White Poppies

I love poppies!   This is the top of a box decorated with white poppies I created using Susan's Garden Poppy Dies.  Seems like wrapping paper, boxes and bows are so expensive any more.  You can create a beautiful box, using your flower dies, that may be cherished as much as the gift inside.  These boxes could also be used in your home decor.

 This box was purchased from Michaels.  They are on sale a lot or you can use your Michaels coupon; there are so many beautiful boxes to choose from.    I fell in love the white poppies on the brown/gold background on this box. I decided to create a cluster of white poppies to decorate the top.  The top of the box actually had one giant poppy, but I like having the dimensional cluster of flowers on it, to make it special.  I tried to duplicate the poppies on the side of the box.  . 

I created nine poppies for this box.  You can watch Susan's VIDEO at this LINK to see how to create the poppies using the Susan's Garden Poppy Dies. To shade the base of each petal, I used the Faber Castell, Warm Gray III, Pitt Big Brush Artist Pen.   When I first get my dies, I always create the flowers exactly the way Susan's shows us on her videos, but sometimes later,  I experiment and do things a little different.  I am always happy to share these ideas with you.  Below I have a little tutorial on how I create the yellow stamen for the poppy.

In the center of the box I added a piece of Styrofoam to give the flowers more dimension.  It was attached with double sided tape.  A straight pen was used to attach about three poppies to the Styrofoam, then additional poppies were added around the center with Pop Dots.  The poppy leaves that come in the Susan's Garden Poppy die set were die cut using white card stock, and sponged two shades of green, after drawing a line down the center of them with the leaf tool from the Susan's Garden Tool Kit.  They were then shaped and tucked in around the poppies.  The little filler greenery was die cut using the Poppy Stamps, Leafy Sprig die.  A piece Hemp Cord was used to create a bow. I used Susan's Garden Lady Bug Kit to create the ladybugs on some of the leaves.   Bees, a butterfly and a dragonfly were pulled from my stash. To complete the box, I added a large gold flat bead to each corner.

I think this is a much prettier gift box than one just wrapped in paper with a bow.  I hope you will give this idea a try.

My Tutorial for Creating the stamen for the Poppy

Your poppies will be beautiful using the method Susan uses on her video, but I thought I would share how I created the stamens I used today.  I used two of the largest stamen pieces from the Susan's Garden Poppy die set die, cut in both yellow and black.  I like to cut each "leg" on this piece into three to create very thin stamens, for a frilly look.  After they are cut, I pick them up with the self-closing tweezers from the Susan's Garden Tool Kit and add glue to the tips of each one.  The "legs" don't necessarily need to be spread far apart in this step.

Next, still holding the stamen with the tweezers, I dip the tips in the Susan's Garden Yellow Pollen, making sure each tip is coated.  (I store my pollen in a plastic divided box that has dividers that come all the way up to lid.  This is important because you don't want your pollen spilling into the divided area next to it.  I purchased this box at Joann's.)

Next, take a pick and separate each of the legs.  I try to just push down on the center leg and that will separate them.  Do that all the way around.  It is easiest to do this while holding the stamen with the tweezers.

To make a very full stamen for the poppy, I glued two stamens together, alternating legs, to make it full.  In this picture you can see three completed stamens on the left.  In the center you can see four single ones with a dot of glue, and on the right the other four that will be attached on the center ones.  Two black stamens, that were cut the same, were glued together and all of them shaped by pushing them down in the center on the molding mat to cup them.  The black stamens were glued on top of the yellow stamens.  For these poppies I used the Lisa Pavelka "Daisy Chain Border Mold" and Makin's Clay to create the center of the stamen. Makin's Clay is a no bake clay and is easy to color with Susan's Garden Pan Pastels or markers. These products were purchased from Michaels. The clay center was glued in the center of the stamen with Ultimate Glue, and push up around the clay center.

Isn't this box more beautiful than one just wrapped in gift wrap paper and a bow added.  I hope you will give this a try.  It is truly a gift box that will be loved.

You can purchase all the items below from Ellen Hutson, LLC.

 Susan's Garden, Poppy Dies
Susan's Garden, Pollen
 Susan's Garden, Tool Kit
Susan's Garden, Ladybug Kit
Susan's Garden, Pan Pastels
 Hemp Cord
Pop Dots
Poppy Stamps, Leafy Sprig
Hi Tack Double Sided Tape
Ultimate Glue

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