Book-page Mod Podge blossoms--(3D cherry blossoms à la Fred She Said)

Do you buy your flowers or make them yourself?
I must admit, I can never bring myself to spend cash on pre-made flowers;
some of them are so very pretty (but they also seem ultra pricey!)

Granted, making your own flowers can take a bit of time, but are you like me (a bit of a cheapie)? Do you get that little thrill when you think of all the money you save making your own embellishments? (And then grin to think that you can spend it on other crafty goodness?!?...and still enjoy how unique your flowers are, too?) ;o) Being "cheap" can be such a crafty-blast, hey? ;o) giggle giggle.

1...making Book Page Mod Podge flowers
2...cheap tricks: textured leaves from scraps
3...a couple of variations

-1-

...make Book Page Mod Podge flowers:

These are made with plain cardstock & pages from an old book,
but you could use all kinds of things, in place of book paper:

• Patterned 12x12 papers
• Wrapping paper
• Fabrics
• Phone book pages
• Maps
• Magazines
• Sewing Patterns
• Lined/Graph paper
• Ledger paper
• Stamped or inked colour cardstock
• Wallpaper
• Patterned tissue papers

• A flower image (digital or stamp) in different sizes (I used Fred She Said's Digi flowers from the Smelling Cherry Blossoms set)
• Computer & Printer; 80lb or 100lb cardstock (white)
• Pages from a book (or your favourite paper or fabric etc...)
• Mod Podge & a scrap of cardstock to spread it
• White acrylic paint (and an optional stamp to texture it with)
• Scissors, hole punches (for the divots at the petal tips)
• To shape: stylus tool (or the rounded end of a paint brush/pen) & a soft surface (fun foam or mouse pad)

Optional:

• For flower colouring: Copic refill & paint brush-Frost Blue B00 (or alcohol ink or diluted acrylic paints
• For leaves: Scraps from the flowers & a paper piercing tool to texturize
• Copic Marker or other medium to tint leaves YG23 New Leaf

• Calendar stamp used as a Background stamp --from Purple Onion Designs
• "Happy Birthday to You" sentiment is from S.R.M. stickers.
• Moths are from the Hero Arts DigiKit - Mod Moths Mini Kit by Holly Brooke Jones

Step 1) Prepare a document in order to print lots of flowers out on one piece of cardstock (or stamp the flowers out if you like.) I like digital the best for this, because you can size them differently for various flowers, in exactly the sizes you like best.

I used Fred She Said's Digi flowers from the Smelling Cherry Blossoms set as a Photoshop brush--but if you are a beginner with that type of technology, you could use whatever method you're most comfortable with to paste a whole bunch of the three sizes that come in the set in one document.

Step 2) Print the flowers on thick 80lb or 100lb cardstock.

Step 3) Glue pages from an old book to the blank back of the paper that the flowers are printed on (I used Mod Podge matte to glue):

My method of choice for applying Mod Podge:



3A) I like to pour Mod Podge straight onto the cardstock and then very quickly...



3B) ...spread the Mod Podge in an even layer--not too thinly or too thickly. (Green tip: using a piece of heavy cardstock to spread it saves having to clean a brush or waste a disposable foam brush.) I love it when my sheer laziness & cheapness is good for the environment, hehehe.



Step 4) Press book pages (or whatever paper type you like) into the wet Mod Podge. Of course, different book pages give different results; old book pages that are falling apart will give you an old distressed wall paper look.



Step 5) Apply some white paint (or any colour you like.) I used white acrylic paint mixed with Mod Podge and applied it with a rag (still no dirty brush to clean.)



Step 6) You can add interesting texture by pressing a rubber stamp into the wet paint (it may pull up some of the paper, but I love that look.)



To avoid damaging your stamps when using them in paint: Prep the stamp with a generous coating of Versamark & just be sure to clean your stamp as soon as you're done with it.

To clean it very well: I find scrubbing the paint of gently with a toothbrush & warm water with a touch of dish soap works wonders. :o)



Step 7) Rough cut the flowers: After the page is dry, flip it over & roughly cut to trim around a section of flowers.



Step 8) Cut into separate flowers & punch. I like to cut them apart but leave some of the rough outline intact (in other words, don't trim it perfectly yet.) It gives you more paper to hold while you punch....



Step 9) Punch the little divots at the tip of each petal using different sized hole punches for the different sized flowers (so much easier than trying to cut those little divots by hand & it's faster!)

The Fred She Said flowers have a built in guide for where to punch the holes. No need to punch in the exact center, since it looks more natural if you're not exact.



Step 10) Cut the flowers out (the FSS flower centers end up on the back of the flower--they're so cute that it's a shame to hide them, but they make a fantastic guide for cutting--especially if you want to cut deeper petals than the original flower for shaping.)



Step 11) Shape the flowers. Use a stylus (or the rounded end of a paint brush or a pen) on top of something soft. I used a homemade fun foam mat (but you could use a soft mouse pad) to shape the flowers...

Here's the way I like to shape.
It's very fast & gives a distressed look...



11 A) Press down once in the middle from the front.



11 B) Next, flip the flower so the back is showing and press once in the middle of each petal.



11 C) To finish, flip it over again (so the front of the flower is showing) and press once again in the middle to reshape.

Many people work their shaped flowers much more nicely than this (by using various sizes of stylus in little circles) but I like the speedy (lazy) shabby-chic look for these. You might find that your shaping technique may need to be different with different paper types. :o)



Step 12) Pierce a hole in the center of the shaped flower (if you want to stitch them on, or if you just want to have a decorative hole in the flower center.)



Step 13) Add colour--paint on Copic marker refill with an old brush (if you don't want to clog Copic marker tips.) This Copic Colour is Frost Blue B00.

Copic markers: The chisel or broad end often serves as my "do-anything-messy-with-it" end of my Copic markers--since acrylic paint can damage Copic tips, but I refuse to be limited by that, LOL.) Alternatively, you could use alcohol inks or thinned-down acrylic paints...

and here are the finished flowers:

(stitched on with beads in the center.)

-2-

(as if this wasn't cheap enough, LOL)

Can't leave those scraps alone!

You can save the scraps that you cut away to make leaves:

Step 1) Just cut leaves out, free-hand (or if you'd rather have an outline you can draw or stamp a leaf shape).

Step 2) "Draw" lines on with the pointed end of a paper piercing tool (turned on it's side a little on a similar angle as you would hold a paint brush).



Step 3) Colour your leaves. (This photo is evidence of me being BAD & colouring with that broad chisel end of the Copic marker...gotta have some rebellion in your life, right? Stamp dork style.) ;o) This is YG23 New Leaf.



A little Sticky Point: The Copic ink may make the Mod Podge or paint on the leaves sticky, so you might want to let them dry (to cure the ink) before handling or you might get a fingerprint-y style. If you're impatient like me & you get them fingerprinted up, you can just reapply a bit of colour to fix it. ;o)

Finicky schtuff:

• Drawing the leaf lines on first & then colouring with Copics seems to give more colour, as it builds up a little in the grooves.
• Depending on your book paper & the saturation level of paint, you may get a more mottled look (the older paper I used tore a bit and the Copic colour was deeper).
• Paint resists the colour, but any torn or scratched bits let the ink soak into the scored lines--making darker leaf veins.
• To get a shiny finish on your leaves you can add an extra coat of Mod Podge on top (it makes them more durable too...)

-3-

Here are some vintage-y ones

(really distressed and un-coloured):

If you want a really distressed look, you can use older crumbly book pages
(that are really easily torn) and that should let you flake off a bit of the layers, like these:

or you could sand off a little of the paint.

...and here's a layered one:

...it has glitter & a couple of Copic colours (aqua & new leaf green)

You can see the whole card with the more vintage
looking flower here, if you like:

Thanks so much for checkin' this out!
Hope you have the most gorgeous day,



Edited to Add:
Thanks to the sweetness of Nance, here's the text PDF download
(You're amazing Nance! Thank You!!!)

Edited to Add: Here's the PDF of this post, in case you'd like it:
Download Book-Page Mod Podge Blossoms PDF
(It's with photos; I still need to learn how to take them out for a text only version) :O)

(please click if you'd like to visit the blog
from an email or reader)