Crepe Paper Flower tutorial

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  The weather here was absolutely stunning.  Lots of outdoor time, windows open, sounds of children playing, swing sets, shorts (and even bathing suits for some crazy little ones!).  Days like these remind you how long the New England winters can be, and how happy some fresh air and sunshine can make you.

I've been busy working up the handmade embellishments to go into Scrapbook Heaven's April kits and I wanted to share a tutorial with you on how to make one of them.  It's been a while since I've done a tute, so bear with me!

This is the cutie we'll be making:

darling, right?

Gather up your supplies:

you will need: crepe paper, wet glue or glue gun, book page or patterned paper, brad, a little flower die, scallop punch (a regular circle would work too)

somewhere between 18 and 20" will work great

this part is important for the next step to work right.  If you forget to backstitch, just tie the two tail threads into a knot a few times.

here's where the magic happens: grab one of the tail threads (either the top stitch or bobbin thread)  on the end that you DID NOT backstitch and pull gently while working the crepe paper towards the backstitched end.

continue pulling and sliding until you have that little ruffly puff ball up there

flatten your little puff ball into a circle and glue to a card stock circle for stability 

mouse over that pic above (just learned how to do this from this easy tute)  It's like a tute inside a tute!

glue your squished circle to the center

if you use crepe paper, you'll need to die cut your little centers; crepe paper and punches are not a good match (trust me).  you could also use punched paper shapes

glue your centers--I like to stagger the petals

Stick a pretty brad through the center and...

smile cuz' you just made a cute little embellie to adorn your next scrapbook page or card!

Thanks for following along.  And if you give this a try, I'd love to see yours!