Designer Craft Connection Blog Hop

"April Showers bring May Flowers!"   If you are checking out the designer blogs today, you will see that flowers are blooming early!

Tissue paper, ribbon, paper and foam are some of the craft supplies I have used to create flowers.  Over the years, fads have come and gone, but I love the fact that there are a plethora of ideas and techniques left in their wake that we can implement in today's world of crafting!  There are sooo many tools available to us just a drive away to our favorite craft stores!

In the early days of my design career, I thought that I had to create every single bloom and blossom that went on my designs.  I chose to create ribbon roses for the most part as embellishments.  I realized that no one would know if the ribbon rose was made by me or purchased at the store, so that light bulb moment cut a lot of time off of my "create" time!  Whew!

Having said that, I still love creating flowers and I decided to share some recent (and not so recent) designs that feature handmade flowers.

 The cork board wall decor pictured above is embellished with punched-out flowers that are layered to create a dimensional effect.  Punched out flowers and die-cuts are featured in most of the pictures that are posted below.  The fun part is in layering, and choosing various colors and sizes.

To add more depth, apply some ink to the petal edges using a sponge and inkpad, or/and use dimensional adhesive between the layers.  I like to add a little bling to the center of the bloom.  Rhinestones, pearls, glitter and cabochons work great!

Above are some flowers with an embellished CraZy TACKz in the center.  These can be attached to a bulletin board or put directly into the wall to hang jewelry, belts, etc.

Above is a set created to accommodate jewelry.  The CraZy TACKz were attached to each flower.  Pretty and useful!

More of the same.  Paper blooms and CraZy TACKz.

Ribbon flowers....below.....I used a needle and thread for these.

Below are some flowers made out of chenille stems and felt.  The ribbons are from JoAnn's.  They have CraZy TACKz now too!

I coiled the chenille stem into the shape I wanted.  After gluing to a piece of felt, I cut out around the design, making a complete flower.  These can be used to embellish whatever you like.  The CraZy TACKz were glittered and then glued to each flower to make this into a useful wall hanging.  Jewelry, etc. can be hung on the hooks!

Hope you enjoyed browsing through these flower ideas.  You will find lots more as you travel through the blog hop.  Just click on the blue DCC button to go forward or backward to see what our other designers are highlighting today.

Happy Crafting!

Marilyn

Check out CraZy TACKz at www.crazytackz.com for project instructions and more ideas!