Fomarian Lilacs

Today I am posting a card I made for my dear friend, Eva, who lives in the Netherlands.  She sends me Fomarian and told me she would love to have a card made with Foamiran Lilacs.  I love creating this flower with the Foamiran.  I cannot get a picture with the true color of this flower -- it is a beautiful purple, just like a French Lilac.  

To create the lilac, I used Susan's Garden Notes Lilac die set and die cut a lot of the small flowers, using lavender Foamiran.  You can fold the Foamiran and die cut 4 or 5 sheets at one time.  I pressed the center of each flower down onto a piece of thin wire.  The flowers should be very close together.  Using a sponge dauber, dark purple ink was sponged over the edges of the petals, going both directions so that both the top and bottom of the petals are colored.

To shape the petals, the little flower was picked up with self closing tweezers and pressed against a hot iron for about 5 seconds.   This will cause the petals to curl in, down toward the iron.  

Once the little flower is heated, it is pressed down into an old flower molding mat to cup it.  Leave the little flowers cupped in the mat until cooled so they hold their shape.  This causes holes down in the molding mat, so that is why you want to use an old one.  Even though pressing down the flower in the mat causes holes, it can be used many more times for future flowers that need to be pressed down and held to cool.  Once the flowers have cooled, you can just brush them off the mat.

I have done something different than Susan, when she create her lilacs.  She uses two of the die cut lilac/stem die cuts to create her flower because it helps to hold a domed shape.  I found that by die cutting only one base and a 1 1/4' circle for each flower, it is easier to keep a high dome for the lower portion of the flower.  This was an experiment and I found it easier to use the circles for a higher dome, but either way, you can create a beautiful lilac.

Color the lilac base green, and the circles the color of the lilacs.  Use the large ball stylus and dome the circles.  Add glue around just the edges of the circles and attach to the base.  Allow these pieces to dry before proceeding.

I used Aileen's Clear Tacky Glue to attach the flowers to the lilac base. I found this glue holds the Fomarian well and was easier to use than the hot glue gun.  Spread about half the base with kind of a thick layer of glue, then using tweezers, start adding the little flowers.  You can move (slide) the flowers together with the tweezers to cover the base well.  

Add glue in sections and completely cover the lilac base.  Allow all the the glue to dry on the lilacs.  There will still be areas you want to add more flowers.  Add a small amount of glue to your work mat and dip the bottom of a flower in the glue, then press it down in the lilac to fill in spaces and or add more fullness.  On my card, I have one flower that is laying on top of another lilac, so I added the small flowers to the bottom (underside) portion, at the tip, of that flower.  I did not add flowers to the underside of the flowers that were glued down on the card.

The corners on the white die cut piece under the flowers was die cut using an old Marianne Designs die.  The flowers were arranged in the middle of this piece.  A purple silk bow was made and attached across the stems of the flowers.  Pearls were added for an additional accent.  

In case you missed it, I have another Fomarian Lilac tutorial at this LINK.