Trendy Paper Flowers

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for SPRINGTIME!  It must just be on my mind these days, but I'm seeing flowers blooming all over!  Paper flowers seem to be one of the new 'must have's' for scrappers and cardmakers -  I see them in magazines, online, in stores, and of course in Archivers - the epitome of trendiness.

For those of you like me, who love the look, but either (a) don't have the budget, or (b) prefer a handmade touch to those factory-churned designer doo-dads (or both), I have a great solution!  It's also a wonderful way to use up those beautiful paper scraps you just can't seem to let go of!

For this project, I used my Cricut and my scraps to cut a wide assortment of flower shapes and sizes. If you don't have a Cricut, no worries - use your flower punches, Sizzix, Cuttlebug or any other die-cutting tools. Or you can always cut them by hand. I used coordinating scraps, and some completely random scraps.  I even used some of the scraps where I had practice-stamped, or jotted journaling notes.  Those make excellent paper flowers!

Grab a handful of those brads, eyelets, ribbon and other assorted goodies you can't seem to find a page for, some ink pads or markers, and away we go!

Once I had all my shapes cut, I next began layering 2, 3 or even 4 shapes together to see which looked good, both from a color and shape perspective.  Once I was happy with my choices, I used various ink pads to darken the edges of the petals, giving dimension to the flower.  I used markers and inks to distress some of the plainer papers and give them some texture.  Then finally, I fretted the edges, curled petals forward or backward, and folded flowers to make them three-dimensional and at a little more 'umpfh'.   Finally, I selected a brad or eyelet or other embellishment to tie the layers together and finish it off. 

These are so simple, I didn't even need adhesive for them!  They're a great project to do in front of the TV, or to get your creative juices flowing when you're having scrapper's block on a page, or have a short amount of time or space, but just want to craft a little!

These are beautiful additions to your homemade cards, gift tags, and of course, scrapbook pages!

I hope you like these fun floral creations, and I hope they bring a little sunshine and Springtime to your crafting corner of the world! 

Happy Scrapping!