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Hi everyone it's your girl here. How is your week going? Mine has been pretty ok. Nothing major going on. Just slowly getting back to some sort of normality. I had my first covid vaccine jab last weekend. Apart from a slightly sore arm, I was perfectly fine. Some people though did have some more severe side effects.
I'm glad to be back this week to share a rolled flower tutorial and I hope you have a go at making your own rolled flower artwork. The frame on the right I made for a friend's birthday and she absolutely loved it.
In this tutorial, I will be showing you how I used my rolled flower to make this beautiful baby's birth wall decor keepsake. This one, in particular, is for my last son - the baby of the house. I will be making two more for his older brothers and these will be hung side by side in the hallway at home.
I had to make quite a lot of rolled flowers and needed to use different shades of purple cardstock all of which I got from papermilldirect. Your cardstock should weigh between 120 and 160gsm. Rolled paper flowers can be any size you want but for work like this - that is using them to create some sort of design, they are usually on the smaller side so they need to have a firm structure. Other tools you will need are:
Template (pdf or SVG if you have a cutting machine)
scissors
Toothpick, cocktail sticks, tweezers, or quilling tools (I prefer the quilling tool especially the tinner ones. They are just perfect for my need. They hold the tip of the template firmly so they don't slip out as you roll the flower. I got the ones I use from amazon ).
glue gun
glue sticks
heavy cardstock or foamboard
Rolled flower templates are available freely on the internet. You will need to search patiently for them. You may choose to buy which is what I have done for most of my rolled flowers. They are quite cheap and often come in bundles. Check out designbundles for some lovely templates. You can also find them on Etsy although the ones I've found on there are a bit pricier.
To start with, plug in your hot glue gun so that it starts heating up unless yours heats up instantly. Mine needs time.
If you have a cutting machine, this will cut out the templates for you otherwise use your scissors to carefully cut out the flower template. Once you have cut out your templates, begin rolling them as shown in the photos below starting at the tip. You will notice that the end of your flower has a flat base. This will be the base that the rest of the flower will sit on.
Here is a tip - depending on what you want to use your flower for, you can expand it or keep it tight. Once you finish rolling your flower but before gluing it to the base, you can gently release it and allow it to unroll itself. By doing this, the flower looks fuller. Be careful though, if you allow it to unroll itself too much, you will not get the desired look so you have got to find the right balance. Because of what I needed mine for, I kept some quite tight and some a little loose as you will see in the finished work.
Make more flowers than you need and if you will be using them on a frame, you will need to make different sizes. Once done, prepare your surface. In my case when I made the baby's feet frame, I cut out the baby's feet on my Cricut maker although you can also do this by hand or draw it!
I started with the big toe and as you can see I stuck a large flower here. You will continue to follow the outline of your shape and stick the flowers on. Remember you rolled some of your flowers tightly and some you let loose. As you place your flowers, you will be able to see where best to place the tight ones and where best to place the loose ones. And that's it! Add any other embellishment you see fit.
There are endless possibilities for how to use rolled flowers and here are some of my more recent creations below. These are my keepsake teddies which are made to order. These ones are already in their new homes. They come in 3 different sizes of 20, 25, and 35cm high. I bet you are wondering how many rolled flowers I made for each of these keepsakes. Take a guess and let me know in the comment section below. 😉
These beautiful keepsake teddies even come to you named and with a special thank you message.
These are just some examples of the endless possibilities of rolled flowers. It fascinates me how a simple piece of card, cut into shape and rolled up can be used to produce such beautiful pieces of artwork.
Leave a comment in the comment section below and let me know if you have any questions or thoughts on this tutorial or any other blog post you have read. I would love to hear from you.
Also if you would like to commission me to create something special for you, that one-of-a-kind piece that belongs only to you or your loved one, then reach out to me via my social media channels or by completing the form at the end of this post.
Till next time stay blessed.
Bloomingly your
Beulah xx
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