Susan's Garden Rose Buds

I want to wish all of you a Happy Valentine's Day.  I laugh as I write this post because this is a frame with a mirror in the center.  I did not realize how hard it was going to be to photograph it without getting myself in the mirror!!!!

To celebrate Valentine's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to create something pretty displaying roses.  I thought it would be fun to create a different type rose using Susan's Garden, Rose Flower dies. You can create so many different sizes and variety of roses with Susan's dies.   I usually create beautiful, fully open roses, and today thought I would show you how I created these rose buds.

 This is a picture of the Susan's Garden Rose Dies.  I think you all know that each of Susan's flower dies come in their own plastic seed package, which stores the picture of the flower, the directions, and the dies.  The tool I used to create the flowers today are the self-closing tweezers, that come in the Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit.  Using the self-closing tweezers in flower making is so much better than using the other type. I have created my rose buds a little different than Susan did on her video.  You will learn a lot by watching her step-by-step Rose directions at this LINK.

Tutorial on how I created my Susan's Garden Rose buds.

To create these roses, I die cut them using vanilla card stock then sponged on both the light pink and a little yellow Susan's Garden Pan Pastels at the base.  The flower petals were then shaped by using the small loop from the Susan's Garden Flower Tool Kit.  Start by having the loop just above the edge of the petal and draw it down to the base of the petal.  When you start slightly off the edge of the petal, it seems to create a pretty little "ruffle" edge.  Do this over the entire petal until it is kind of cupped (shaped) like a rose petal.

 When Susan created Rose buds on her video, she first shaped the "fan" calyx and placed the petals inside, to create her buds.  I decided to experiment and created them a different way.  I built the bud on the Self-Closing Tweezers, then wrapped the "Fan" calyx around the completed bud.  There is no right or wrong, so watch Susan's video then you can decide which way you would like to create your buds.  I did add the three leaf die cut leaves to my rosebuds.

Once you have your petals all shaped, add some Ultimate Glue to the lower half of the petal (as shown above).

 Next, close the self-closing tweezers on one side of the petal,and roll the petal around the tweezers, giving it a shape like the center of a rose.  You want it kind of tight right in the center; then just loosly roll the rest of the petal around.  Hold it for a few seconds to let the glue stick. I try to give the petals a little shaping as I am adding petals, but most of the shaping was done after the bud was completed.   Add glue to the next petal, the same way, and add it to the petal on the tweezers.  You can actually turn the petals slightly sideways to get different looks.  You want to alternate where you start each petal so you are getting a well shaped flower.  You can add as many petals as you want.  I added 6 or 7 petals for each flower.  As soon as you have all your petals attached, pull the tweezers out and wipe off all the glue (I use a baby wipe).  Next you want to use the tweezers to  shape each petal --  roll the edges of the petals out like Susan's shows in the video.   I sometimes even give the petals a little twist for additional shaping.

 I used green wire for the stems; six wires were cut and attached by placing a strip of dimensional tape over them to hold them in place.  The rose buds were attached with dimensional glue dots.  I purchased this mirror frame from Ikea.  It is 10 inches square.  The corners are the JustRite "Filigree Corners" designed by Becca Feeken.  On the lower right corner I added a Marianne Design label. Under the roses I added Impression Obsession Leafy Branch, Cheery Lynn Ferns, and a Marianne Design embellishment.  A bow was added at the base of the flowers.

I hope I have given you some additional information that will help you create more beautiful roses. 

You can purchase the following products from Ellen Hutson, LLC:

Susan's Garden, Rose Dies

Susan's Garden, Tool Kit

Susan's Garden, Pan Pastels

Ultimate Glue

Impression Obsession, Leafy Branch

1107033