Bachelor Button Tutorial and Tag Challenge

Yesterday I had an over whelming response to my bachelor button card and received many emails asking me to do a tutorial.  Joan has not had time to create a tag this week because of having to spend a lot of time with her mother, so I have incorporated the tutorial with my tag.  I am not very experienced at doing tutorials,  but hope I am giving you all the information so you can create your own pretty flowers.

This picture shows the tools to get you started.  You will need dark blue vellum paper, a cornflower punch, a medium and small sun punch, shaping tools, and a thick mat for shaping.  All these products can be purchased from Joan's Gardens.

For each flower you will need 4 punched cornflowers.  For the top layer, it is best to cut small slits toward the center as shown above.  The reason for doing this is that the center will curl up tighter to give you a very dimensional flower.

This picture shows two flowers - one before shaping and one getting shaped.  I don't know why one looks white - it isn't.

You need to use the stylus with the largest ball.  You go around in circles to weaken the center then push it down into the thick black mat to shape it.

Here you can see the difference in all the flowers compared to the one towards the top that has not been shaped.

You will need one small, and one medium, punched sun.  You need to use scissors and cut down each "ray" of the sun to create very small stamens. You do this on both sizes of suns.

You will need to use one of the smaller balls on your stylus and go around in circles in the middle of each sun then push it way down in the thick black mat to shape it.

When you put your flowers together, add just a small drop of liquid glue to the bottom of the flower.  You will press it into another shaped flower and press it down in the thick black mat.  You will be doing this with each layer.

I used four shaped flowers to create my bachelor button.  When you layer them, try to alternate the petals, on each layer, like you would find on a real flower.  I find if I push the glued flower down and hold it for a count of 10, that it holds the glue long enough to let it dry.  If they should pop apart, just had a tiny bit of glue and press it back down in the black mat.  You always need to press each layer into the black mat in order to be sure you keep it shaped.

I have had a lot of questions about this tool kit so thought I would show you why this tool kit from Joan's Gardens is so valuable to me.  You can use it for SO many things.   It includes everything you need for shaping the flowers and more.  This kit includes 5 interchangeable stylus balls, 3 different sizes of piercing points and a bottle of knife blades that also fit in the handle.  It also includes the large white flower shaping tool, and self-closing tweezers.  Everying in one little kit.

After you get all your blue flowers glued together, you glue in both sizes of the black "stamens".  Now your flower is complete.

 Here is a close up of the flowers on my tag shown above.

I hope this tutorial is helpful to you.  If you have any questions, just let me know.  I have tried to cover every step to make it easy for you.  Let me know what you think.  I always love to read your comments. 

Don't forget to go over and vote for your favorite tag in the current tag challenge at Joan's Gardens.  The new challenge starts tomorrow morning.