Count Your Life by Smiles PLUS a Tutorial

This weekend I received some more new products. One of them was a BEAUTIFUL paper pad by Kaiser Craft called "The Lake House".  Oh my gosh -- I love every sheet in this new paper pad.  I wanted to duplicate the little roses and stem in the design paper so created some pink roses that are different from any I have previous made. I love them so much I thought I should do a tutorial on how I created them.  First I want to tell you that I used the beautiful frame from the new Sizzix "Textured Impressions" embossing folder to frame my sentiment.  It was embossed on ivory card stock, cut out with scissors, and lightly sponged with "Tea Dye" Distress Ink.  The butterflies are one of the Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterflies" and matching "Angel Wing"  The butterfly was die cut using ivory card stock and the angle wing was die cut using light pink card stock, then they were glued together.  Before gluing them, I lightly sponged the ivory butterfly with "Tea Dye" Distress Ink.    The sentiment is from the new JustRite "Botanical Medallions and Banners" stamp set.   In case you can't read the sentiment, it says "Count Your Life by Smiles not tears.  Count Your Age by Friends not years".   The green leafy flourish is the Marianne Design "Forest Branch".  A few Kaiser Craft maroon pearls were added to the green branch to match the stems in the design paper and three pearls added under the sentiment.  Below is the tutorial on how I created the roses.

TUTORIAL FOR CREATING SHADED ROSES

I used the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" die for these roses, but you can accomplish the same look using any spiral blossom die.  In the picture above, there are two of these die cuts to show the back and the front after they were sponged.  I used "Spun Sugar" Distress Ink and sponged the first two petals on the top, of both front and back,  because I wanted the center of the rose to be very pink.  I wanted the tips of the rest of the petals to be white so only sponged down along the bottom of each petal on the front only of the rest of the petals.   

Next I used a fine mister to dampen the die cut.  This not only helps spread out the sponged color (so it doesn't look so "sponged on"), but it also softens the card stock so you can add "texture" to the petals.   Let it sit for a couple of minutes then blot off any excess water.  Next "accordion fold" or "scrunch" the petals  from the small end of the petals all the way down to the center.  You don't need to fuss about how it looks because you are just getting a ruffled look.  Once it is all "scrunched" use your heat gun to dry it so it will hold that shape.

Next I used the round nose pliers to start rolling and shaping the rose.  I like using these pliers because they don't create any creases and they are the perfect width for the rolled rose.  You can make it very tight or wind it loosely like I did here for the perfect shaped rose.  When you get it all rolled, cover that round center at the end, which will be the bottom of the rose and hold it all together, with glue.  I like using "Crafter's Pick" glue for this because it is a thick white glue that is very strong.  

Here are the roses I created using the two "Spiral Blossom One" die cuts.  I hope this tutorial gives you some additional ideas on ways to create beautiful roses.

Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" S4-351

Sizzix "Textured Impressions" embossing folder (657667)

Kaiser Craft "The Lake House" 6 1/2" paper Pad

Cheery Lynn "Mini Butterflies" (DL 112)

Cheery Lynn Mini Butterflies Angel Wings (DL 112A)

Marianne "Forest Branch" (LR0150)

Distress Ink "Tea Dye" and "Spun Sugar"

Round Nose Pliers

Crafter's Pick "The Ultimate" white glue

Kaiser Craft Pearls

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Spiral Rose Tutorial

I have received several requests to show how I made the "vintage" roses I have been using lately that were die cut with Spiral Rose dies.  I have several different spiral flower dies and I am using one of the Spellbinder Spiral Rose dies and one from Memory Box for this tutorial.   Before I start the tutorial, I will give you the information about this card.  It is a 5.5" x 6" card.  I used the new Spellbinders border from the "Persian Accents".  The whole border was added along the bottom of the card, and just the top portion of that  same border was cut off and used along the top. The background was embossed with one of the new Spellbinders "M-Bossabilities"  (Elite) folder. 

The roses were created using the Spellbinders "Spiral Blossom One" (S4-351) -- which has only one die. When I made this tutorial I did not have the new Spellbinders "Bitty Blossoms" (S5-086) which has three different sizes of this spiral flower in one package.  You can do a search on Joan's Gardens blog to see the difference in the two sets of dies.   The flourish is from Heartfelt Creations "Bella Rose Die" (HCD 712).  A couple of Marianne Design Leaves (LR0156) and Ivy (LR0206) are tucked under the flowers.  Pink Kaiser Craft Pearls, a feather and a few little white flowers were added to complete the card.

TUTORIAL FOR CREATING VINTAGE STYLE ROSES USING SPIRAL DIES

 You can use any rose spiral flower die to create roses like these.  Joan's Gardens has many different spiral dies from different companies.  This is the large Spellbinders Spiral Rose.  First I mist the die cut with water and let it sit for a couple of minutes then wipe dry with a paper towel. This makes the card stock easy to shape.

Next I kind of accordian folded the strip as shown above.  When the card stock is damp, it will "crunch" up pretty easy.  You don't want it to be an even "crunch" because this is what is going to give the rose petal it's unique texture.

Here you can see I have done this with two different types of spiral flowers.

 I like to create a lot of these flowers at one time and this is a picture of a lot of them that I have "crunched up".  They need to be dry and you can use the heat gun to dry them before continuing to the next step.

When they are dry, I flatten them out so they are back in the spiral shape but not flattening out the wrinkles.

Use the self-closing tweezers and start rolling the strip to create your rose.  You can make the rose as tight or lose as you want.  Many times I will add a little glue right at the beginning along the bottom edge so that the center will stay tight - maybe 1/4" of glue.  See that large circle in the middle - I put glue over that circle, and once the rose is rolled, that becomes the base and you sit the rolled rose on that circle and hold  it a little while until it sticks.  While they are drying, you can go back and press it down one or two more times just to be sure it is sticking to the base.

Here are all the roses I made one evening.  I die cut a lot of them so I could take them with me when I watch TV and I work on them there.  If you use the card stock we use from Joan's Gardens, you can die cut two at once.  I have several different spiral rose dies and place several on a strip of card stock and with two layers of card stock, have a lot die cut with one roll through the die cutting machine.

I hope this tutorial helps you create your roses.  Of course you can just roll the flower and  it makes a very pretty "smooth" petal rose; you can also shape the petals with the tools from the Flower Tool Kit.

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