Lollipop flowers, a tutorial...

As promised I have had a go at making another tutorial, this time to make lollipop flowers. They are really easy to make, and have a lovely home-spun look.
I used the DCWV Green Stack to make my flowers (I saw a LO made with this a day or so ago, and it reminded me how much i liked it!

The flowers are also a really good way of using up scraps of paper from the same kit.

Step 1: I started by drawing a circle shape using something to hand. You don't have to be too precious about this, so i would avoid cutting out the circles using Nestability dies for example, as they would just turn out too neat.

Step 2: Cut out the circle, again not too neatly.

Step 3. Use the first circle to draw around on your next piece of paper. I used contrasting papers for all the layers.

Step 4. Cut this circle out about 5mm inside the line you have drawn. This makes your circle smaller.

Step 5. Then use the smaller circle to draw around, again cut out 5mm inside the line and so on, until you have as many circles as you want. I tend to make my flowers with odd numbers, 5 layers for a larger flower, 3 for a smaller one.

Step 6: Now to start distressing, use the edge of your scissors (or you can buy fancy distressing tools for this) to carefully scratch around the edge of each circle. You dont want to tear the circle too much, just scuff up the surface. The DCWV carstock is good for this as it has a white core which shows nicely when you distress the papers.

Step 7: Then use your fingers and nails to run around the edge of each circle, pushing the edges up fairly randomly. Don't worry about creasing the cardstock, it adds to the look. Depending on the look of the page you could ink the distressed edges at this stage too.

Each circle should look like this once it's done.

Step 8: Pile up your circles in order of size, biggest at the bottom.

Step 9: Now to attach the circles together. You could use glue dots between each layer and add gems to the top, or use a brad, or a button stitched through all the layers.

I chose to use decorative snaps from WRMK.
Pierce a hole using a hole punch (I used a Big Bite) and then set the snap.

And this is how the flowers looked once i have completed them.

So, what did i use my flowers for?

I made another summer LO (did we have a summer?!)with photos of Katie and Harry messing about in the garden.

Title block stamped with a Prima stamp, title cut out with Sizzix Big Top and Sprout, clouds and journalling block Unity stamps. I hand drew on extra stems for my added flowers, and added a fair bit of doodling using a white Signo pen.