Susan's Garden Daffodils

 One of the first flowers to bloom in the Spring are the daffodils.  I had a request from MarieL to do a tutorial on how to create flowers using Susan's Garden Daffodil dies.  As I have said many times before, some beautiful flowers look very complicated to create but that is not so when you use the dies designed by Susan Tierney-Cockburn.  To watch Susan create this beautiful flower, step by step, I watched her Daffodil video at this link. You will find it very easy to follow along, and I know you will be able to create these beautiful flowers too.

After watching Susan's video, I die cut enough pieces to create three daffodils.  I used yellow card stock for the flower petals and stamen, and white card stock to die cut the base (calyx ) and leaves using white card stock.  You need to color the calyx with markers, as shown in Susan's video. so the center of the daffodil will be yellow like the flower petals.  I like to color leaves using several different colors of green.  For the tips of the stamens, I used Susan's Garden Yellow Pollen. Susan's Pollens have a very fine texture and resemble real pollen.

 I know I talk about this all the time, but the new tools that come in the Susan's Garden Tool Kit are so important to me to shape flowers, to make them realistic.  As Susan did, I used the loop tool to create shape to the large petal of the daffodil.  See how it created the "ruffle" lines for shaping.   (I didn't notice until just now that the loop tool rolled over in this picture.  You want the tip of this tool facing up.)  If you just use a stylus, you don't get the lines this loop tool creates, plus this tool also helps create a better shaping curl for both petals and leaves.

 Susan doesn't show putting a stem on her daffodils, but I thought it would look good because I was putting the flowers on the top of a box.  I used a wrapped florist wire and poked it through the center of the calyx.  It has lots of glue on the tip to hold it in place.  You should let it dry before adding your flower.

Once you have your die cuts shaped, it goes together very quickly.  You assemble the flower by first adding the small petals to the calyx, add the large center petal, then the stamen.  The Ultimate Glue is kind of thick and dries pretty fast.  It is the perfect glue for creating your flowers.

 You can see inside the flowers a little better in this picture.  Doesn't it look real!

Here are the three Daffodils I completed.

When decorating a card, or any project, it is always fun to add with a variety of flowers.   To decorate the brown wicker box, I added the Susan's Garden Daffodils, a spring of Susan's Garden Forsythia, and some Susan's Garden Violets.  A few other embellishments were pulled out of my stash and added to complete the box.  

 I know you will have fun creating these beautiful flowers.

Here are the links at Ellen Hutson, LLC for the products I used:

Susan's Garden, Daffodil dies

Susan's Garden, Forsythia

Susan's Garden, Pansy/Violets

Susan's Garden, Flower Tool Kit

Susan's Garden, Pollen

Susan's Garden, Viva Paper Pens (center of Violets)

Susan's Garden, Pan Pastels

Ultimate Glue

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