Susan's Garden Forsythia Tutorial

This is a beautiful card my friend Eva created. Thank you Eva for allowing me to post your work.   She had some questions on how to form the branch and I have had several others ask for detailed instructions on how I created my forsythia.   To learn how to create this pretty forsythia, I watched Susan Tierney-Cockburn's video at this LINK.  I have created my Forsythia slightly different and have a tutorial below showing you the steps I took.

These are the two Forsythia branches I created for this tutorial.

Die cut the petals using the Susan's Garden Forsythia die.  Place the die cut piece on the Susan's Garden Molding Mat and press down in the center of each flower with the 2mm stylus from the Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit.  TIP:  When I receive my Susan's Garden dies, I like to go through the package and put the name of the flower on each die in that package.  The dies do have a number on them, but when I have several die sets out, it is easy to see which one goes back on the correct package when they are marked with a Sharpie Pen.

 When you push the flower out of the die with the stylus, it will shape the flower.  This is an easy way to shape these little flowers and makes it less time consuming to make this pretty branch.

 

 To give some dimension to the flowers on the branch, I like to die cut several shades of card stock.  This picture shows two shades but I actually die cut three shades of yellow.

 I like to have all the pieces ready to use before I start the assembly of the flower.  In this picture I am using the leaf tool from the Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit to shape the leaves.  With all these pieces ready, this flowering branch goes to gather pretty quickly.

 In order to have a nice branch for the forsythia or any other flowering tree branch, Susan uses Wired Sisal Rope which is available at your craft store in the florist department.  This rope usually comes in brown, tan and/or green and is easy to shape and will be strong enough to hold the shape you want.

I have had questions on how to actually fold this rope to form a branch.  I will give you step by step pictures to show you how I did it.  It depends on how large you want you branch, but I have used a 10 inch piece of rope for my branches.

 Start by folding the rope in half or slightly off center.

 Twist the rope on the folded end as shown above.  This will cause one end to become shorter, which you probably want.

 Twist the rope as many times as you want -- there is no right or wrong.  Shape the branch any way you want.

 To attach all the little flowers to the rope, I find it easiest to put glue all the way down the rope to start.  I use The Ultimate Glue because it is thick and dries quickly.  If you use too thin a glue, the flowers tend to want to slide off real easy.

 I have the different shades of flowers all mixed on my work area.  I add a little glue to the Teflon work sheet and use the tweezers in the Flower Tool Kit to pick up a flower, dip the middle of the flower in the glue then attach it to the glued area on the rope.  The glue on the rope has started to set up so it seems to grab the flowe,r with the dot of glue on the bottom, and it won't slide around.  Randomly pick up different shades of flowers and glue them down the branch.  Continue doing the same thing on the other branch.

 I like to turn the branch over and make sure the sides and the back are covered.  It is ok to have some of the branch showing.  In real life, you always see the branch, but for my projects, I usually try and get a good coverage.  Again there is no right or wrong -  add as many petals as you want.

 Here is my first completed branch.

I completed two forsythia branches.  In the center of each little flower, you can use a marker in a darker shade and create a little center, add a dot of Susan's Garden Viva Decor yellow Paper Pen, or even add a little yellow bead.  Add leaves to the base and you are ready to add it to your project.

This is a pretty flowering branch I'm sure you will have fun creating.  I hope this tutorial is helpful.

You can purchase the products for this project, from the links below, from Ellen Hutson, LLC.

Susan's Garden Forsythia  Dies

Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit

Susan's Garden Viva Decor Paper Pen Set

Ultimate Glue

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