Handmade flowers with a twist by Ingeborg Dijkstra

These two cards both feature a large handmade flower. They are made in exactly the same way, but look quite different, since one is made from plain paper and the other one from patterned paper. These are truly flowers with a twist!

A while ago I saw a tutorial about making paper flowers using border punches and a paper crimper. I wish I had saved the link, so I could give proper credit, but unfortunately I didn't, so I cannot tell you exactly where I saw a similar idea.

So what do you need to make these flowers:

• a border punch (I used the Fiskars Effervescent punch, but most border punches would look good)
• a paper crimper
• strips of plain and patterned paper (about 12" long and 3/4 inch wide, but you can vary this too to suit the shape of your flower)
• a circle punch (I used 1 1/2 inch, but again, use a bigger circle for bigger flowers and smaller circles for smaller flowers)

I cut a few strips of paper. It is important to not use cardstock (that won't work well) or thicker patterned paper. I used fairly thin paper to get the best results (picture 1). Using my border punch I punched a border on all my strips (picture 2). To create 'folds' and texture, I used my paper crimper (picture 3). I punched a circle out of cardstock (I used 1 1/2 inch) and I added a layer of glue on it (picture 4).

Now for the sticky and twist part: I held the strip of paper with one thumb, while twisting and folding the rest of the strip around the circle. If you have a bit left at the end, just cut it off (picture 5). I held it for a while to make sure the outer circle was truly dried (picture 6). I added a second strip (picture 7) and a third strip (picture 8).

I added a little rose in the middle of the flower to make it look like this:

Using the patterned paper strips the flower looks like this:

These flowers are very versatile and by changing the size of the strips, circles and punches the possibilities are endless! These are two cards I have made using the plain and the patterned flowers: