally I die-cut a scrap of Gorgeous Grape Card using the remaining square-shaped die. This gave me four tiny ‘circles’ and put three of them aside for another day.
Now I could go back to the flower centre and check that the liquid glue had changed from white to clear. This meant that it had changed from permanent to temporary but more importantly it wouldn’t ooze out everywhere. So holding the card in some tweezers I dipped the flower centre face down into the pot of Gilded Leafing. As I lifted the piece out I gently pulled off any large pieces before laying the flower centre face down on my craft table. Next I pressed down firmly on the back of the card piece to make sure the Gilded Leafing was securely stuck and then flipped it over. With that done I removed the excess leafing using a clean Small Blending Brush
To finish the flower I added the gilded piece to the middle of the layered petals using a Mini Black Stampin’ Dimensional. Then topped it off with the tiny Gorgeous Grape circle, held in place with a dot of liquid glue.
From there I created some loops from a 12″ piece of 3/8″ Gold & Vanilla Satin Edged Ribbon. I attached the loops to the back of the flower with Tear & Tape Adhesive, and then fixed the finished flower to the 1″ circle magnet.
How pretty is this! And it’s another flower that this wannabee florist can’t kill with neglect.
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