Susan's Garden Bearded Iris Tutorial

What is your favorite color Iris?  There are so many beautiful colors of Bearded Iris and you can easily create them using Susan's Garden Bearded Iris dies. When I posted all the flowers in the new Susan's Garden Collection, Janie Printz asked for a tutorial for the Bearded Iris, so below I have done a tutorial to show you the steps I took in creating these pretty flowers.

Here are the five different colors of Bearded Iris I created.

MY TUTORIAL FOR BEARDED IRIS

Sizzix has a tutorial posted with the steps Susan Tierney-Cockburn did showing how to assemble the bearded iris at this LINK.  Below I have a tutorial showing how I created the yellow and rust flower.

I die cut the petals for the flower using yellow card stock.  I shaded the top three petals a little darker yellow and the edges of the larger base petals with rust.  To color the edges of the lower petals, I sponged on the Susan's Garden Rust Pan Pastel around the edges of the petals, on both the front and back.

I assembled the flower following Susan's instructions.  Here I have drawn lines down the petal with the "leaf" tool from Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit, to add character lines to the petal.

Next, I used the 3mm loop tool from Susan's Tool Kit to ruffle up the edges of the larger petals.  Start with the tool slightly off the edge of the petal and pull down toward the center.  You want the edges of the petal to cup up.

Being careful not to "smash" the edges, I used the large ball stylus to press down on the base end to kind of cup the petal up in the center.

Use the self-closing tweezers from the Flower Tool Kit to pinch the base end of each petals.

For the top three petals, I drew a line down the center of each petal with the leaf tool, then shaped the edges with the 3mm loop tool, to get a cupped shape.

Glue the lower petals to the calyx and let dry while working on the stamen.  I placed these petals in the Susan's Garden plastic flower pot tray to help hold their shape.

Add glue to the bottom edge of the stamen.  Do not cut the individual stamens down the center.

Roll the stamen ending with the long base rolled out the outside.  That base is what holds the upright petals.  Glue the top petals/stamen between the openings of the lower petals.

Allow the flower to dry in the plastic cup.  Once dry, you can work on getting the finished shape you want, by using the tweezers.

This was my finished Bearded Iris.

I went one step further -- I decided to add some short pieces of yellow pipe cleaners to the lower petals.  I used pointed pliers to bend down one end so the wire was not showing.  They were glued at the base of each large petal using Ultimate Glue.

Here is my finished Bearded Iris.

 I love to read your comments and hope you will let me know if this tutorial was helpful.   Also, I would love to hear from you and see pictures of your flowers.

You can purchase the products I use from Ellen Hutson, LLC.

Susan's Garden Bearded Iris dies 

Susan's Garden Pan Pastels

PanPastel Sofft Sponge Bar

Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit

Susan's Garden plastic Flower Pot Tray

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