Tag and Susan's Garden Notes Lilac Tutorial

 I had a great response to the Vase of Susan's Garden Lilacs I posted at this LINK.  On some of the comments and emails sent to me, I was asked to do a Lilac tutorial, which I have below.  First I will tell you about the products used for this tag.  I used the Tags & More 6 - Daisy Tag dies and die cut the top layer using white card stock.  The portion under the pretty die cut was embossed using the Swirly Curves Embossing Folder.  For color under the die cut portion of the tag, I die cut the basic tag using dark purple card stock and glued the two pieces together.  Two narrow strips of the same dark purple card stock were cut and glued along the top of the embossing at at the bottom of the tag.  I die cut the top of the tag again using purple card stock and used the die cut circles to decorate the top part of the embossed section.  The sentiment is one of the ECD Peel Off Stickers. 

GARDEN NOTE LILAC TUTORIAL

 This is a picture of Susan's Garden Notes Lilac dies. 

 I use 80# card stock to create my flowers.  The dies are sharp enough to use two sheets of card stock when die cutting.  There are ten lilac flowers in this set -- I die cut them 5 times, which gave me plenty of flowers when die cutting two sets at a time.  It is hard to see in this picture, but I used two slightly different shades of card stock to give the flower dimension.

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 Susan shows us in her videos to glue two stems together for extra support.  I did this before shaping the flowers.  I love Susan's new Molding Pad.  It is large and give you plenty of work space when shaping petals.  To shape the flowers, use the smallest ball stylus and press down in the center of each petal - this is very quick and easy shaping.  Sometimes when you use two pieces of card stock, the petals will stick together but usually pop apart once you press down in the center.  This looks like a lot of work, but it really goes pretty fast.

 I work on a Teflon work sheet when gluing.  I like to start by adding glue to the part of the stem that the flowers will be attached to.  I let it sit to get a little tacky before adding flowers.  I also have a little spot of glue on the work sheet.  Use the self-closing tweezers, that are in Susan's Tool Set, to pick up a flower, dip the back in the spot of glue and place it on the stem.

 I like to start at the top of the stem and work my way down, but it makes no difference where you start - you just want to glue a solid line of petals down.  When I place the flower on the stem, I use Susan's Leaf Tool to press down in the center of the flower to make sure it attaches well.  You don't want to lose the nice shape of the flower, so the sharp point on this tool keeps you from pressing down on the petals and flattening them out.

 

 Glue petals on both stems. Below I have a few pictures to show you the progression of how it looks as I layer the flowers to create a full blossom.  I find it easiest if you let the petals dry between each layer so they don't slide around.

 You can stop at any point, but I like to have a nice full flower.  If you have die cut and shaped a lot of petals before starting, it is so easy to keep going until you have the flower just the shape you want.

 This is the finished Lilac with the leaves added.  Susan's Lilacs are so beautiful, you can use a single flower like this or create a whole bouquet.

 Out of all the little flowers die cut and shaped, these are the petals I had left over for another flower.

 I like to use Pico IrRESISTible Embellisher to create the center of the flowers -  these embellishers have a needlepoint end which makes it easy to create whatever size dot you need.

You can create a variety of colors of Lilacs.  Have fun creating your beautiful lilacs.

Products from Elizabeth Craft Designs:

1017 - Garden Notes - Lilac 

810 - Large Molding Pad

808 - Susan's Tool Set

811 - Susan's Leaf Pads

959 - Tags & More 6 - Daisy

E119 - Swirly Curves Embossing Folder

Susan's Garden Lilacs with Tutorial

 

The lilacs are starting to bloom!  I love how we can create such realistic lilac blooms with the Susan's Garden Lilac dies.   I can almost smell them.   You can find Susan Tierney-Cockburn's instruction for creating her lilac at this LINK.  On my last blog post, I had a request from Laura to show how I create these lilacs, so below I have a tutorial showing the steps I took. I hope this helps you Laura.

For the background on this card I used the Marianne Design, Anja's Delicate Corner.  I personally like having two of these corner dies so I can die cut both corners at the same time.  Between the two corners, I added the Marianne Design, Anja's Decoration (CR1271).  In the middle of the card I used the Marianne Design, Anja's Vintage Decoration.  It was backed with purple card stock.  On the bottom portion of the card I added a Dotted embossed background.  The Lilacs were attached with Glue Dots and a silk bow added.  White pearls were also added.

A tutorial on how I created the lilacs using the Susan's Garden Lilac Dies.

I followed Susan's instructions and die cut two branches for each lilac.  I am creating two lilacs so have four branches die cut.  To create the lilac, I used Designer Dries Clear Adhesive, which is a liquid glue.  This is in a bottle with a nozzle and worked well for this flower.  I followed Susan's instructions and drew a line down the middle of all the branches with the Leaf Tool from the Susan's Garden Tool Kit.    I spread the glue over two of the branches, then placed the second one on top and pressed it firmly to glue them together.  By gluing two branches together, you get a stronger branch. 

 While the glue is still wet, I pressed in on all the branches, with my fingers, to give them a rounded shape, rather than just leaving them flat.  The branch on the left, above,  has been shaped.  I colored them using Pan Pastels.

When I die cut the petals for the lilac, I used three different shades of purple card stock.  I always die cut a lot to make sure I have enough when I get started assembling my flowers.  I used the smallest stylus and pushed down on the point of each petal then pushed down in the center to really give the little flower a lot of shape.  I worked on the foam mat from the tool kit.

Here are the pieces needed to get started creating my lilacs; the flower petals, branches and the leaves.  I die cut the leaves using white card stock and colored them using Green Pan Pastels. The vain was colored with Susan's Garden Rust Pan Pastel.

I spread glue over the branch then picked up the individual flowers with tweezers and placed them on the branch.  

Alternate the colors of the flowers when you attach them to the branch.  This will give the lilac more depth of color which I think makes it look more realistic.  Cover the entire branch (above the bottom stem) with petals.  Let the flower completely dry, on your non-stick Teflon pad, so the petals will stay in place. 

Once the petals are dry, go back and add a dot of the glue to the bottom of a petal and place as many as needed over the dried petals to get a nice full lilac branch.  Pick the branch up and add flower petals to the sides of each branch.  Glue on the leaves.  At this point it is still going to need some more shaping.

 Once all the petals are dry, go back and and shape the branches to resemble a real lilac.  Twist the branches so the bottom (stem end) is wider than the top.  You want to make it come up in a point. 

What do you think?  Doesn't it look like a real lilac!

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

Susan's Garden Lilac dies
Marianne Design Anja's Delicate Corner
Marianne Design Anja's Vintage Decoration  
Elizabeth Craft Designs, Lots of Dots embossing folder 
Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit
Designer Dries Clear Adhesive
Green Pan Pastels
Susan's Garden Pan Pastels
Glue Dots
Non-Stick Craft Sheet 
Hero Arts Accent Pearls

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