Saturday, March 27, 2010

Paper Bag Flower

  by Kris Hankins

Paper Bag Flower

Materials

Instructions

  • Start by punching five (5) scalloped circles from a brown grocery bag. To add depth to the flower, stipple the edges of the scalloped circles with ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink (Burnt Sienna).



  • Stack your five scalloped circles together and pierce a hole in the center of the stack with a piercing tool or awl. Insert and secure the stack with a mini brad. You can use any color of brad as it will be hidden under your decorative flower center.



  • Take the top scalloped circle and start folding it up toward the center. Give it a good scrunching. Follow the same procedure with each additional scalloped circle. When you are done folding all layers to the center of the flower, you will want to start pulling the layers away from the center and flattening the flower somewhat.



  • Just keep folding and bending the layers until you have the look you want. The brown grocery bag works great for this flower as it is heavy enough to hold the flowers shape, yet softens just enough to give the flower a very soft look and feel.

  • Thread your vintage looking button with some twine. Using a couple of glue dots add the button to the center of your flower (directly over the mini brad).



  • Your paper bag flower is now done and ready to be used on any project where you want a beautiful dimensional flower.

Variations

I wanted to show some variations to the paper bag flower. Here are two variations using the same basic assembly instructions. These flowers can be made with many kinds of paper, in just about any color combination, and in many different sizes. Try using buttons, jewels, brads, etc. for flower centers.
  • The first flower variation is using text pages from an old novel.



  • I stippled the punched scalloped circles using ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink (Orchid Pastel). I assembled the flower in the same manner using a button for the center of the flower.



  • The second variation is made from plain heavyweight cream colored text paper.



  • I stamped a design on the paper before punching. I stippled the punched scalloped circles using ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink (Wisteria and Blue Lagoon).
    Instead of using a mini brad to hold my stack of circles together, I used a full sized Making Memories velvet brad ( MM-BR-29663 $4.99 .)   This serves as the finished center of this flower.

6 comments:

  1. gorgeous flowers, you make it look so easy.

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  2. These are fantastic!!!

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  3. I LOVE this flower and am off to make a bunch right now. Thank you!

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  4. Joan Wehmhoefer12:05 PM

    Kris, these are wonderful, as always your art rocks and inspires. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Thanks for sharing. You just cannot have too many flowers or too many different ways to make them. Great job.

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